Over the past six months I have pretty much fallen in love with RDIO. My good friend and our editor-in-chief Andy Burns introduced us all to this excellent online/mobile music service in February (you can read his initial thoughts here.
I love RDIO’s seamless cross-platform simplicity. From PC to MacBook, iPhone to iPad, my entire RDIO playlist is always available and synched nicely with my iTunes library for endless hours of tunes. Sure there are other music sharing/streaming options on the market – Last.FM, Grooveshark and Pandora come to mind – but none have appealed to me like RDIO.
The best part about RDIO for me has been the pure joy of discovering new music again. It’s like having a cool friend who’s always ‘in the know’ about great music at your fingertips.
Back in the day (I’m referring to my high school and university days) it was easy to discover new and interesting music. I read a ton of magazines, was around friends and like-minded individuals all the time, and we had time to go down to the record shops and browse the stacks. Terrestrial radio was also much different back then helping to break new ground and introduce new artists over the airwaves. Don’t even get me started on MuchMusic and MTV – do they even play music anymore?
Enter RDIO. With a few clicks I am able to see what my friends are listening to and then, based on my own habits, RDIO offers me endless suggestions on what else I should be listening to. Since February I have made three incredible discoveries thanks to RDIO – Adele, The Black Keys and jazz.
Sure Adele is tearing up the charts this summer but RDIO brought me to her well before the buzz. I was burned out on Rolling In The Deep long before it became a Top-40 hit and I listened to that entire album at least 20 times. The Black Keys were a band I might have stumbled across on the radio and heard their singles, but thanks to RDIO I have listened to all of their material and have renewed faith in good pop music. Finally, jazz. I never had the money or time to spend on jazz records and never bothered to give it a try. A few weeks ago I selected a John Coltrane collection on RDIO as background music in the office and I was hooked.
That’s the beauty of a single pay “all you can eat” music service. You can have it all and it’s not stealing or file sharing.
In a new weekly feature here at Biff Bam Pop! I’ll be sharing some of my favourite finds from my journey through RDIO.
Here we go with week one:
Add It To The Collection…The Sheepdogs.
A self-described ‘old-school rock and roll revival’, these guys have gone from Saskatoon to the cover of Rolling Stone. Think Lynyrd Skynyrd meets the Guess Who. Must-have track: I Don’t Know.
Add It To The Collection…Gary Clark Jr.
Awesome blues guitar player from Austin, Texas. Somewhere between Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan comes this guy’s refreshing take on blues rock. Must-have track: Bright Lights
Worth another listen…Songs From The Big Chair .
One of the great things about RDIO is the ability to go back and listen to artists you haven’t heard since spinning their vinyl or popping in their cassette. Tears For Fears’ Songs From The Big Chair is and remains an 80’s classic. Loved going back to Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, and Head Over Heels. Must-have track: Mothers Talk.
Skip It…Jeff Bridges.
Some of us are singer songwriters…some of us play them in movies. Mr. Bridges is the latter. Whatever made him think he could turn his Oscar winning performance as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart into a career as a recording artist is beyond me.
