Thing #42: Music 2.0

Voila! There is my Last.fm widget over in the left column, down beneath my Shelfari bookshelf.

I'm a music lover, so this may be my favorite Thing so far. Don't know that we'd use it in the Library, but I sure had fun with it.

I already had a Last.fm account. Once again, I have to credit my children for this. My daughter had me sign up a couple of years ago, but I really haven't used it. She just wanted to see what I was listening to! Doing this Thing got me to explore it a bit further. I loved seeing how, whatever plays from my iTunes, you get a photo of the artist, biographical info about them, reviews, and everything. Very cool indeed. (I also checked out what my daughter is listening to these days. :)

I explored the Radio section of my iTunes. I hadn't done much with this before. Didn't really know what it was. What a goldmine! I didn't know where to start... or stop! I clicked on the International classification and was listening to Radio Alsace, then Persian radio, Italy, and more. Then I checked other categories and listened to an '80s station.

I can't say whether Internet radio will take over or not, since I don't know the ins and outs of everything. But it sure looks good. It's free, it opens up a world of music and news you couldn't access, otherwise. What's not to like? Oh, and since the Morning Show was mentioned in the Thing post... I do occasionally listen to Dale Connelly on Radio Heartland via the Internet. It is awfully nice. Maybe this will indeed become the way to listen to radio.