National Public Radio has unleashed a new music web site that looks nothing short of being as aesthetic and technologically advanced as Yahoo! Music. The new NPR Music web site looks a lot more flashy through its use of Adobe Flash on the homepage.

The new NPR Music has features such as Song of the Day, All Songs Considered, Music Lists, Second Stage, and Project Song Videos. NPR music also has video concerts, studio sessions, and video interviews. To complement the new site, a few blogs were launched to revolve around NPR Music like All Songs Considered: The Blog and Monitor Mix.

Playlists can be created seamlessly. Some playlists are already pre-built based on some musician favorites. Song recommendations are also made.

National Public Radio, Inc. is headquartered in Washington D.C. on Massachusetts Ave. The company’s net income this year was $18.9 million.

Information Source:
[1] ReadWriteWeb: NPR Music Launches Compelling New Site by Marshall Kirkpatrick

Ever since Facebook opened its APIs and encouraged companies, independent developers, and users to create their own applications, there was a flood of programs entering the market. There is no barriers to entry except having to deal with Facebook’s framework. I am still a proactive Facebook user and think its a great social network tool, but I believe that it makes a crappy “operating system.”

I honestly had mixed feelings when I saw NPR created a Facebook application. I had these apathetic feelings because I’m simply sick of all Facebook applications, both practical (like this one) and useless (like Top Friends, SuperPoke, Zombie, etc.). I definitely enjoy listening to NPR on occasion and I was a fan of Marshall Kirkpatrick’s work on TechCrunch and in the few times I interacted with Kirkpatrick, he seems like a genuine guy. Therefore, I am rooting for SplashCast to do well also.

I’d say I first truly appreciated NPR when I listened to a streaming episode of Tavis Smiley interview John Cho and Kal Penn about Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and how their characters busted stereotypes. I regret not getting into the whole podcasting scene and adding NPR podcasts to my iPod, but perhaps I’ll start doing so.

I’d like to see a way for NPR to utilize SplashCast technology independently of Facebook. Perhaps have a YouTube-like user interface for it. But I do think SplashCast has truly added value to their partnership to NPR. SplashCast has taken a traditional form of media and integrated into a Web 2.0 world. And the intention for doing so seems to be another way to consolidate information and make it more accessible.

References:
[1] SplashCast blog: NPR Podcast Player Launches in Facebook, powered by SplashCast