Get Hitched to Hitch Radio

Hitch Radio is an entry in the online music radio market that allows you a variety of ways to search for artists, genre’s or news and find out what stations are playing what you are looking for in real time.

Currently in beta, Hitch Radio defines itself as ” a social network platform being built on the idea that radio would be more fun if finding your favorite music and content was easier. Our search engine combs more than 33,000 radio stations in real-time to do just that – make radio easier and a lot more fun. As a start-up company, we put your user experience above all else and will be adding greater functionality to the site on an ongoing basis. We hope you will find that using Hitch Radio is a great way to discover new music, artists, stations, DJ’s, personalities and locales from around the globe. Our mission is to create a state-of-the art experience that is compelling enough for you to make listening to Hitch Radio a requisite part of your daily routine.”

Currently, the search function is the only function available. I am very curious to see how the Social Networking features (released Summer 2010) will blend with the exisiting service. Expect an app release (iPhone, Blackberry and Droid) when the full version is launched. For users who like to create favorites playlists and enjoy some increased functionality beyond tiered basic services, Hitch Radio will be rolling out a monthly subscription plan later this year.  After using the service for over a week, there are a few things I observed:

• Even after installing specific plug-ins, etc, the service would not work correctly on a Chrome Browser or in Safari. Perhaps there was something wrong with the plug-ins I downloaded, but the program worked very well in the Firefox browser.
• My favorite feature was the ability to find different stations (they have over 33,000 available at the current time) all over the world. You can hear what music is popular as well as listen to the news  they report. I found it fascinating Rihanna gets more radio time than Lady Gaga in some countries. There were also a few enjoyable jazz stations located in France and London. This is a feature that I will continue to spend more hours digging into trying to discover more music.

Overall, Hitch Radio has shown some promise. I look forward to seeing a finished product and how they implement the social networking piece. Stay tuned for more updates. Also visit www.hitchradio.com and submit your email for a look at the beta version.

About the Author
I am a developing social and digital media junkie on an adventure through life. Right now I am on the chapter in the book where I live in Los Angeles. Reach me on twitter @ahr19. Thanks for reading my post.
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