Streaming Organic Music

November 24, 2004 9:50 AM

It's the last straw, I'm officially tapping my toes to U2's Vertigo, courtesy of Morning Comes Eccectic on KCRW, this has got to stop. My seraches for streaming MP3's has been a bust. I listen to Flaresound and SomaFM, but really would like to find some more organic music for here at work. Bossa Nova would be great. I've completely given up on streaming jazz, I can't find anything that isn't either smooth (gak!) or includes Sun Ra into the mix (beating a trombone to death with a live chicken, while perhaps having artistic merit, isn't good office music.)

Latin jazz? Be-bop? Brazillian music?

Only qualifiers. Must be 128K stream, must be web based, (I don't want traffic reports from Helsinki interrupting my Metafiltering) Anyone got any tips?
posted by Keith Talent to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

Well, it doesn't quite fit the parameters you've described, but I've come to really like Radio Paradise...it's more rock-based than what you asked for, but still a good mix.
posted by LairBob at 10:04 AM on November 24, 2004

You seek this: Boombastic Radio
posted by remlapm at 10:06 AM on November 24, 2004

last.fm?
posted by ascullion at 10:07 AM on November 24, 2004

It's probably too broad in scope, but I listen to erika.net whenever I'm working without access to my own music.
posted by oraknabo at 10:14 AM on November 24, 2004

I discoverd The Retro Cocktail Hour in an FPP from ashbury yesterday. Lots of Bossa Nova, Exoctica, Latin Jazz etc. Great stuff. I'll also second Boombastic Radio.
posted by Otis at 10:21 AM on November 24, 2004

You can also use Webjay to create streams of the content of various web pages and MP3Blogs.
posted by TTIKTDA at 10:22 AM on November 24, 2004

Yeah, it's not web based yet, but if they put it online, I'd have strongly reccomended Galaxie's "Ambient" station. No interruptions, ever, about anything except the once per hour legally required station ID.

Very nice inoffensive light music that nobody will particularly hate. Probably a lot of people won't particularly like it a lot, either, but they won't be beating down your cubicle for playing it.

Unfortunately, ExpressVu now encrypts their Galaxie streams, so you can't get them in the USA legally at all anymore. :-(
posted by shepd at 10:39 AM on November 24, 2004

After years of looking for a good option, I finally discovered last.fm. They're so good, I even gave them money.

pwb.
posted by pwb503 at 10:48 AM on November 24, 2004

I funk, you funk, we funk.
posted by Capn at 10:54 AM on November 24, 2004

My favorite streams are the archived "Big Broadcast" episodes from WFUV (Fordham University radio). Traditional jazz and pop from the 1920's and '30s is the flavor. It's not uncommon to hear Mae West, Paul Robeson or Bing Crosby there, as well as Broadway tunes, Tin-Pan Alley classics, and the occasional novelty record. They have 3 years worth of archived episodes (.asx files), each a few hours long, which you can stream through your Windows Media Player (oh well). Go to WFUV.org, click "WFUV Archives" on the left, and select "The Big Broadcast" (Sunday nights) to see descriptions of each episode and links to its stream.
posted by mds35 at 11:24 AM on November 24, 2004

Off topic but.....Keith Talent......you're a character out of London Fields aren't you?? Give me the lowdown on Nicola Six!!!
posted by SpaceCadet at 11:25 AM on November 24, 2004

KEXP streams live in MP3 (56kbps & 96kbps) + extensive archive of live performances and shows. Superb radio station--one of the few I'd put on par with KCRW.
posted by donovan at 11:35 AM on November 24, 2004

The "Browse bands with MP3/OGG versions" section of the Live Music Archive has streaming shows from hundreds of bands.
posted by Roach at 11:42 AM on November 24, 2004

Response by poster: Yeah SpaceCadet, I did pinch the nic from Mr. Amis. When I signed up here at the big leagues, I figured I needed a tough as nails name so that I wouldn't be triffled with, it didn't work. It's pretty tough to sell yourself as a hardman and a reader of contemporary literary fiction, so that plan had a bit of a flaw.

And thanks all for the advice, I've been busy checking links all morning, I should have addded one more criteria to my list; Namely I'm lazy and want my music fed to me with as little active participation as possible.

There seems to be a fair amount of hegeomy to internet radio, is there a single format out there that doesn't make ample room for Thievery Corp. (not that that's a bad thing.)

Cheers again for all the advice.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:33 PM on November 24, 2004

LuxuriaMusic? I remember listening to a great bossanova station bookmarked (through winamp) but I think it's been defunct for months now. Bossanova-and-related is the best happy office music I've found yet.
posted by oldtimey at 9:10 PM on December 1, 2004