PROVIDING THE PLAYLISTSFLB

TUNE IN

What: Valslist.com, run by Boardman native Val (Gruger) Haller.

Details: An ever-changing collection of the best new music, handpicked for adults who don’t have the time to keep up.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

A Valley native is using her website to help busy adults keep up with current music.

Val Haller, a 1975 graduate of Boardman High School (she was known as Val Gruger back then), is the founder and driving force behind Valslist.com. She handpicks the best new rock and pop music for older working folks who just don’t have the time to keep up. Her site is linked to iTunes, so visitors can immediately buy the songs they hear.

Haller, 55, launched the specialty site five years ago. Valslist.com has grown dramatically, turning Haller into a music business insider.

The site’s circle of attention keeps getting wider; it is the subject of a feature story in the current edition of Oprah magazine.

Haller lives in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Ill., with her husband, Mark. She moved to the Chicago area in 1979 after graduating from Miami University of Ohio, but her parents still live in Canfield. She worked in the insurance business after college before halting her career to raise her four sons, who are now in their 20s.

Haller is not a musician, but her keen interest in music goes back to her childhood. She became the go-to girl when her friends needed a playlist for parties, a task she happily continued through her adult life.

In a phone interview from her Winnetka home, she talked about how valslist.com got started. “At age 50, I started to see a big problem,” she said. “People my age had lost track of new music. When iTunes opened, people my age were busy with kids and career and didn’t learn how to use it, and they became more disconnected than ever.”

Her friends had always enlisted her to create playlists for their parties, and she began to think about making her playlist public.

“I started to feel strongly about it,” she said. “The demographic of baby boomers needed help.”

Because Haller had been lending out her playlist — she had taken to calling it Val’s list — to friends, she already had a product and target audience.

But she wrestled with how to get it before the public.

The solution came when one of her sons suggested becoming an iTunes affiliate. Haller’s website links to the online sales giant, and she collects a percentage from every sale.

Valslist.com, she said, has evolved into a brand name that’s getting a lot of attention. Influential music blogger Bob Lefsetz wrote about the site shortly after it launched, likening Haller to an old-fashioned DJ who sorts through tons of music and selects only the best. “After his article, I got bombarded by managers and bands, saying, ‘Please put me on your website,’” she said.

Another email came from none other than David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who told Haller he loves her site.

Haller, who sees herself as a concierge of music, said the time was right for her website. “The digital age allows every artist to put their stuff out there, but there’s too much and you need someone to filter it,” she said. The baby-boom generation is a lucrative market, she said, because it grew up paying for music and has no problem continuing to do so.

Unlike sites such as pandora.com, which use computer algorithms to steer listeners to new bands based on their current favorites, Haller’s site uses the human touch. She listens to music all day with a sharp ear for what stands out from the pack.

This week, her playist includes songs by the likes of Zach Heckendorf, Chris Smither, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Shawn Colvin, Gotye and Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Haller works out of her home — it allows her to juggle family and career — with the help of a handful of unpaid interns, some of whom are college students.

She also puts her expertise to work by writing a column for a few music publications, as well as a blog on her own site.

Although Valslist.com targets busy adults, they are not the only ones who use it. Haller said she was surprised to learn that many younger people — teens and early 20s — also are checking it out.

“My sons tease me, because they say it’s awkward when your mom knows about a band before you do,” she said with a laugh.