Each weekday morning, I look forward to tuning my radio dial to KCRW for Nic Harcourt's Morning Becomes Eclectic program. It's a reason to get up, make coffee, and start working. You don't have to be in SoCal to tune in - there are links at the site that let you stream the show via the web.
Speaking of streaming... The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board recently increased the royalty rates for streamed songs. These changes are retroactive(!!) and have significant financial consequences for publicly-funded stations like KCRW. Despite the cost, KCRW plans to continue streaming its shows, but the donations they depend on are now more critical than ever.
Anyway, Morning Becomes Eclectic always provides a great mix of new and old tracks, and many artists have debuted on the program (Beck, Damien Rice, Jurassic 5 to name a few). Nic Harcourt has an excellent ear for music and each day there's a surprise in store. Since I'm mostly out of the loop on new music, KCRW fills the void and I've found new artists like M. Ward, Cold War Kids, Peter Bjorn & John, and Lily Allen to grow my music collection.
As a side note, my friend Cary puts together her own 'downtempo' podcasts using royalty-free tunes she finds on various sites - another way to discover hard to find tracks. Check it out!
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