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Internet Radio

by Frank Powers

 

Well, if you have been following the articles to date, and have ripped all your CD's and recorded all your vinyl records and analog tapes, you might be in the mood for some new music. If you have a broadband Internet connection your in for a real treat. Dial-up connections will still bring you a wide variety of music and news, but at a reduced quality. Welcome to the new media – Internet Radio!

There are several sites that offer directories of Internet Radio stations. Here are a few:

My favorite is Live 365, because it offers over 45,000 stations to choose from. Amateur music lovers from all over the globe run the majority of the stations and the diversity and quality of the music offered is outstanding. Before continuing, I should mention that I am one of those amateur broadcasters. Frank's Americana has been broadcasting on Live 365 since May of 2001.

Listening to Internet Radio

I'm going to use Live 365 has a model to show you how you can listen to a wide variety of quality music even if you are on a dial-up connection. But you should also be aware that Internet radio can bring you news, sports, weather, and more. I use AudioStation and its free service "Turtle Radio" to tune into my favorite NPR stations from around the world. Real Audio and Windows Media player also have pre-set radio where you can tune into music or news and their services are currently free. MusicMatch Jukebox offers a paid subscription to its radio service called, Radio MX and Real Audio has a subscription service that allows you access to major league baseball, golf, and BBC, NBC, etc news.

Tuning in to Live 365

Get yourself connected to the web, and set your browser to www.live365.com

You'll see this screen:

BTW -- you will find a pop-up underneath. There is a way to make pop-ups and audio ads go away. It's called "Preferred Membership" and costs $4.95 per month. I'll talk about it more later, but for now, be aware that the Internet is not the free ride that it used to be. Everyone's got to eat!
If this is your first time you'll see the "Listening Wizard" screens appear, and Live 365 will check your audio configuration. Figure 2 shows what that looks like:


When the wizard completes you'll see a screen as in figure 3:

If you have installed AudioStation or Winamp choose MP3 player, but if you're not sure what you have, go ahead and pick the Live365 Player. Confirm the connection speed the wizard set for you and you're almost ready to listen to Internet radio.

Joining Live 365

Beginning sometime after the New Year, Live 365 will require that you log in order to listen to free Internet radio. While I regret that this additional hurdle to listen has been instituted, I can attest to the fact that Live 365 has never shared my email address, and for both financial and copyright legalities, needs to institute this policy. It's painless, safe, and affords you many customization options. Just click on the "Sign Up" link located on the top right of the home screen shown above. Remember to carefully pick a username, you CANNOT ever change this without creating a new account. Once you've joined up go to the "My Settings" link located to the right o the "Sign Up" link and set your preferences for Ad Content, vote for your "Favorite" station, arrange the sort order of searches, and more. You can also change your Internet connection speed and player preferences, as well as rerun the Listening Wizard.

Searching for Stations

Now that you have set up your player, it's time to use the search window to find the music that you'd like to hear. We'll use my station Frank's Americana, to show you how easy it is. In the Search window located in the middle of the radio picture type: Frank's Americana

You'll go right to my station listing (figure 5).

You could have typed "Rock", "Swing", "Frank Sinatra", etc into the search window and come up with a large assortment of stations to pick from. For now, click on the blue title Frank's Americana, and you'll come to my station page.

Now if you click on the yellow speaker icon, you'll start up the Player window, and the MP3 player you have installed will begin to buffer and play the station. Make sure your speakers are turned on and your volume is up.

Note the Green "Add this station as a preset" button and the "Rate this station" window both located at the bottom of the player window. If you like what you hear, add it to your preset list, and assign the station a ration between one and five stars.

Some other things to note on the Station Page are:

  • Broadcaster Profile -- find out about the broadcaster, their station, musical tastes, and favorite broadcasters.
  • Broadcast Schedule -- a new feature allows broadcasters to schedule segments. Click on the tab to see what show may be coming up.

Also note that on the top of every page there are additional tabs labeled:

  • Home -- go back to the Live365 home Page
  • Listen -- see a detailed listing of the first 1,000 stations sorted in the order you choose when you set up your listener preferences.
  • Broadcast -- this tab will give you information on how to become a Personal Broadcaster. Once you sign up as a broadcaster, it gives you control over your station settings.
  • Community -- join in forum discussions or enter the Live 365 Chat room to meet other music lovers and broadcasters. You'll find me in the Chat room every Thursday evening during my live broadcast, and in the Folk/Blues/Country forum where I am the moderator.
  • Shop -- become a Preferred Member and enjoy AD-FREE listening. Become a Broadcaster or shop for apparel and Internet radio toys and gadgets.
  • Help -- everything you need to know about listening and/or broadcasting on Live 365.
    Now that you have the idea, go back to the home page and type your favorite genre into the search window. You'll find hundreds if not thousands of stations that play the music you enjoy. Remember if you are using a dial-up, only pick stations with a 33kbps data rate or below. Broadband users can get 56kbps/22khz stereo stations that sound as good as a clean FM signal.

Here are a few of my favorite Live365 broadcasters and their genres:

  • Station6070S...60s&70s - Classic Rock- 60s and 70s, Featuring, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd,The Doors, The Moody Blues, CSNY, Clapton.....[Editor's pick]
  • 80's Retro Radio - Only the BIGGEST 80's Hits - songs you know, by artists you love! PLUS: No Repeat Workday -- it's ALL 80s, ALL THE TIME!
  • Bluegrasscountry.org -- Professional -- Professional station from American University broadcasting bluegrass 24/7
  • radiowayne -- A great collection of folk, country and bluegrass from my fellow broadcaster Wayne Green out of Texas.
  • SWING2JAZZ! -- Big Band, Jazz, and pop from my favorite Canadian -- Big Bad Brenda.
  • ( ( Fine Classics ) ) -- Classical music at its best
  • Remember The Future -- a fellow Danbury, Ct, broadcaster.

Remember, there are over 45,000 stations listed on Live 365 -- everything from Arabic folk to Zoot Suit jazz.

Preferred Membership

Live 365 has struggled to keep costs down and provide free internet radio to listeners for several years now, but with the recent CARP ruling, they are required to make a huge payment to the RIAA through SoundExchange. The payment is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is a royalty that will go to the record companies. Without going into the particulars, traditional radio is NOT required to make this additional royalty payment, but the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 requires it of any digitally distributed radio station. To find out more go to:

In order to pay for this, they have had to increase the number and scope of advertisements on both their website and those imbedded in the audio streams played by Personal Broadcasters. You can help keep Internet radio alive and eliminate all pop-up and in-stream audio ads by becoming a Preferred Member. The cost is only $4.95 / month, and if you find you enjoy Internet radio on Live 365 I highly recommend you join the community of amateurs helping to support independent broadcasters and Live 365. In addition to eliminating advertisements, as a Preferred Listener, your vote for a Favorite Live 365 station contributes $.50 cents of your monthly fee to the station broadcaster of your choice. Currently Frank's Americana has two Preferred listeners who have picked my station as their favorite. That reduces my monthly cost of broadcasting by $1.00 / month. I have over 1,600 listeners who have chosen my station as a preset, and ten non-preferred listeners who have chosen Frank's Americana as a favorite. With just 30 additional Preferred Members choosing me as their Favorite, I can either reduce my cost of broadcasting to zero, or add over ten hours of additional on-line storage to increase the diversity of music playing on the station. So supporting your favorite broadcaster by becoming a Preferred Member can defray their cost and help them financially be able to improve their station. It's a good deal all around!!!

Personal Broadcasting

Do you have a large collection of music on your hard drive now? Have you always wanted to either share music or a point of view with the entire planet? If you have, consider becoming a Personal Broadcaster on Live 365. For $14.95 / month you can become a Premium Personal Broadcaster and have access to all the tools you need to broadcast your opinions or music to the world. And for ~ $50.00 / month you can store over 14 hours of 56kbps / 22kHz stereo music, available for you or anyone else on the planet with an internet connection to listen to. I started my station just to listen to the music I wanted to when I was at work. Quickly I discovered that it was even more fun to share that music and create a unique station that plays the sort of music I always wanted to hear on radio. Join the Radio Revolution on Live 365, and don't forget to tell them that Frank sent you when you sign up for Personal Broadcasting. The referral program is another way Live 365 gives its broadcasters a chance to defray their costs.

Be sure to attend the digital audio demo at January 7th General Meeting!

I'll be showing the recording techniques covered in the November DACS Newsletter at the January 7th DACS General Meeting.

Next Month

I'll wrap up this series by showing you how you can listen to your digital collection throughout your home and while on the go. See ya next month!


Frank Powers has extensive digital music experience, working for companies like Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc and Sam Ash Music, as well as composing his own material and running an Internet radio station. Frank is available for digital music consulting and can be reached by email at: frank@franksamericana.com. You can find out more by visiting his website at http://www.franksamericana.com. He also can be heard on the Internet at Frank's Americana(tm) Live365( Internet Radio station at http://www.live365.com/stations/fpowers

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