Streaming Polka Music – Review of Last.FM

I checked out Last.FM today. Last.FM is a popular streaming radio/music website, where you can type in your favorite music style and listen away for free.

I typed in “Polka” and clicked on the “Polka Tag Radio” button.   Here’s the direct link:  http://www.last.fm/listen/globaltags/polka#pane=webRadioPlayer&station=%252Flisten%252Fglobaltags%252Fpolka

This is what I found:

1. They have a neat feature where you can skip a song if it’s not what you like.
2. Most of the songs I listened to were either from the 50′s, Mexican-Polka flavor, or had a heavy Eastern European sound to it.  There was also one “punk” song that played.  I didn’t hear any current “US” version Polkas.  I did only listen through 12 songs, however.
3. The only Polkas that I recognized were “The Polka Kiss” by Glenn Miller and the “Helena Polka” by Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra.
4. An account is free, and you can create your own radio station.
5. You can only listen to a song 5 times before it prompts you to pay to download the song.

Overall … the website wasn’t my cup of tea … but, again, I only listened to a handful of songs, and the songs are tagged by fellow listeners who have their own style of Polka they like.  For now, I’ll stick to my “real” radio and pop in a nice polka cassette when I’m in the car.

Here’s a sampling of what was on the Last.FM Polka Radio station:

  Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra

George Baker Selection

Vermillion Lies

Viljo Vesterinen

Gilbert Bécaud

If you have tried Last.FM, I’d love to hear your comments.  Please use the comment form below

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