What am I listening to?

People often ask me what I listen to or to make recommendations as to what they should listen to. For a number of reasons I generally try to avoid answering, but I found a great plugin that compiles what you are listening to into a music profile. It's called Audioscrobbler, which is "a database that tracks listening habits and does wonderful things with statistics." (If you are concerned about privacy, "the Audioscrobbler Plugins do not know the source of any of your music and the Last.fm database cannot tell if you played songs from an original CD or from an MP3 file.") It works with all the popular audio players (and even some of the not-so-popular ones), and best of all, it feeds into Last.fm which uses the Audioscrobbler-generated profiles "to make personalized recommendations, match you up with people who like similar music, and generate custom radio stations for each person."

So, for better or worse, if you want to know what I'm listening to, you can surf on over to http://www.last.fm/user/EAR-Rational and see for yourself. There's always the possibility that when it says I'm listening to the new Boards of Canada it's only because I changed the MP3 tags on some really embarrassing music...

Don's work is never done...

Don and I were talking recently and I told him we should count up how many labels we deal with directly. Turns out it's nearly 200 (I probably would've guessed 50-60, but that's because Don does all the work and I just write these stupid blog entries)!

Here's the current list: (1.8)sec.records, 10KILO, 12 Apostles, 3D Vision, A Wave, Absolute Ambient, Absurd/Etidions_Zero, Afrogalatic, Ahornfelder, Ajana, Ajuca, Alchemy, Alpha Wave Movement, Ambivalent, Amboworld, Amoeba, and/OAR, Antboy, Arkadia, Asteroid Power Up!, Atak, AudioBulb, Auf Abwegen, Authorized Version, Automatic, Azra Records, Barraka, Binkcrush, Black Rose Recordings, Brocoli, C3R, Candyflip, Caroline, Celestial Drago, Circumvent (R.I.P.), Clearlight, Clearlight Music - CypherArts, Close Tolerance Music, Cocosol1dc1t1, Council of Nine, Cronica, Dakini, Databloem, dataObscura, Dead CEO, Demonosound, Deserted Factory, Digital Psionic, Disposable Thumb, Doof, Dorodine, Dragonfly/LSD, Dream, Dropout, Drosstik Records, DSP, e:i, Eastgate, Economy Records, Elejam, Elusive, em:t, Entracte, Erewhon, Esquilo Records, Etnicanet, Exogenic, Farfield, Fast Flange, Feedback, fitch, Flow, Flying Swimming, Forward Motion Theater, Fragile Planet, Hadra, Hammock Music, Headphone Dust, Highpoint Lowlife, Hit Mania, Holophonic Phan, Hommega, Hypnagogia, Indica, Indol, Infraction, Inkeys, Innersound, Interchill, Kagdila, Karate Joe, Ketuh, Kinetik Media, Koyote, Lapilli, Last Possible S, List, Livid Looking Glass, Macrophonies, Madskippers, Maia, Malsonus, Manic Dragon, Manifold, Manikin, Materia, Misanthropic Agenda, Mojave, MoonPop, N-Rec, Nano, Nervine, Neuronal, Nexus, Nihilist, Noh Poetry, Noisy Neighbor Studio, Non Visual Objects, Northern Echo, Obliq, Ochre, Octpia, Organic, Oscillatone, Oxygen, Panaxis Records, PaniCulture, Peak, Peripheral, Peripheral Conserve, Petit Sono, Phantasm, Pipkin, Poeta Negra, Proper Boy, Proton, Psi Phenomenon, Psychonavigation, Pukka, Purple Om, Quantum, Risc Records, Sakura, Sanskara, Satellite Symphonies, Scarcelight, Sending Orbs, Sijis, Solstice, Some Place Else, Somnambulant, Sonic Dragon, Soular, Space Tribe, Spirit Zone, Spun, SubVariant, Suilven, Suntrip, Surround Sounds, TB, TDI Music, The Sound Projector, Thisco, Timecode, Tip, Transient, Trishula, Turbo Trance, Twenty Hertz, Twisted, Ultra Mail Productions, Urckarm, Virtual World, Wax Audio-Metal Postcard, Waystyx, Wfc, Wikkid, Wild Things, Wordclock, Zeromoon, Zod, Zulu Lounge.

Don deserves the credit here! Several times a week we are contacted by a label wanting us to carry their stuff, and I dutifuly forward that email to Don and then delete it. One more thing off of my to-do list is the way I look at it. Don takes the emails seriously, and often reviews the CDs as well, which helps generate sales for the label. Don's also patient and diplomatic in his assessment of new music. I, on the other hand, throw up my hands in disgust and crank up the Led Zeppelin if I can't get into something new...