What do you get when you mix a social network, Internet radio, a mixtape and a little ego? You get Blip.fm and the combination is delicious.com - or should be.
Blip.fm (not to be confused with our fav video site, Blip.tv) gives you two options - you can be on the stage or in the rave. In other words, you have the choice of listening to Blip’s “DJs” or becoming one yourself and spinning your own tracks.
Like Last.fm, you can follow people, see what they’re listening to and let others know what you’re listening to. Like muxtape and mixwit, you can curate tracks and create a social mixtape. Blip.fm combines these ideas and also lets you skip around between songs and play them on-demand. The site design is simple, reminiscent of Twitter, which makes it so appealing. Think of Blip.fm as Twitter with music.
Sites like Blip.fm seem to be forming a vanguard that could almost be termed “new radio” or “nu-radio” if you’re into that. Radio has always been about (1) variety (2) discovery and (3) selection. Social networks like Blip.fm, iLike, iMeem and “search and discover” setups like Musicovery are becoming the new tastemakers.
There will always be a place for radios, like the radio in your car or the kitchen, but these one-way conversations have been and will continue to give way to the transitive nature of social radio. (Whereas traditional radio still relies on an A-to-B model (DJ-to-listeners), Blip.fm’s model is more A-to-B-to-C-to-A-etc. and everyone is a DJ and a listener.) Essentially, we don’t have to just take what we can get anymore–AND we don’t have to be interrupted by sponsor messages.
There are exceptions to the growing social radio wave - Pandora and Slacker, for example, still operate on the principles of their forefathers (A-to-B), but these are so optimized for personal taste that there is a great deal of feedback and instant gratification.
But back to Blip.fm - this site is just plain cool. It’s not as advanced as some sites, like Imeem (the third laregest social network), but it’s simple and that in itself is a saving grace and a big reason Blip might catch on in big way. It takes less than a moment to get started and within minutes you will be following and/or be getting followed by people from all over the world.
On behalf of DJSassyKat, to all his European fans, I would like to say, “What’s up ladies? I’m a Leo and I love to cook - a little 80’s new wave, with a side of disco. Sprinkle some acoustic to taste. Enjoy with a glass of shoegazing.”
