Using Idiomag

Idiomag is my new favorite toy. It’s like a sexy, exciting version of an RSS feed. I’ve recently been accused of hating RSS feeds. I don’t know why anyone would say that; I in no way hate RSS feeds. I was starting to get a bit bored, however, so Idiomag found me at the perfect time.

I would suggest that if you have serious work to do, stick with regular RSS feeds. If, however you are like me and need a change of scenery about every four minutes, Idiomag is the perfect tool for you. The news articles it packages up for you are as relevant as any you’d find in a normal blog or news feed, but they are surrounded by lovely songs and videos that make reading the articles so much more fun.

This “online magazine” is also helpful to a person like myself because I never remember to check other news aggregators, such as Google Reader or Pageflakes. With Idiomag, however, I don’t have to remember to check anything because, much like a paper magazine, the “e-mag” is delivered to my inbox every day (or as often as I choose).

I have by no means added as many artists to my Idiomag as plan to, but to start with, I added some artists I like, many of whom are also important to watch because of the way they affect/guide the music industry:
⋆Radiohead (constantly innovating and finding new ways to produce and promote)
⋆Nine Inch Nails (constantly following Radiohead’s lead in innovation, but the awesomeness of Trent’s music is entirely original)
⋆Queens of the Stone Age (I just did this one for the interviews—Josh Homme is so funny)
⋆Marilyn Manson (I just can’t get enough of Mr. Marilyn and his covers)
⋆Coldplay (just a good band)
⋆Madonna (I can’t wait to see what happens with her 360 deal)

I also included Miley Cyrus because I believe she is an important person to watch in the music industry. (Who am I kidding; I just like her. If you don’t find anything catchy about the musical stylings of Ms. Cyrus, you need to get out of denial. Granted, it does get old after about two songs, but those first five minutes are awesome!)

My advice for my readers would be to use Idiomag as a supplement to other news aggregators. Idiomag does make direct deals with journalists, so some of their content is exclusive and could be very helpful. The format is also a welcome change from the static blogs and news articles we often drown in.

Perhaps someday all the news will be in the Idiomag format, or else Idiomag will have so many sources that we won’t have to look elsewhere. Until then, we broaden our horizons by looking in several different places. In the end, isn’t that the best way? We wouldn’t want to be guilty of gorging ourselves on news from one source. Maybe multiple sources are the only way to battle a 1984esqe dystopia. We shall see.