DRS Virus, a “youth music” channel of Swiss German-language public broadcaster DRS has added an interesting widget to its Web efforts — Mx3Linear. Mx3Linear is a “virtual radio DJ tool” developed by Swiss software developer mxlab ag.
In plain lingo, a visitor to the DRS Virus Web site becomes the DJ — controlling what the station plays — and everyone listening hears. It is that fact that makes it different than Internet-based streaming construct-your-own playlist Web sites such as Jango, Last.fm and Pandora.
From an operational point, using the GUI users approach turntables, pick records from the station’s record collection, watch the records float over to the turntables and sit back as the tunes play. Users can also chat with other users, and, for commercial stations commercials can still be played at the requisite breaks.
A side effect would seemingly be that this effectively eliminates the need for actual on-air DJs. Of course such independently controlled activity also threatens the livelihood of more than a few PDs, format consultants and program suppliers. However, at this time there are not enough visiting Mx3Linear users to maintain a full-time on-air presence.
But ultimately one might ask, who needs Jack if the user is Jack?
