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Always get your music preference heard

-Public music player that receives requests from cell phones
 
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The excessive replaying of faddy pop. songs on most radio stations has reached the threshold of bearability. The annoying aspect, the lack of variety, and discontented listeners (not to mention the loss of regional culture) need to be dealt with. In the current situation of one corporation owning over ninety percent of the private U.S. radio stations, the variety and instances of the listener being favored over a record company’s promotion agenda are likely to further diminish. (Advocacy-maybe a little, but read on)

Solution: Democracy. None of this representative shit that most political governments use and the record companies gladly impose. Let only the present listeners decide what music will be heard. A cell phone or other on person device would signal to the radio which station the person prefers and the radio would tune to that frequency. Even better, remove the middleman. The music player will not be a radio receiver at all but a database of a plethora of songs. The person favorite bands can be in a list of preference that is programmed by the user into the phone. The phone would frequently send out the signal of which songs and genre the user prefers. Iam not proposing that the user must take the time to vote each time he/she comes in range of a public music player. The song preference list is preprogrammed, but can be changed at any time. Each cell phone has an equal influence. The specific genre of the artist along with associations to similar types of music are stored on the player. When more than one person is within hearing range, the computer sums the preferences and using the associations, attempts to satisfy as many listeners as possible.

Either radio waves or a network connection could add new songs to the catalog. Any record company, no matter how small, could add songs, but probably a limit would have to be placed on the storage space allowed for each company. Possibly these players could be paid for by record labels purchasing drive space (Hard drive storage would likely be the cheapest I'm assuming). Although, that may led to the large corporations preventing other businesses from adding their artists.

Furthermore, hotkeys could be used so the user can quickly switch preferred music types with the push of two numbers. An option could be selected to vote for the player to be turned off. The issue of censorship might not be an issue if the player can confirm no child is within hearing distance. Such a device would be especially nice if you walk into a room alone, and with no competition, immediately your requests begin to play.

Fun for parties and dance clubs too.

light bulb, Mar 22 2004

FCC Count of US Broadcast Stations as of 12/2003 http://www.fcc.gov/...otals/bt031231.html
[jurist, Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       You assume that if people got to select the playlist democratically, that more variety will result. I don't think this is a safe assumption at all. Radio stations already cater to as wide an audience as they can by attempting to play the most "popular" songs and please the most people. And they already take requests.
cocktaillouie, Mar 22 2004
  

       You better choose who you hang with wisely. This will not mean that those songs destined to be popular wont be heard. It will bring about more diversity because the grouping of people will always be dynamic, allowing for many different mixtures. Also, time will not be wasted searching for desired music, and no matter the group of people present, the largest majority as possible will be satisfied.
light bulb, Mar 22 2004
  

       Catering to the promotional agenda over the listener preference quickly results in a smaller listening pool, hence the radio stations typically pick a genre (pop, classics, soft favorites, country, dance/techno, etc.) and take requests within that genre. If you don't like what you hear, change the station or make a request. If you still find yourself in the ignored minority, buy a CD-player.   

       Bone. Solution to a non-existant problem.
Freefall, Mar 22 2004
  

       Freefall, you seemed to have overlooked the part about the public music player. An individual may not be able to just walk up and change the dial in a cafeteria.   

       //If you don't like what you hear, change the station or make a request// Written just like a Defender of the Past would write.
light bulb, Mar 22 2004
  

       I think that cocktaillouie's first point is quite valid but mainly I'm against this idea because it's trying to take control of the radio away from the person who owns it. Why don't you just ask them if they can change the station please?
DrBob, Mar 23 2004
  

       Radio Stations (-) + Restaurants (++)= crossaint
ghillie, Mar 23 2004
  

       MTV,Q and several other music video channels let you do this by texting in your choice out of a number of videos. BBC6 and XFM have request shows on radio but I've found that if you don't request anything thats on their playlist for the week you tend to get ignored. Of course I may be wrong and it's just my choice of music that they don't like.
The other way around this is to set up your own radio channel over the net which is getting easier to do and something I am going to be doing in the near future as soon as I sell my other kidney and buy a new mac.
sufc, Mar 23 2004
  

       //In the current situation of one corporation owning over ninety percent of U.S. radio stations, the variety and instances of the listener being favored over a record company’s promotion agenda are likely to further diminish. [light bulb]//   

       I'm assuming you are identifying Clear Channel in that remark. It is true that they have grown from 40 stations in the mid-90's to 1239 stations at the close of 2003, making them the largest single owner of radio stations in the US. It is also true that Clear Channel currently dominates audience share in 100 of 112 major markets in the US. But, it is not true that Clear Channel owns (and/or operates) "over 90% of the US stations", as you said above. The link I provided with data from the FCC shows that there were 13,563 radio stations operating in the US as of 12/2003. With 1239 stations Clear Channel had fewer than 10% of the total number of broadcast radio stations. Let's try to be accurate.
jurist, Mar 23 2004
  

       Why would the bar want you to have free music when they have plenty of drunks that will pay money to listen to it?
Nitehawk, Mar 24 2004
  

       I could use another kidney sufc.
light bulb, Mar 25 2004
  

       I'd like this a lot better if it was more of a distributed jukebox, instead of an average of everyone's taste, where you have a list of songs you'd like to hear, and when yours are chosen, it just plays them, regardless of what everyone else thinks, like a regular jukebox, but with more selections (you can still bring your own with you, like in the idea). You'd spend more time either hating or loving the music and a lot less time being annoyed by the 2's, 3's, and 4's (inoffensive middle of the road not quite good and not quite bad "music").
oxen crossing, Mar 25 2004
  

       I'm with Lazlow on this one:

"We're gonna take a break and then hit the phones... really hard with are heads! Oh yeah! And remember, if your request is on our playlist, I just might play it if you call in."
ghillie, Mar 25 2004
  

       l3lackEyedAngels, I figure not only is a person more likely to own and be carring a cell phone, but the phone is already equipped with a radio transmitter/reciever, so the only change it would require is the installing of a new program.
light bulb, Mar 26 2004
  

       what the hell- ghillie
light bulb, Mar 27 2004
  
      
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