I’ve been using the Wall of Sound Soundbooth since reading about it on BrainLog and a MetaFilter discussion. I haven’t bothered picking out CDs to bring to my new job, so when I absolutely need to listen to music I end up turning to the ‘net. Soundbooth lets me program just about exactly what I want to listen to, as Imagine Radio used to. But they get around Imagine’s original legal problems by requiring that you include at least one genre per program, so you can’t, for example, just select one album and listen to it. It doesn’t support all platforms, but I’ve had good luck with IE 5.5 on NT. The quality is tolerable for pop/rock, but is noticeably lacking during the wider frequencies of classical.

I’ve enjoyed waiting to hear what will pop up next from my eclectic selection of music and artists. If I don’t like a track, there is an extremely handy “skip” feature. I keep evolving my program list, adding a song I love but never hear (such as “And Then He Kissed Me” by the Crystals), or including an entire album for just a day to see if I’ll like it, and adding remembered artists I want to hear more of. I’ve discovered songs by Peter Gabriel and Elvis Costello that I’ve never heard before (but not, I’m proud to say, any undiscovered Bowie — apparently I’ve heard it all). Today I made another station just for musicals and tacked on all the Gilbert & Sullivan they had. Maybe next week I will see if I can create an oldies girls groups station so I can expand on my Crystals song with the Shirelles, the Ronettes, and other classics. And I can toss in some new women to keep my ears open. The unexpected beauty of this device is that every once in a while it sets up some nifty segues that no DJ would ever think to program.