not only do i like the name…

I stumbled across the site I am going to talk about yesterday when I was searching high and low for tv shows created specifically for web only viewing. quaterlife is a web specific tv show made by the creators of My So-Called Life (which abc.com is re-releasing right now-click on it and it’s a direct link!), thirtsomething, Legends of the Fall, and Blood Diamond. They originally pitched it as 1/4 life to ABC, but the show never aired, and ABC graciously gave them back their material and thus became quaterlife. It is so well done that NBC will start airing it on Feb. 18th!

All the other goodness about the show you can find on their site, but that’s not all I want to talk about!

quaterlife is also a social network…I know what you are thinking, “another one?!?!?!?” Well, yes. Another social network. I was skeptical, but after joining last night around 1am- I am a terrible insomniac-I can honestly say I think they might have found a niche. This social network site isn’t for displaying pictures of yourself boozing it up, hanging out with friends, or talking about who you want to date. This is a site for creativity. The way they explain it is that our generation is extremely creative, and here is a place to display your creative side. You can display photographs, writings, videos, proposals…any type of work you deem your creative work. The work is stored in your portfolio. Now, the one problem with a site like this is, what keeps those people out that just want self promotion for the sake of self promotion? I don’t know the answer, but I’m curious to see where this site is after NBC starts airing the show!

“and the beat goes on”

So today lets explore music; the sites that can give your ears something to smile about, connect you with artists you’ve never hear of, and give you something to put on while cooking for that weekly dinner party you love to look forward to.

To begin lets revisit Pandora Radio: http://pandora.com/ . I say revisit because this site has been around for a long time, long enough for me to say a long time and I’m only 23 years old. It hasn’t really changed much since I first heard about it years ago, but that being said it doesn’t need to. Pandora, after signing up for your free account, creates radio stations of similar artists to the main artists you typed in. It saves all of your created stations by the artists name you first typed in. Thumbs up Pandora Radio.

Moving on to Slacker Personal Radio: http://www.slacker.com/ . Slacker Radio got me through boring days working at American Apparel. We weren’t supposed to listen to this online radio, I’ll explain in a second, but it was great. Not only is it similar to Pandora where typing in a given artists results in a station of that artist and similar artists as well, but it mixes it up a bit. It almost seems to know what mood you’re going for and creates a mix list for you. Slacker also has pre-made play lists you can easily pick from, which is another great feature. I like it, I think you will, thumbs up.

Next on the discussion list is why we weren’t allowed to listen to Slacker at American Apparel; http://www.viva-radio.com/ . VIVA-RADIO is Dov Charney’s American Apparel side project. It sucks. It’s his models and friends creating playlists. You can’t skip songs, you can’t add your own input, the site is pretty boring visually, and the playlists, literally almost 100% of them, are terrible. I don’t even recommend looking at this site. Thumbs down big time.

Last on the list of online based music listening websites to chat about is Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/ . Last.fm is attempting to pull together the social network craze with an online radio site. On the social side of things, you being your Last.fm experience by creating your own profile, complete with a picture and all. The music part of Last.fm allows you to create playlists by typing in an artists name, just like Pandora and Slacker, and there are options to listen to related “stations” that have been created by other users simliar to yours. A feature distinct to Last.fm is the ability to upload your own playlists from your music. You can share your playlists with your Last.fm friends, and listen to other peoples playlists. There are areas on the site to upload videos, “track hype”- see what’s popular, see the top played artists, download free music, download Last.fm widgets, browse events going on in your area, and meet other users that have similar tasts and may be able to introduce you to some new music you’ve never heard of. Overall Last.fm is the new breed of online radio sites. It’s melting together the need for social networking on sites with music, as well as bringing in all sorts of extra goodies for users. Thumbs up. I highly recommend getting a free Last.fm account.