Culture RADIO REDISCOVERED: 8 TRACKS By Mary Yuengert/Assoc. Culture Editor
T
here are always those days when you’re in the mood for a certain type of music. So what do you do when a) you’re broke (oh wait, that’s every day) and you don’t have money to spend on iTunes, b) none of the bands in your music library can give you what you want, c) you find yourself skipping multiple songs on Pandora or d) all of the above?
W
hile most of us are familiar with Pandora (a free online radio station that takes your current music tastes and creates a “personalized” radio station that plays music you should like), it often times fails to feel very personal. Some people are uncomfortable with the idea of a machine telling them what music is “their type,” the self-proclaimed “iTunes shuffle surfers” (guilty as charged) get annoyed at the three-song skip limit per hour aspect, while the easily bored get sick of hearing repeat songs on their favorite stations. Despite Pandora’s promise to “create a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you,” I find the need to enjoy my music in a more personalized way.
8
tracks.com managed to give me that more intimate experience with music, and I’ve never looked back. See you later Pandora. I was hooked as soon as I read the site’s vision: “8tracks believes handcrafted music programming trumps algorithms.” The idea behind the site came from the old eight track mix-tapes in the
36
Photo courtesy of JMaz/Flickr
‘70s and ‘80s, when people would personally create a mix of eight songs and share them with family, friends or my personal favorite, a boyfriend or girlfriend. I’m a sucker for ‘80s romance and John Hughes. It was a way to discover new music, network and interact with music on a more personal level.
A
s a new brand of internet radio, 8tracks.com prides itself by living up to the slogan, “Radio, rediscovered.” It offers users two options: to create mixes or listen to them. You start by typing in an artist or genre and the site generates a list of mixes that involve those keywords, all personally created by users on the site. Need some study music to keep you focused in the library? Type in tags like “study,” “classical” or “instrumental” to score a list of awesome playlists that some like to call “musical Adderall.”
O
r maybe you decided to throw a last minute Mod party and are scrambling for tracks that will wrangle in a crowd? Search by “party,” “dubstep” or “dance” to win over your friends and ensure your party is a success. If you find yourself falling in love with a song (don’t worry, it happens to the best of us), you can star the track for easy access later on or buy the song right there through a direct link to iTunes.
F
or those whose inner DJ tendencies are screaming to get out, 8tracks provides the perfect setting to experiment, make your mark on the Internet and even win
March 2013
over fans. DJs upload their own mp3s or AACs to build their playlist, add graphics and a description, and then publish their work on their own personal webpage on the site. True to the site’s name, each playlist has to have a minimum of eight songs.
F
urthermore, the site has a social networking aspect that allows DJs and listeners to interact. You can follow your favorite users, “heart” their mixes to save them for later, add their mixes to your own collection or share them on Facebook, Twitter or any of your other go-to social media sites. This way, you can show all your friends what awesome songs you’ve been jammin’ out to, unless you don’t want your mom to see on Facebook that you’ve been listening to nonstop party playlists all weekend. This can also help DJs get recognized for their work and get their names out there.
T
he best part about all of this, besides the totally awesome new music that you will discover, is that it is completely free and legal. Users can sign up and create a free account, which gives them unlimited access to all existing playlists on the site. For those who wish to create their own mixes, songs must be uploaded either from their personal music library or Soundcloud, and there are certain restrictions set up by the site, such as a limit on the amount of songs per artist or album on each playlist, to further secure legality.
M
usic is an experience, one that should be special and shared with others. 8tracks.com is completely unique in that its playlists are hand-picked by other users, like yourself, who have a love for music that transcends letting a machine decide what’s best for you. If you’re looking for something new, original and totally outof-this-world awesome, then 8tracks is the place for you. It truly is “radio, rediscovered.”
To start your experience, visit 8tracks.com or check out its app for iPhones and
www.bcgavel.com
Screenshots by Emily Akin/Gavel Media
37