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July 10, 2001 — 8 PM

Hey DJ

With Napster down and out, it’s high time someone pointed out that free music is alive and well on the Internet. It may not be that one Björk track stuck in your head for weeks, or the entire new Radiohead album on a platter before it’s available in stores, but there is yet some hope.

I’m not sure why it hasn’t garnered more acclaim, but Live365.com continues to be free (aside from those infernal and ubiquitous popup ads), and is an amazing repository of “over 40,000 Internet radio stations.” While 14,329 of them are doubtless playing the same classic schlock and soft dreck already exhausted on the rusty ol’ AM/FM dial, the rest are playing the tunes of thousands of discriminating tastes. And get this, it’s not even illegal, I guess because Live365 has already sold its soul to the Devil. Oh well. We’ll take while taking is good.

There is something tingly about discovering that Someone Out There has identical taste. I love that ‘eclectic’ is a genre, one that near as I can tell simply means ‘good music.’

If there’s any problem, it’s that it can take awhile (like, say, a couple of the hours between 9 and 5) to find a broadcast that really clicks. I recommend starting with the editor’s picks, a list pleasantly high in variation and quality. Bon écoutant.

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Previously: Ça plane pour moi

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