From a user’s perspective, Hype Machine is a hybrid between online radio and an on-demand streaming service. It all depends on how you use it. You can encounter random songs and find new artists, but you also can find a favorite song on demand, and even save it for easy access to listen to later. This last bit seems to make it significantly different from traditional radio. But then again, couldn’t you tape a favorite song off the radio to listen to later, way back when? Regardless of whether the developments in online radio are directly applicable to Hype Machine, I think this shift in the attitudes of the powers-that-be may be significant for how music streaming is dealt with generally. I think it bodes well for Hype Machine sticking around.

I had never heard of promotional mp3s before Wednesday’s class when Anthony mentioned that some of the HypeM bloggers receive the promo tracks legally and then post them. I read a little bit into promo mp3s, and it seems like the RIAA doesn’t really know what to do with them. A few years ago, when Nine Inch Nails was about to release a new album (either With Teeth or Year Zero, I’m not sure), they sent their fans on a wild goose chase (something akin to how that band Fluffy has a secret show in Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, if anyone’s seen it). They used “tactics such as leaking MP3s of songs from the album by depositing USB drives in bathrooms at tour sites, or playing them on the receiving end of phone numbers listed on tour t-shirts,” and the RIAA freaked out. They started making bloggers take down the mp3s that the band was trying to give away…

Are they allowed to do that?!

Here’s the blog where I read about it.

Luckily we’ll be able to pose all of these questions today in person. Stay tuned.