Raise your hand if you like music. Go on, don’t be shy. Let’s see, that’s one, two, three…ok, everyone. And the best part about music is listening to it all alone, never sharing your favorites with anyone, and never finding anything new, right?
Ahem.
This is where music 2.0 comes in.
Music sharing is a type of online social networking, sort of like Facebook for music. Social music sites allow people to share what they’re listening to, find out what their friends are listening to, get music recommendations, create their own channels, and find new music.
How are our friends using music sharing? Lots of different ways:
Michael, Erin, & Sean
Michael likes having music on while he’s cleaning the house, but he doesn’t like to have to stop and change his CDs when he’s up to his elbows in dirty dishes. He streams music so he can rock out and never have to lift a finger (except to clean the cat box).
Erin’s office isn’t that big, but customers often come by to sign paperwork or talk to their sales representative. She wanted to set a pleasant mood for the office by playing music quietly, but she couldn’t afford to pay for a service and didn’t have to make an office mix. She picks a preset channel that sounds soft and relaxing and pipes it in quietly. Suddenly everyone is a lot happier to be in the office.
Sean likes to do his homework to music. He’s made his own playlist when he’s studying for tests (free jazz) and picks out channels when he’s doing homework (heavy metal for algebra; folk for English). He can have music for every mood to help him concentrate and get just the right amount of studying done.
What’s Music Sharing?
What you’re about to click on is a link to a Prezi presentation. What’s a Prezi? It’s a presentation tool that allows you to follow the text as it moves, turns, and zooms.
- Click on the Play button
(in the box below) to start it. - Once the Prezi is loaded, click again on the “Play” button each time you want to move forward through the slides.
- When you get to the end and the Play button disappears, scroll down to the “Discovery Exercise” below the Prezi to get back to the class. That’s it! No, really that’s all there is to it. Enjoy.
Not working for you? Here are some Prezi alternatives:
- Are you using an iPhone, iPod or iPad? Download the free Prezi Viewer app and go to the Music Sharing Prezi online, then return to this blog when you’re finished.
- Is the Prezi too zoom-y? You can also view the Music Prezi as a PDF, which has no motion.
Discovery Exercise
We have two exercises for this class, so you can take your pick. Or do both, if you happen to be really into this. The first exercise uses Pandora, while the second uses Playlist.
Pandora.com
- Set up a user account at www.pandora.com and create at least one station. This is easier than it sounds. Trust us.
- You got through that ok? Great! Move on to step 3.
- Listen to a song, then vote by using the thumbs up or down on either side of the pop-up menu.
- Click on “Why was this song selected?” in the menu to see some of the genres that Pandora has recognized in your musical preferences.
- Try to see how this changes as you vote on more songs.
- Use the About Music menu at the top to find other listeners who are interested in the same band or genre as you (use quotes around phrases in the search box).
- Use the Share Menu to share your station on Twitter, Facebook, or a friend whose email you know.
- Optional: If you feel so inclined, and your pennies are itchy, buy a song.
- Check it out: at the bottom, where it says “On The Road” — you can get Pandora in your car, too.
Playlist.com – The Playlist Project
- Sign up at www.playlist.com.
- Create a playlist of at least three songs (you can go up to 191 songs per playlist)
- Search for a song and then use the gray playlists tab to see what other users’ playlists include that song.
- Check out one of those playlists and see what other songs are on it.
- Add a song from that other user’s playlist to your playlist. (Don’t worry, it’s not stealing.)
- Optional: Use the “Post My Playlist” feature to put your playlist on your Facebook page.
- You are about to rock. We salute you.
Can’t stop…the rock…can’t stop the rock
(read on to learn more about music sharing)
Napster It would be hard to talk about online music without mentioning Napster. You probably recall the Napster scandal and how the record companies went after them. That lawsuit was really what put in place the rules that online music sites follow today. Napster has reinvented itself as well. It is no longer free (or illegal), and you can no longer download the songs to your computer without paying. What you can now do is use Napster to listen to whatever you want, whenever you want, unlimited. There is a free trial for Napster if you want to check it out first before buying anything.
iTunes You’ve probably heard of iTunes, if you’re not using it already, and might be wondering how it fits into all of this. iTunes is an application you download and install on your computer. It’s used for playing and organizing digital music and video files, much like you would use Windows Media Player. Note: On June 7th Apple announced fundamental changes to iTunes. Read about it.
You can use iTunes on a Mac or a PC, but if you have a Mac, it probably came with iTunes installed. If you have an iPod or iPhone, you can sync it with iTunes, and carry your music (and video and podcasts) around with you. iTunes does have a huge digital library, but you have to own a song for it to be in your iTunes library; plus you can only play music that is in your iTunes library (or a shared library—see below). Either you rip the music from CDs you own or you buy music at the iTunes store, which is then added to your iTunes library.
[Note: This paragraph's info will be changing soon! Read about it.] Sharing is possible, but it’s different than sharing on Pandora. Your iTunes library can only be shared over a local network. So if you have iTunes at work (ok, you probably don’t, but let’s just pretend), and your colleague on the same network also has iTunes, you can share your libraries with each other, provided you both have iTunes open and running at the same time. The highly versatile iTunes can also be used to download and listen to podcasts. Nifty!
Congratulations! You’ve just completed the first class. We hope you’ve enjoyed it. Next week we’ll take a look at avatars and privacy. See you then!
Help!
Drop-in Sessions: get help or ask questions about these classes: Schedule.
Comments & suggestions welcome: Jenn and I welcome your comments about these classes! Comment form below or via the tech help comment form at:
http://www.library.pima.gov/contact/tech.php
