In the early days of the internet, people were constantly worried of netsurfing being the death of tv. 'Cause that was what many people answered in questionnaires about "what media do you consume less now that you're online". For me, this was certainly true: I cut down on tv-hours to get behind the computer.
Five years later, and I have to admit that my tv-habits have gradually gone back up (now surfing on laptop and watching tv go hand in hand). And it turns out the true victim of my internet connection is ... radio.
Yes: i-Tunes & Winamp are killing radio. P2P and online music purchasing is so ubiquitous and easy, that after a while there's just so much audio sitting on the hard-drive I hardly ever find the time to listen to a radioshow anymore. The computer has become the radio, smart playlists have become the radio-programs.
Not that this is such a great loss: there's so many bad shows, with too many commercials around to mourn. Be it for one aspect: how the heck do you find out about new music????
Zines (online or paperbased) of course, but the network can also come to the rescue: Enter some new tools, which I'm checking out as we speak.
Take:
Audioscrobbler. It sits as a plugin in your media-player (they cover almost all players out there) and transmits the ID-tags of the files you're playing to your personal page on their site. This gradually builds your profile (mine is
this), from which you can start checking out other users who listen to similar stuff, join forums to discuss, even listen to a personalized radio station "last fm", suggesting tracks you might like ...
Interesting, to say the least!!! Meet you there???