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DJs Will Endure and Evolve as Radio Moves to Web, Says Panelists

by Caleb Johnson on May 22, 2010 at 05:00 PM

Playdio logoWhile FM radio will likely soon be replaced by Internet radio services, a panel of experts at the Great Escape music conference in the U.K. recently argued that disc jockeys will both endure and evolve.

According to the Guardian, more streaming radio services, like Dabbl, Playdio and Mixcloud, will launch in the near future, but many listeners will still look to DJs for guidance through that ever-expanding musical landscape. "People don't only want just a playlist of good music, they also want to be led through it by characters who entertain, and whose taste they trust," Playdio founder Danny Ryan told the Guardian this past weekend. Playdio accomplishes this by allowing users to create playlists that include snippets of dialogue between songs. This way, listeners control what they hear, but don't lose that interaction with a DJ. Mixcloud goes a similar route by letting users upload a "cloudcast," which can be a talk-radio show, a playlist or a podcast. These can be linked and shared just like YouTube videos.

While we enjoy the randomness of services like Pandora, it is a nice change of pace to have somebody guide us to new music. Without DJs (even if it's just a guy in his bedroom with a laptop) listeners would likely stick with music (or genres) they already know, rather than venture out in search of new sounds. We want radio's future to have the best of both worlds -- informed sources (like the John Peels of the past) and a wealth of choices. [From: the Guardian]

Tags: dj, Internet, InternetDjs, InternetRadio, mixcloud, music, playdio, radio, streaming, StreamingMusic, top

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