Today’s POTD spotlights pureplay aggregator LoudCity (www.loudcity.com), which, like larger players RadioTuna and Live365, enables and hosts personal Internet radio stations. LoudCity does an outstanding job creating a feeling of community and curation. Many LoudCity stations distribute their brands on separate websites. But the LoudCity experience is satisfying in its own right.
A genre directory helps you get your bearings. One of the platform’s best features is the Artists Playing Right Now module, which serves up thumbnails of musicians and bands. Click on any one to flip onto that station’s page and join the stream. Each station has. Facebook commenting embedded.
Although not a unique feature, we find the “right now” concept, as opposed to the artist/song search engine found at RadioTuna, to be fun and effective as both a music-discovery and station-discovery device.
There’s no pop-up player that we could find (our preference), but the embedded player at the top of the page worked flawlessly in our testing across all stations we sampled. So, if you’re willing to devote a full browser tab to pureplay listening, you’re in good hands here.
Bonus: Each station page lists the previous ten tracks programmed. That list provides a quick indicator of whether you’ll like the station going forward.
REMEMBER: Pureplay Buffet archives our Pureplay of the Day selections. It’s a listening feast!