Flycast

The last few days I’ve been cruising around in my car listening to a selection of music on my iPhone that I haven’t paid for. No, it’s not via some illicit P2P network. Rather, I’ve been using two streaming services — last.fm and Flycast — to deliver high quality music over the 3G network to my phone. Both work remarkably well anywhere that 3G data is available.

To hear a selection of music similar to my tastes, I simply turn on last.fm on the iPhone, and start it playing. Based on information it has previously obtained from my music library at home, it finds and plays similar music. If I like something I’m listening to, I can reach over and tap the screen to get more like it. If I dislike, similarly I can tell last.fm to ignore others from that artist.

Flycast is an internet radio application. Again over 3G, it lets me tune into a wide selection of internet radio stations. For the last couple of days I’ve been indulging in a little nostalgia and listening to KMTT “The Mountain” in Seattle. I really miss the Mountain Music Lounge. I’ve been revelling in their great live accoustic performances while driving the kids here and there.

Both of these services are simple software downloads for iPhone. In contrast, our satellite radio is a daunting bucket of hardware that needs to be installed in the vehicle. I still haven’t done it. It was easier to just plug the iPhone into the AUX port in the car and start listening.

Is there room for satellite radio in a world of ubiquitous 3G and devices like the iPhone? Net radio stations are still figuring out the business model, but it seems only a matter of time until the “radio” is simply a piece of music selector software loaded onto a device like iPhone.