Birdsong Radio - A Different Kind of Tweet

If you watched the Julian Treasure video on the power of sound, you’ll already know why listening to birdsong has a calming affect on us humans.  But I bet you didn’t know that there is an Internet Radio station that plays bird song 24/7!

powered by birdsong radio

The thinking goes that over the years humans have learned to relax when birds are singing – it’s when the birds stop singing that we need to worry.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and was about to start a piece of music that incorporated bird song along with a few other tricks when Charlotte discovered Birdsong Radio.  I couldn’t help but laugh on reading her write up:

Recently I have been listening to Internet Radio stations, looking for ones that play music that would be categorizable as music2work2.  Even though I listen for quite a while to get a good feel for the music they play, it seems that very few only play instrumental music.

I have also found that the name of a station or particular program does not necessarily indicate the type of music they play, except for that is, Birdsong Radio; I discovered that "bird songs," the sound of birds singing, is the only thing they play.  I really appreciate nature and animals & I love to sit on the porch, relax and listen to the birds chirping and singing in my yard.  But after a while, listening to only bird sounds directly through the radio starts to become annoying.  Julian reckons there is no maximum dose but to my ears it became an irritation and I had the change the channel.

I’ve been listening to Birdsong radio while I write this post and found it to be a great accompaniment, but I guess I can see where after a while your brain is looking for a different stimulus.  I think like most things in life it’s about balance – I’m certainly going to incorporate some birdsong in the next piece of music2work2 – along with a variation of the New York Jets fight song – but that’s a different kind of science all together.

Long Form Instrumental Music - Say what?

So I’m taking a course at Berklee College of Music on Digital marketing and it’s been the best decision I’ve made since I got married.  Of the many aspects on the course, the one we are looking at right now is: “Who is the market for music2work2?”

Unlike my fellow students who are marketing everything from start out rock bands to singer songwriters, club DJs and established music celebrities, music2work2 is less concerned with who you are and who you hang out with and more concerned with what you do.

We know that having noise in the background helps improve performance and we’re familiar with the Mozart Effect; it seems that the idea of music as a study aid is becoming more prevalent, this article in Teen ink that puts forward the idea that music helps with homework and we agree entirely.

So – where do you go to get this kind of music, and what is it called?  For my own purposes I classify it as:  Long form, instrumental music.  Long form because when you longer have the need for words, you free the music from the 3 ½ minute “song” structure that has been so dominant over the last 70 years.

Of course if you go and Google “Long Form Instrumental Music” it doesn’t exactly come up with a playlist.  You see, when I start looking at the current categorizations of this kind of music – they don’t exactly make me think of stuff that I would play when I want to work or study: New Age, Spiritual, Holistic, Jazz, Classical, Ambient, Chillout, Trance, Dub etc.  I’m listening to a piece called Language of Silence by Deuter right now – it was written to be used by Reiki healers but it’s great as a writing accompaniment.

Most metal heads wouldn’t be seen dead listening to a New Age meditation, but that same metal head on a deadline might suddenly find the same tones exactly what they need to finish. One of the opportunities that I see for music2work2 is to introduce people to a whole range of music that they might not have thought they would like - the challenge here is not the music but the nomenclature.

22 tracks – Music Curators Extraordinaire

As Charlotte and I expand our listening habits, it never ceases to amaze me just how much new music there is “out there,” and not just new music, but new and easy ways to listen to it. 

I’m listening to a perfect track called Natural Tune by Efterklang – it’s laid back – chilled and perfect stuff to write this post to.  Oh and you can listen to it too – go to 22tracks and select the Relax category – right here.

This is brilliant – it’s just like radio – if radio didn’t have the ads and was programmed by music lovers rather than accountants.  There are22 different playlists from Contemporary to Latin, Dubstep to Worldgrooves – each area has a curator who selects 22 tracks and you just click and listen.  Each track has a link out to the artist’s website and a purchase link – genius.

The more I look at this model the more it makes sense.  There’s been much discussion about having an algorithmic approach to music selection – one of my favorite music writers Bruce Warila, is at the forefront of that (to my ears) quixotic charge.  For me - I’d much rather have a human being act as my filter; someone who really is passionate about music – who lives and breathes it – who writes about it and works with it and who spends hours of their time listening to and feeling it.  I’m not saying that one day the Kurzweilian utopia won’t appear but I’m guessing it’s a while away – until then I’ll let Venz curate my relax music and my hip hop too!