Bill and Rebecca Goldsmith live in Paradise, California which explains the name of their internet radio station, but I think the name would be appropriate even if they lived in Death Valley.
I have been in love with radio all of my life, and spent 30-odd years dealing with the conflict between my vision of radio as an art form and my FM-station employers’ vision of radio as a conduit for advertising. I have watched the medium that I love turn from an essential part of the process of connecting those who love making music with those whose lives are touched by it into a mindless background hum of advertising and disposable musical sludge.
With the advent of the Internet, we were finally able to bring to life the radio station I had always wanted to work for (and listen to): commercial-free, passionate, and embracing a wide universe of musical treasures, from the classic rock artists I grew up with to the latest indie discoveries, with a liberal sprinkling of world music, electronica, jazz, even classical. We have slowly built up a loyal audience and have been able to support ourselves while living our dream.
I’ve been a listener on and off since 2002 and have recommended it to my friends because I like a lot of the songs they play. However, until a couple of weeks ago I’d never registered to take advantage of all of the features at the site. Now that I’m registered, it’s much better. Here’s an example:
I’m listening and they play a slightly creepy sexy smooth tune I’d never heard before. Here’s a sample (use headphones):
I think to myself “that is a slightly creepy sexy smooth tune, and I’d like to have it.” I go to the Radio Paradise page where the playlist is at the top of the page and see that it is Goodnight Moon by Shivaree. You may recognize it from the credits of the movie Kill Bill, but it was new to me.
I click on the title and get all the information I could ever want about the song including comments from other registered users of the site. I give the song a rating of “8″, and see that the other 558 people only thought it was a 7.5. Then I click on the Amazon link where I can buy the album with one click. I did manage to find one improvement I’d like to see: a link to the downloadable mp3 of the song for 99 cents which is what I actually bought. They also have a link to iTunes, but I won’t buy DRM crippled music.
Bill and Rebecca don’t have advertising, but rely on affiliate links like I do. My purchase gave them a small referral fee of about 6-8 cents.
Last week a reader told me “I really dig your version of the Internet.” I really dig Bill and Rebecca’s version of radio.
