channel surf the music web. Or something
February 24, 2011 11:12 AM   Subscribe

Shuffler.fm makes radio stations sorted by genre by playing MP3s posted on music blogs. Think stumbleupon with autoplay.
posted by The Devil Tesla (25 comments total) 37 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is really cool.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:22 AM on February 24, 2011


This is fantastic. Thanks.
posted by schmod at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2011


Just figured out that you're not limited to the streams on the splash page. You can append whatever genre you like to http://shuffler.fm/channels/ :

http://shuffler.fm/channels/classical
http://shuffler.fm/channels/bebop
http://shuffler.fm/channels/dancehall
http://shuffler.fm/channels/ragtime
posted by Iridic at 11:36 AM on February 24, 2011 [3 favorites]


Doesn't work well, although I imagine this is because it relies on the blogs with the music to tag properly. When I chose 'Metal' I got 4 rap songs, 3 indie songs, 3 lo-fi songs and 2 electro before I got a single metal track. Industrial and Icelandic also fared similarly poorly, though Techno did decently.
posted by Vaska at 11:53 AM on February 24, 2011


no witch house?
posted by mrgrimm at 11:56 AM on February 24, 2011


I found this through the chrome app store the other day. Like it so far. I bounce back and forth between stereomood, this, and last.fm. Wish there was a way to save or like a track or blog though.
posted by shinyshiny at 11:56 AM on February 24, 2011


You can append whatever genre you like to http://shuffler.fm/channels/

Well not any genre (aforementioned Witch House or Swamp Pop are two examples). But they do have a hell of a lot of 'em.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:00 PM on February 24, 2011


Hmm. The classical station gave me this, which is cool and all, but not exactly classical. I guess the band, calling themselves Brahms, have no-one to blame but themselves...
posted by Jimbob at 12:08 PM on February 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Like Vaska said, you're at the mercy of the tagging. But if you're vigilant with the -> button, cool stuff awaits, like this Brazilian guitar track, this French classical/jazz quartet's unlikely cover of "Someday My Prince Will Come," or the Fuck Yeah Classical tumblr.
posted by Iridic at 12:38 PM on February 24, 2011


It's basically like a StumbleUpon version of the Hype Machine. (oh that's in the fpp. duh.)
posted by mrgrimm at 1:19 PM on February 24, 2011


My browser doesn't much like the site.
I have to say I prefer Hype Machine, which sort of does the same only it lets you select your favorites and then listen like a radio station. [I suppose most of you already know this....]
posted by Rashomon at 1:47 PM on February 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


"What? You guys aren't into Reggaetron?"
posted by indiebass at 2:27 PM on February 24, 2011


I haven't tried it yet, but just reading this made me all shivery. In a good way.
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:43 PM on February 24, 2011


Thanks!
posted by xod at 2:58 PM on February 24, 2011


cool new toy! thanks!
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 3:27 PM on February 24, 2011


We are so fucking living in the future. I love it.
posted by ChrisHartley at 4:00 PM on February 24, 2011


I've been listening to the folk station all afternoon. This is great!
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 4:28 PM on February 24, 2011


Awesome find!
posted by bwvoss at 5:39 PM on February 24, 2011


Love this. It's jumped to the top of my web-based music thingy list.
posted by smcdow at 8:47 PM on February 24, 2011


I've been listening quite a bit yesterday and today and a couple things stand out favorably in comparison to my standard streaming radio player (Last.fm, free for now, at least for US/UK ...).

1. Context - Not always, but with Shuffler.fm, there's occasionally interesting news or commentary to accompany the song. With Last.fm you get a Wikipedia bio.

2. New Music - I'm not sure how the algorithm works, but all the blog posts I get seem to be from 2/24 or 2/25. So you're going to get new releases and remixes (and video releases), and perhaps less "classic" music. It's not surprising that /channels/classic-rock (or classicrock) get the same results as /channels/witch-house. The "rock" channel is nigh meaningless.

3. Downloads - Just like the Hype Machine, most of the songs are directly downloadable (in one form or another, as straight MP3 or YouTube rip, etc) from the blogs. Like a song? Download it (again, usually).

The back catalog for the streaming services like Last.fm, Pandora, and all the little ones is HUGE, but who really listens to "radio" for old songs anyway?

tl;dr: I like this. A lot.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:36 AM on February 25, 2011


Oh, here's a problem. Start listening to a genre, listen to 15-20 songs, switch to a different genre, listen to a few songs ... but if you switch back to your original genre, you'll get those same 15-20 songs in the same playlist.

I'm guessing that's a bug (could be browser specific). I'm gonna send it in ...
posted by mrgrimm at 9:45 AM on February 25, 2011


Another really nice thing (if they had a fucking directory) is the ability to listen to one blog from latest blog backwards, e.g. We All Want Someone to Shout For.

However, creating the URL to browse you want to listen to is annoying. The best way I've found is to go to their blog submission page and search to see if the blog you want has already been submitted. If so, click the link and you'll get the URL for it. (I'm not sure if it's kosher to submit someone else's blog. Doubtful, but I dunno.)

That's essentially the real functionality here, and it's why they've partnered with Spin. It's an app for a) adding a soundtrack to a blog, or text (or video) site or piece; or b) extracting and playing the media resources presented on a site.

Pretty cool.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:09 AM on February 25, 2011


latest *post* backwards, i.e. reverse chronological.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:10 AM on February 25, 2011


Less impressed on the second day. Keeps playing TV On The Radio.
posted by schmod at 12:35 PM on February 25, 2011


I've been using it on and off for the past few weeks and it really keeps coming back to using it as a site player, e.g. I want to read the KEXP blog or Largehearted Boy and listen to a playlist of all the MP3s on them at the same time.

The two MAJOR problems: a lot of good blogs aren't in the directory; some of the good blogs that are in the directory just don't work!

There is also no volume control nor a way to skip forward and back within a song. But an interesting start!
posted by mrgrimm at 2:47 PM on March 15, 2011


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