Clicking through Slow, Fast, and Weird Music by Country and Decade
If you're constantly on the prowl for obscure music from around the world, this music streaming website will be your new favorite audio service that saves you from hours of combing the internet.
If you’re constantly on the prowl for obscure music from around the world, this music streaming website will be your new favorite audio service that saves you from hours of combing the internet. Radiooooo, developed by a team in Paris, plays tracks according to a country and decade — from 1900 to today — of your choice. Curious to hear something from Turkmenistan from the ’70s? Here’s a nice jazzy piece from a band called Firyuza. Need something more upbeat? Radiooooo has a neat feature that lets you choose a mood, from “slow” to “fast” to my personal favorite, “weird.”
Launched in 2013, the website is still in beta mode, so there are a few blips in the interface from time to time, but its current design is pretty fantastic. A zoomable map (featuring doodles of all sorts of sea monsters in the oceans) lets you click on a country, and its colors change depending on the decade selected to indicate whether there are any tracks currently available. Yellow means you’re good to go, while white means you’ll have to try something else. Users may also upload their own finds, so the database is constantly growing. The information for each track is also editable by all — so if you’re nuts about comprehensively cataloguing your iTunes library, go wild for the rest of us!
Other fun features include “Taxi Mode,” essentially a playlist generated based on your personal selection of countries and decades. And, in addition to actual countries, Radiooooo has mapped two imaginary islands, home to specific musical offerings: Neverland, indicated by a flower-headed jack-in-the-box, plays children’s hits; Discovery Island is where you’ll find new music arrivals selected weekly by Radiooooo’s team. So take a musical trip around the world without leaving your home, and start diversifying your music taste. If you’re interested in anything you hear, some song profiles include direct links to purchase them.
h/t CityLab
