Not MyTube

Yesterday, I posted about how much I enjoy listening to live music on YouTube and how well their algorithms seem to find similar music and similar artists that I enjoy.   I concluded by saying that, at least when it comes to music, YouTube is MyTube.   On topics other than music, however, the YouTube algorithms seem to miss their mark as to what I’d like to see.

MyTube

If you’ve been coming around here for a while, you know I am a music lover (there are 88 posts under the category, music).  I have often said that we live in a marvelous time to be music lovers.  My old-fashioned stereo now lives in my office, ready to play any of the hundreds of CDs and small collection of LPs that I kept when we moved to Utah (I sold most my record collection before moving, keeping mostly the classical recordings).  Amazon Alexa sits on the shelf in the office and at my bedside, ready to play music on request.   Digital media allows me to carry my entire music collection (some ripped from CDs or from vinyl) with me whether on my cell phone or on my portable high-resolution player that delivers near audiophile sound.   Streaming media and the ubiquitous availability of wi-fi gives me access to practically any song by any artist anywhere through resources like Prime Music, Spotify and Sirius XM.  Wherever I am I can listen on high quality portable speakers, my Bose noise cancelling headphones, Bluetooth earbuds or high-resolution wired earbuds.  In my car, I can access Pandora, Sirius XM or play my music from my phone via Bluetooth.   It is pretty remarkable when you consider what I had in my teenage years, like my not-so-portable radio at the top of the page.

The Tube

When I was a kid, if someone asked you, What’s on The Tube? it meant What’s on Television?   You see, Younger Eyes, back in the day … as those of us with Older Eyes like to say … not only was television low definition and monochrome, the screen was based on a Cathode Ray Tube, a large vacuum tube using an electron gun to project an image on a fluorescent surface.  Get it?  The Tube?   Say What’s on the Tube? these days and I’d guess most people without gray hair would think YouTube.  Of course, using my smart BluRay player or my Roku box, I can play YouTube on my flat screen TV, so I can see what’s on The Tube on what we used to call The Tube, having it both ways, so to speak.   I told you I’m a geek.  And as part of my ongoing campaign to appear as up-to-date old geek, YouTube is the topic here on Top Sites Tuesday #212.