just an asterisk

Image via CrunchBase

Writing code has been my focus over the past few months, both with personal projects and work, and I’ve given my headphones a good workout. As much as I love to toute my musical savvy, variety is all that I require – I love music, but enjoy hearing a mix of genres and artists. On this front, Pandora is great. If you just want someone to pick the music for you, Pandora will do that task very, very well.

However, sometimes I want to listen to someone specific rather than a style and for this, I’ve turned to Spotify. Spotify has an enormous library of songs and you can chose exactly what you want. My brother in law, a jazz guitarist from Toronto named Andrew Scott (look him up) is in their library. That is awesome. Did I mention that the service is free? If you sign up you get 10 hours free music listening per day – about the length of an average work day plus commute (coincidence? Ha!)

That’s not even the best part – the mobile app is fantastic. You need a premium account, which goes for 10 dollars a month, but it’s worth it. You can download your music to your iPhone/Android and listen offline. Perfect for those who want a large selection but don’t want to waste their data plan on Pandora.

A surprising bonus: you can discover new music using sharemyplaylists.com, a collaborative spotify playlist sharing service. Here you can find new music, check out oldie playlists and share your creations. I needed an option like this when I logged into spotify for the first time – there is so much choice that it’s difficult to know where to start.

Ultimately, I use both accounts. My Pandora stations are a great way to discover new music and Spotify fills the gap when I want something but don’t want to shell out for the album.

Give both services a try and let me know what you think. You won’t be disappointed either way…

~ab

What follows is a super long story that is a bit indulgent on my part, so feel free to jump to the very end summary for the punch line if you don’t have the time/interest…

“More than 30 years ago, RiceSelectâ„¢ introduced Texmati®, the first basmati Rice to be successfully grown in America, and still the most popular because of its unsurpassed flavor and aroma. Today, RiceSelectâ„¢ offers a wide variety of delicious rice and other dishes all grown and packaged in America, all inspired by cuisines from across the world. Requested by name in countless recipes and cookbooks, RiceSelectâ„¢ tastes like no other rice.”(Source)

What they didn’t add, but certainly should have, is the following: “RiceSelect products, like our amazing Sushi Rice, can be used to rebuild shattered hopes and dreams!” By now you’re probably checking the URL to make sure that you didn’t mistype the link, but I promise you that this is a technology story.  It’s just a roundabout way telling it… Read more »