I started listening to internet radio more and more, at the expense of of regular FM stations. The number of stations I tuned into grew significantly, and the French dance station Underground FG was an important one.

⟶  Sound 1: Underground FG, recorded December 2004/January 2005. I don't know the exact moment anymore, but it's definitely a very early recording, made shortly after discovering the station. Despite exploring +/- 1001 genres, this station (playing minimal, deephouse, electro, techhouse, etcetera) was very influential, with it's - again - relatively subtle feel. It alternated DJ mix and playlist hours.  |  Pic 1: The site of Underground FG.  |  Pic 2: A compilation CD with tracks that got a lot of airplay on that station. I bought that one.

I also listened to the stations in the sounds/pics section below. For people who didn’t listen to these stations, these pics still provide a snapshot of the era. Most links are screenshot, * = something else.

⟶  Sound 1: Pro FM, a station playing dance, disco and Italo.*  |  Pic 1: The ambient radio station Cryosleep, discovered in early 2005. At first it functioned as background sound for me, before I began actively searching for tracks from it.  |  Pic 2: The PBB site. This was the station of the famous French DJ Laurent Garnier.  |  Pic 3: The French house/disco station KIF.  |  Sound 2: Some KIF sounds, back then.*  |  Pic 4: There were some Soma FM stations I liked: Groove Salad, Drone Zone, Illinois Street Lounge - and sometimes I tried Cliqhop. This was their site in that era. Not much has changed about it.  |  Pic 5: Studio Brussel, the public Belgian youth station.  |  Pic 6: A couple of articles about KX Radio, a Dutch freeform station featuring many famous DJs/media personalities. Rob Stenders was the big boss there.*  |  Pic 7: Radio 0511, playing 60s and 70s music. Especially around 2007 I listened a lot to this station.  |  Pic 8: Planet 90 - back then a fun, quirky station. When it launched in early 2005, its database contained the entire Dutch Top 40 of the 1990s, and you could request any track - no matter how obscure or extreme. People definitely took advantage of that. The station still exists today, but the more extreme tracks have been removed and it now focuses mainly on dance music.

In mid-2005, I got a FM transmitter to spread the sound of internet radio throughout the house. The man behind Pro FM had an online music shop, where he sold them (still thanks!). The transmitter was pretty basic, but also a very useful tool. It made discovering music easier.

⟶  Pic: My FM transmitter.

Despite/because of new ways to play music, identifying tracks was often a challenge. I relied less and less on mainstream sources, Shazam didn’t exist yet, and internet radio stations rarely published playlists back then. So track ID became a creative exercise, with mixed results: for example posting snippets on a French discussion board, while I didn't speak French.

⟶  Pic: Clubxtrem, one of the French discussion boards used to identify tracks.

I spent time on discussion boards and created personal home pages. They focused on music. And I wrote a weekly music review for Profm.nl, one of the internet radio stations I listened to regularly. Compared to the era before it all felt more low-key though; My online presence went from rather high-profile to fairly low-profile. Around 2003 I may have taken it a bit too far.

⟶  Pic 1: The music section of the Dutch discussion board Fok!forum.  |  Pic 2: Screenshots of Musicmeter, the Dutch version of 'Rate Your Music'.  |  Pic 3: An own site, created by myself.

Listening to regular FM radio gradually became less frequent. It mostly happened when internet radio wasn't available or was too cumbersome, or when the batteries in my FM transmitter were empty. I liked the dance show 'Ministry of Beats' at 3FM though.

⟶  Pic 1: An interview with Florent Luyckx, once the big man behind the public station 3FM, back in the days one of the prominent Dutch stations.  |  Pic 2: The 3FM site in 2005.  |  Sound: A Ministry Of Beats (3FM) recording promoting 'urban eclectic' mixing, recorded early in 2005. Host: Edwin Diergaarde. To be honest, the kind of 'look at me being cool and hip' vibe surrounding this trend (something even intriguing me two years prior to this era) wasn’t my cup of tea anymore, but the music itself was influential. Around the same time, I also bought a compilation from the year before, 'ACE: An Urban Eclectic Experience', which felt quite similar to this mix.  |  Sound 2: Another Ministry Of Beats fragment, recorded in 2006.

Back then, my magazine reading habits were still all over the place. I liked almost everything, from thick, glossy magazines to free magazines printed on a kind of newsprint paper - very popular around 2006. Those free publications were found in record stores, clothing shops, bars, and similar places. Some titles: Dj Broadcast, Glamcult, 010, 020, etcetera. Their content was at least partly about music.

⟶  Pic: The cover of a Dj Broadcast edition.

I was less busy following recent releases (I still burned and bought CDs containing recent tracks though), and played much older music; like said earlier. 'Older' changed into 'months, years or decades ago' instead of 'mostly released from around 1987 onwards'.   ✱   And much guitar/alternative music from the 90s (in the past tolerated when played on the radio, but seldom recorded on cassette) suddenly was played. Better late than never.

⟶  Pic 1: CDs featuring recent tracks. Some of those were bought, others were burned.  |  Pic 2: CDs containing tracks that were already a bit older at the time. Again: some of those were bought, others were burned.

A continuation of the previous lines. --> Despite playing a lot more music predating the late 80s, this was also the era of collecting ultra cheap second hand CDs of the late 80s and 90s - in the past often borrowed from the library. The entire Turn Up The Bass series, House Party 1 to 7 and many others.   ✱   To collect those second-hand CDs, I visited a lot of shops: sometimes online ('Marktplaats'), but most were brick-and-mortar stores. Unfortunately some would soon shut their doors. I also visited flea markets.   ✱   You can find some relatively prominent places below. For people who didn’t visit these places, the pics still capture the spirit of the time.

⟶  Pic 1: Some stuff related to the record store 'House Of Sounds' in s-Hertogenbosch.  |  Pic 2: Record store 'Boembox' in Rotterdam.  |  Pic 3: A small pic from record store 'Plaatboef' in The Hague.  |  Pic 4: MediaMarkt, back in the days.  |  Pic 5: Een Twee CD and Aad's Platenzaak, both in Tilburg.  |  Pic 6: CdTeek in Eindhoven.  |  Pic 7: An article about record store 'Tommy' in Tilburg closing down. It wasn't a personal favorite, but the story is typical of the era from around 2007 onwards.  |  Pic 8: The 'Snuffelmarkt', a monthly flea market at the Brabanthallen in ’s-Hertogenbosch.  |  Pic 9: The Dutch online marketplace 'Marktplaats.nl', which was focussing on second hand stuff.

A couple of stores to buy new CDs, back in the days:

⟶  Pic 1: Bullit in Eindhoven.  |  Pic 2: Rare Records in Eindhoven, focussing on dance music.

I didn’t play a lot of full (artist) albums back then, but Pete Philly & Perquisite's Mindstate left a real mark on me with its laid-back feel. I remember buying it at Mediamarkt, which was a major spot for CDs at the time.

⟶  Pic: An article about the 'Mindstate' album by Pete Philly & Perquisite.