AOL's Spinner for New Music Releases

Since I can’t visit Lala to check out new releases, I’ll be visiting Spinner’s Listening Party even more. It features a dozen or so recently-released albums, with the roster being refreshed every Tuesday.

Spinner is owned by AOL, which means that it has me visiting an AOL site regularly. That’s quite an achievement these days.

Currently spinning albums include Antifogmatic by the Punch Brothers. My first impression is very positive. If it continues to sound this good after a few more listens, it’ll make my soon-to-be-posted list of 6 albums from the first 6 months of 2010.

Social Networks Online at Economist

The Economist‘s recent article on social networks is worth a read. It draws many connections between social networking and email.

If you suspect that there will be little in the article that you haven’t seen elsewhere before, you’re probably right. But an article that brings things together, makes good points, and makes them well is a pleasure to read, and may be a good introduction for people wondering what the fuss is about. Talking of making points well, here’s one about how deals such as Microsoft/Hotmail and AOL/Bebo are sometimes viewed.

The correct half is that a next big thing—web-mail then, social networking now—can indeed quickly become something that consumers expect from their favourite web portal. The non sequitur is to assume that the new service will be a revenue-generating business in its own right.