Listen to music light-years away from the Earth.
Khevna.P.Shah, INN/Bangalore
@Shahkhevna1, @Infodeaofficial
Ever wondered how it would feel listening to music surrounded by stars and planets or maybe in space? Lightyear. fm, created by Mike Leacher, Brain Moore, Chris Baker, and Mike Chernov provides one with this experience. And in 2015, the team won the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards.
According to a report by Wired, it was Moore who designed the site interface, Lacher built the audio system and Baker ensured the tunes were legitimate. Lightyear. fm website allows you to hear the music radio depending on the distance from the Earth. It measures the distance in light-years and the further you move away from the Earth, the older songs start playing.
Once you enter the website, it starts with your permission to play and in no time you will find yourself in the middle of a fascinating space view. And on the left corner of the screen, you will find the timeline and on the center bottom of the screen, you can see the distance between you and the Earth and the songs you get to hear. It starts with Thunder by Imagine Dragons when you are around the Earth’s orbit and as you go further the songs change according to the year and also you can see the names of numerous stars. It’s like visiting a space from your room.
The website’s mathematics is simple: 30 light-years away from the Earth means it calculates music from 30 years ago to play. How do you do that? There’s a timeline bar that shows light-years you can click on and listen to music from. And it’s not just the music but also the unique and interactive nature of the platform that contributes to making it a fascinating and easy-to-use website.
There is a note on the homepage of the website that reads, “Radio broadcasts leave Earth at the speed of light. As you scroll away from Earth you hear the biggest hits of the past have”.
The website, however, does mention that due to the Inverse Square Law of Propagation the waves reach over 100 light-years into space, and any terrestrial radio broadcast would become nothing but an unclear noise just a few light-years away from Earth.