Being a missionary with TIME Ministries has its benefits, such as paid world travel and afternoons off for religious holidays like May 19, 2005 (Revenge of the Sith opening day). The major downside is that missions doesn't pay enough to afford subscribing to an online music service.
No matter. Great music is out there, and it's free. Remember radio? The joy of pre-Clear Channel radio was discovering music you loved but would not have known to seek. Well, radio has upgraded to the web, and I'm not talkin' 'bout crappy ol' mono Real audio. A seldom-streamed format called aacPlus (the same format your iTunes are in) is gaining momentum in internet radio via Winamp, and it sounds superb. aacPlus is the most bandwidth-efficient stereo compression out there, but the audio comes through at CD quality or higher, even over dialup. Listen to stuff you've never heard of and old favorites you've forgotten about. Give radio another chance.
For your aural pleasure, Spoon recommends
The Current (hands-down the best radio station I have ever laid ears on)
WOXY: The Future of Rock
WOXY Vintage
Radio Skipper (great 80's music even I can enjoy)
Radio Student 100.5 from Zagreb, Croatia
SKY.FM Modern Jazz
WKSU: NPR, Classical, Other Smart Stuff
Find a plethora of stations at Tuner2.
Go to Slate for more about aacPlus streaming.
1 comment:
If you're interested more in codecs, you might look here.
I recently started peaking inside Pandora's box at work. The quality is better than normal streaming, but I don't think it's AAC+. I've read that it's downloading the mp3 before it plays, but I won't try a sniffer at work to proove it.
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