www.di.fm

the online radio station is an interesting phenomenom - and a useful one! live from new york, "digitally imported" or www.di.fm provides a range of dance music 'stations' each dedicated to particular styles of trance, dance, house and techno. the virtual club? users can tune in any time they like and hear all their favourite tunes being played and chat to other listeners in the forums and the chat room. admittedly you should feel silly if you start flicking your monitor on and off to give a strobe light effect and start dancing infront of the computer, but this is still a far cry from selecting your own tracks alone in your bedroom (from the PC or CD), and you can chat to others who are listening to the same music at the same time. the site features some 'live' webcasts from clubs but the standard 'stations' are simply playlists that "take a week or more" to listen to from start to finish (according to www.di.fm), and are regularly updated with new tracks.

the dance culture is so heavily based on 'community' experience, that its not hard to see how a site like this could be popular..