National Public Radio, the US radio network too long lagging in the technology department, relaunched NPR Music late last night. The new site is a real joy to use. While the old NPR website ran all media through RealPlayer or Windows Media, the new site employs a slick Flash pop-up player that's easy to use. The site also integrates media from 12 leading local NPR affiliates. Say what you will about their politics - NPR does a great job on music.
The new player works not just at NPR Music, but across all NPR properties. It lets you click a single link anywhere on the site to add an audio file you're reading about to your playlist. Playlists will run continuously and link back out to the articles they were derived from. In testing the site I was able to quickly assemble a playlist of both single songs and hour-long concert performances. Playback was very smooth in most circumstances though switching between multiple hour-long recordings sometimes took awhile to buffer.
In addition to the ability to quickly put together your own playlists, the new NPR Music site highlights a wide variety of pre-built playlists: from Yo-Yo Ma's Top Five Faves to five of the best songs recently released in Africa, courtesy of the hosts of the show "All Songs Considered." In an increasingly unmanageable world, expert aggregation in any field is a top-notch value add.
There's non-skippable interstitial ads, some recommended songs, shows and live concert recordings and hip celebrity music blogs (including one from my neighbor, Portland guitarist Carrie Brownstein, former member of Sleater-Kinney). NPR has truly joined the present age. Let's hope they can keep that development cycle up and not rely on the current site for the next ten years.
See also our recent coverage of the excellant new NPR Mobile site.
Comments
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Does anyone know if LA-based KCRW, which broadcasts NPR programs, is independent of NPR? KCRW, of course, is one of the best music tastemakers around, and I can't seem to find their stream or information on the NPR site, which is a shame, considering KCRW site could really use the tools and functionalities of this new NPR site.
Anyone know which one of these NPR music affiliate streams is best for breaking new music?
Posted by: Bryan | November 5, 2007 11:28 AM
All NPR stations are completely independent and work together in a sort of loose federation. The NPR brand is so prominent that it can be confusing, but a station like KCRW is managed independently.
Posted by: Jevon MacDonald | November 5, 2007 12:08 PM
WXPN is great with new music.
Posted by: David Hollis | November 5, 2007 12:35 PM
KCRW has their own site with live and pre-recorded streams which you can play through a browser or iTunes... http://www.kcrw.com
Posted by: HG | November 5, 2007 1:03 PM
I would have liked more rss feeds so that I could subscribe to channels in the site.
Posted by: Bud Gibson | November 5, 2007 1:43 PM
That is compelling. Thank you for posting such an interesting story.
Posted by: Andrew the great | November 5, 2007 1:46 PM
Thanks for the NPR discussion here, readers - we love comments like these ones.
Bud, re RSS feeds - I was pleasantly surprised how many RSS feeds there were on the site. Those of us who love RSS never can have enough though. Perhaps I just have low expectations for big media orgs.
Andrew, I will trust that you are being sincere in your comment. That is great, thank you.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | November 5, 2007 5:48 PM
I have found that by going to http://www.yes.com/ looking up the stations top 100, or current playlist and then going to www.bluebeat.com and creating it, has proven to be very valuable as a tool. Blyebeat streams at 320kb and has a very valuable service to internet streamer enthusiasts.
I am delighted that NPR has joined the current century. I Have been placing Folk Alley and World Cafe's tunes in "Crates" at blyebeat for some time now, and this new service that NPR offers has a great future.
Posted by: Celeste | November 6, 2007 8:32 AM