I Am a Virtual DJ, I Am What I Virtually Play

I have to admit, despite the fact that I am ‘Twitterer’ from way back ;) . I find that method of microblogging as much self serving at times as often neglected for various reasons. Couple that with the fact that the overwhelming majority of my ‘tweets’ are music related a much more appetizing and thoroughly enjoyable 'timewaster' has emerged among the pack. Enter Blip.fm, a Twitter like browser based app for the music lover and amateur DJ alike. Here, in addition to the standard 150 character message, you can also select an accompanying to song to play along to other people or 'Blippers'. But the true enjoyment comes from the ego-stroking ‘props’ that listeners can assign to your musical accompaniment; And further if they really like your selections they can follow you by becoming a listener. All the while your friends and props tally is on full display to show off your true musical genius and impeccable musical taste to the legions of adoring ‘Blippalonians’.

INFORMATION ALERT -Now here comes the technical part. How it all works.

There’s not much information on the site about where it pulls all the music from. I’m guessing that it’s deliberately a bit vague being as it’s possible there are some legal questions at present. Heck, we all remember Muxtape and the legal brouhaha that erupted there.

Songs are hosted all over the internet by different servers and websites. Thus providing your playable content. As such though, sometimes the servers are offline or busy and the song isn’t available to play; or perhaps the owner of the file has taken it off the internet for whatever reason. Please note: If you are an artist and your music is showing up as “unavailable” the most reliable way to make your music available for others to blip is to upload it to your Blip.fm profile.

So yes, anyone (if you’re a musician or rights owner) can upload tracks. Of course you need to read the terms and conditions thoroughly. The option to upload tracks is buried away in ’settings’ which may indicate the site proprietors are still working out the legalities of that particular aspect of the service.

So sign up and give it a try (while you can methinks!) It’s certainly a popular place and a terrific site to discover some new music or even rediscover some of the music that is important to you. Of course you may have to put up with Hrnygrrrl56’s incessant blipping of Nickelback’s latest opus but it truly is a small price to pay. Who knows… You might just discover your new favourite band.

* Be forewarned though. This site is highly addictive.