Music and Audio

I went to all the sites suggested by the 2.0 program. Of the music sites I liked Last.fm the best. For me, it is the most user-friendly. I like to use MySpace to listen to music, and last.fm has a similar set up, but offers a lot more. There is a really generous selection of songs as well as music videos, and I like that it links you out to places where you can purchase the mp3s or the albums. What really sets last.fm apart though is the user created tags and the sidebar of similar artists. Pandora is good also, but different. The way it sets up a "radio station" for you based on who you like is great for exploring new music or having something to listen to continually which you can guide by ratings of what you liked and didn't like. But as far as finding specific artists or songs to explore in more depth, it really isn't that helpful. I did not really like IMEEM; it didn't seem to offer anything unique or in a better format than the others.
As far as the other audio - I have used Internet Archive before, and I've mentioned it in this blog. It is pretty easy to use and offers a lot of great things without lengthy buffering. The absolute sound effects archive would be useful if you used sound effects, but I don't really... I had also looked at Gutenburg.org before and found it difficult to navigate. I wasn't familiar with its audio book selection, however. Maybe sometime at home I will download one and see how I like it. If it is good, I think it would be helpful to mention to patrons. I am a little confused with how these can be in the public domain, though. Doesn't the reader have some sort of copyright on his or her reading?
Mango languages was interesting. I started a little of the first French lesson, and it reminded me of the CDs I used in my introduction to French class. It could be a great resource for patrons, especially ones who are traveling and need to know some basics for pronunciation.
The Discover 2.0 blog asked if CDs were dead. All I can say about that right now is "Not yet." I still buy and listen to CDs. Although I don't have an ipod, I like to download music and listen to it on my computer (or on a CD) as well. Right now there is room in the market for both things, but it may not remain so. I believe that there will continue to be some physical form of music, like records or cassettes or CDs have been, just as I believe that books will not die even when everything is available online.