A new website offers a compelling way to understand cities through sound. It combines audio feeds from city police radios with ambient music.
This episode of the radio program 99% Invisible explains the website, which covers L.A., Montreal New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
"youarelistening.to appeared online on March 6, 2011 and I was hooked instantly. The combination of the police scanner and ambient music is an intriguing, and distinctly live, experience (unlike most of the time shifted audio I tend to consume). Its other appeal is its simple and elegant execution. There are three component parts: a police radio stream from Radio Reference, a pre-screened ambient music playlist from SoundCloud, and a cool photo from Flickr. Each element is from some other source, that never could have envisioned that this is the way their content would be used. This is the power of a shareable and mashable web.
Read the full story: Episode 23- You Are Listening To
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