Enforcie's Center For Kids Who Can't Git Gud

Do touch that dial!

Hey all! What a month, am I right? I don't know about you, but July was kind of a rollercoaster for me, and not in a good way! At all! But hey, I've been through worse, and bad times always end eventually. Besides, the end of the month was pretty nice—I got to see my partner and watch a little baseball and go to a wedding so I can't complain too much. There were some ups to go with the downs.

Now that things have calmed down just a little bit in my life, I've been able to step back and revisit some things I'd forgotten about for a while. In particular, I'm starting to listen to internet radio stations again! Those of you (hey babe!) that have been reading my blog for a minute probably remember that internet radio station that I've had going for a while¹. Well, that idea was inspired by a lot of the cool online radio I'd been listening to around that time! I think I discovered a couple of neat internet radio stations when I was browsing a certain cyberpunk forum a few years ago, and I really enjoyed what I found, and the format in general. It's kind of a great way to discover new music!

Now, those of you who aren't into weird niche stuff as much as I am may be wondering to yourselves, "Why doesn't he just listen to regular radio stations? Wouldn't getting a cheap radio and browsing through the different stations in his local area be easier than seeking out weird shit on the internet? And even then, why doesn't he just use Pandora, or the recommendation algorithms on Spotify?" Well, Dear Reader, I've got the answers to those questions that I just made up in my head:

1. Regular radio sucks! It was never really all that good to begin with, and the enshittification that comes with the greater concentration of stations in the hands of monopoly capitalists and the general declining rate of profit mean that it's gotten borderline unlistenable! Fuck that shit!
2. I for one, like seeking out weird shit on the internet.
3. I'm kinda sick and tired of getting new music from algorithms. It was cool and novel when they were new, but nowadays everything is so optimized for maximum rent-seeking profit that I can hardly seem to get recommended new stuff that I actually like anymore. Spotify's the worst offender there; I really only get recommended stuff I already like and have already listened to, and when it's not that they're trying to shove whatever vacuous bullshit's stinking up the top of the Spotify charts down my throat. No thanks!

The neat thing about online radio stations is that many of them are run by hobbyists or other weirdos, so you can find whole stations dedicated to genres of music you'd almost never encounter in the wild, especially if you're not living in a major metropolitan area. Hell, it's how I discovered that I'm really into dark ambient stuff. One of the websites for online radio I've gotten really fond of is SomaFM, which is a listener-supported group that has a bunch of really cool stations. Some other neat radios I've come across are Nightride FM, RPGN Radio, Arctic Outpost Radio, and anon radio. And there's so much more out there to discover!

Now, listening through your web browser is all fine and dandy, but as with many things, I prefer to have a dedicated app. There are a ton of great ones out there, but my favorite is Shortwave. It's only on Linux (for now), but if you're a gigachad like me who uses the world's greatest operating system, you should check it out! Not only is it easy to browse stations in the app and add your own custom ones, it also records the songs as they're being played and lets you download the songs you like! As you're well aware, piracy is cool as hell, so you should give that feature a go. Personally, I use it to keep track of what songs I've liked so I can go find more of the associated artists later. And if you're not a super high tech hackerman wizard and you use Windows or Mac, you can always listen to online radio with VLC.

So what are you waiting for, nerd? Go out, find some cool music you like, put on some wraparound shades, crack open a light beer, and get to jammin' out! You'll thank me later!

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