I’m loving Blip.fm, a new music sharing site. When I registered I became a DJ and could become friends with other DJs. The purpose of the platform is to “blip” music, which is somewhat like a tweet but the blip has audio and/or video embedded in the message. All of my blips are located on my user profile, very similar to the way in which messages are displayed on Twitter. That sounds like a whoooooole lot, but think about it this way: Blip.fm is like the music version of Twitter that allows you to include songs in your messages.

I like to send out Tweets of the music I listen to as I listen. Traditionally, I would have to search on YouTube for a video and hope that I find a high quality one. I would post my Tweet with the YouTube video link and that would be it. But Blip.fm provides three features that I think will change the way I share music on Twitter:
1. When searching for a song, I can preview the song with a single click. It’s very simple! I don’t have to click, go to a separate page, wait for the video to load, go back to the previous page if the video isn’t right, then start the process all over with the next video. None of that on Blip.fm. I can preview as many searched videos that I want all on the same page.
2. I can link profiles: Twitter, Facebook, etc. I can send one message that includes Twitter handles and hashtags, and it will automatically post to whatever post profiles I have linked. The message that is displayed on the other networks includes a link back to Blip.fm that will allow the reader to listen to my music.
3. All of the music that I blip is displayed on my user profile. This is great because people can see what I’m listening to in one location. On Twitter, my music tweets are intermixed with other tweets but this provides a more focused platform for solely music content.

The first negative that I have seen thus far is that the link that is shared on the social networks takes you to a section of Blip.fm that shows other people who have sent blips about the same artist. I would have much preferred that link to take the reader to my personal profile to see all of my blips vs. a mix of blips by other DJs. The second negative is regarding a concern over ease of use. If someone clicks a link that is included in my blip and they are taken to Blip.fm, they may not immediately find where to play the music. I know I didn’t see it at first and it took me a good 10 seconds! That’s 10 seconds for me and 30 seconds for you

Those are only minor details yet not enough to make me stop using the platform. As of now, I like Blip.fm and will try to find additional uses for this innovative 3rd party Twitter website.

What am I supposed to do now?!? Those were my exact thoughts when I typed in imeem.com and was redirected to myspace.com/imeem. Apparently, this Tuesday, MySpace bought the music sharing and listening site, imeem. I used to be on imeem to listen to all my fave music in user created playlists and a lot of playlists featured full albums. At the moment, none of those playlists are available and it pretty much sucks! Not to mention I hate MySpace and it would be such a compromise to go to MySpace for music. Even the sound of it is completely bizarre!

Now, I’m back at what am I supposed to do without imeem? Very few platforms allow you to listen to *full* albums anytime, anywhere. I asked a few people on Twitter what they used to listen to music and the responses included: Last.fm, Rhapsody, Blip.fm, and Grooveshark. I don’t want another Pandora, such as Last.fm, to put in one song and it creates a radio station. I have Pandora and love it. I don’t want to be required to sign up for platform that only allows me to listen to 20-30 second clips. I just want to listen to as much music I want to – when I want it!

Out of the aforementioned services, Grooveshark appears to be the best. It has user created lists and album lists. You can also create your own listening playlist off of an existing list, add songs, switch up the order, and save for later listening. AND you can do all of that, except the saving of a playlist, without having an account! Grooveshark is where it’s at and that’s where I’ll be!