You're missing the point. Radio was consolidated into Clear Channel and took away what made radio radio. Local radio. Like what made Chicago jazz different from New York jazz etc. Not internet stations that may as well be podcasts. Regional culture.
You are missing the very simple point: there are tons of independent stations the play excellent non top 40 music and have been for years.
Just because you don't choose to tune into them doesn't mean they don't exist. And it also doesn't mean that those who do should lover their standards for what constitutes good radio.
Might is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. There are several dozen radio stations in my area, and the only one on that list is a college station that just barely has the signal strength to reach me.
Do you live near a city? Because pretty much every major city has a few. KEXP, WPFW, WUSC, KNHC are all local stations playing interesting non top 40 music that have been operating for decades in places that I have lived. Dublab & The Lot radio are also really good over the internet.
If there are non around you just pick a random place in the world here and listen: https://radio.garden
It's certainly 100x better than corporate and/or AI slop streams
if you really can't recieve one at all in your area, which seems unlikely, then maybe you should start one? do it for an hour or so each evening. A great hobby, and cheaper than you might think. Just be sure to get the certifications first.
Where abouts do you live? There's usually some sort of community radio station that plays music. Or there's a large gap in the band for a community radio station to fill...
Case in point. “Independent stations are totally better and I’m going to go argue on the internet when it’s something completely unrelated to small independent stations, unlike the mass media market stations the vast majority of people in the world ACTUALLY listen to.” Bravo, you are very unique and original, you special snowflake you.
You should go DJ at one of those independent radio stations and play some rather filthy uncensored songs, and let me know exactly how your programming “didn’t get manipulated”. I’m sure you won’t get fined…probably…which makes it totally the reality that independent stations are totally independent without any sort of manipulation. Sheep, meet shepherd.
Insecure people tend to think such things when called on their ignorance. Can’t be helped. What can be helped is trying to understand what is being said before attempting to discount it with an example that is just as manipulated in other ways, in order to maintain their ability to broadcast and not be fined. Beyond that, it’s pretty clear that the comment and the prior comment it supported was in reference to mass market radio, not tiny broadcasters with audiences reaching wholes of thousands. But sure.
Yeah and my entire point is that the quality standard that artificial intelligence developers should be aiming for is not soulless corporate mass market media. Because our world world is already swimming that nonsense. So there's absolutely nothing novel in finding a new way to create beige bs.
Once again, I have no idea what you're talking about when talking about fines or manipulation, I'm talking about quality. But it seems pretty damn clear at this point that you have never listened to any local independent radio station.
You should really try it out sometime. It's a lot better. And it'll save you from calling people snowflakes because you feel insecure about what type of radio stations they like.
I mean you can make up things all you like, it won’t magically make them true. In either case, you might try actually understanding what I said instead of only trying to inject your own nonsense into every conversation and then act like that was the discussion the whole time. You started by claiming to know what I listen to and passing judgement (the thing you then attempted to claim I did — funny that, my reasoning was more about stupidity and how you must have the only line on where music can be discovered) in your very first comment that was an entirely unrelated comment about AI and soulless mass market stations. But hey, I’m sure if you repeat it just one more time you can make you made up narrative become true:
The only way that anyone be worried about this slop replacing actual good human run radio is if they don't understand why people like radio & music in the first place.
And what hypothesis exactly is the experiment testing? Because it doesn't really seem like there is any new or interesting information learned from this.
I think you're talking about some Platonic ideal that just doesn't exist anymore.
Streaming services such as Spotify are increasingly filled with AI-generated songs and the average consumer doesn't seem to mind because we're not listening intently in the first place: it's just a background track we're not really paying attention to. I'm pretty sure that radio execs are looking at that and are taking notes.
For talk radio... if I had a penny every time someone on HN brought up that they're enjoying NotebookLM-generated slopcasts, I'd have a neat pile of coin. And I think it's the same story: most people listen to podcasts just to kill time. Soothing, zero-calorie LLM banter will do.
Your original post said that we shouldn't be worried because people appreciate radio and music for reasons that presumably can't be replicated by AI. I'm asserting that's not true: it's not how most people listen to radio or music, and AI content is already quite prominent.
I'm perfectly familiar with KEXP and other stations like that, but this is not how most people experience the medium. It's like insisting that Taylor Swift will never catch on because her music is not nearly as rich and complex as Wagner. Sure, but that's completely irrelevant.
Just because a lot of people like big blockbuster movies doesn't mean that's the standard that I hold good film to.
Similar to radio. If you're going to use huge amounts of processing power to create something new, it should at least be interesting and held to a standard of good for its category, not the standard of corporate slop.
So cool, you can now replace corporate slop with AI slop. For some people who like to turn into radio with no soul or personality I guess it's a win. But for people like myself who actually like to hear interesting and novel things on the radio, this is just a big exercise is creating more filler and noise in an already grayed out world.
“If you don’t participate in politics you’re evil” is an argument that you completely made up.
You don't like to be called selfish for not considering how your actions might affect others, but others are supposed to care about how their actions might affect you? Seems like a pretty self centered attitude to have.
Once again, I have no idea what you're responding to, but it's not arguments that people are actually making in this thread.
It creates a much better discussion if you respond to what people write rather than what you may have heard other random people say anytime over the last few years.
Just because you choose to ignore the externalities of your choices doesn't mean they no longer exist. It just means that you value your personal well being and comfort more than being informed about the results of your actions.
I never said anything about ignoring the externalities. I also never said that I was ignorant to the results of my actions.
It's just not political for me.
I guess I'm not surprised that this cognitive trap about politics has spread - after all, people care more about deploying any tools they can to "win", rather than being correct.
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