Internet radio experienced a sea change in the middle of the last decade that washed away many independent broadcasters, and changed the atmosphere for others. While the medium continues to sail on, it is also more fractured – and more diverse – than ten years ago. That’s why this evolution is one of the decade’s […]
Archive | Streaming Radio
The Shortwave Radio of the Internet: Low Bitrate Streaming
While updating the 2004 podcast entries for my old radio show “mediageek” I was reminded that I used to post the episodes in both a 64kbps mono “broadcast quality” MP3 and a 16kbps. The reason why I posted such a low bitrate file, containing relatively low fidelity, was to make the show accessible to listeners […]
Is YouTube the Home of the New Radio Pirates?
“Will performance royalties create a new class of radio pirate?” That was the question I posed in early 2016 after the music royalty rates for small internet radio webcasters skyrocketed with the expiration of the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. In essence I wondered if some webcasters would just choose to keep on broadcasting online […]
Audio Treasures and Unexpected Radio on TuneIn
While exploring the music discovery and listening service TuneIn this week, I was pleased to find many of the radio stations that I was hoping to encounter, including college radio, new low power FM (LPFM) stations, high school radio, public radio, and commercial stations. In addition to traditional radio, TuneIn also has podcasts, audio books, […]
Live365 to Return with Service for ‘Microcasters’
Just after the new year, the news hit that steaming radio service Live365 is preparing to come back from dead. The company is under completely new ownership. In fact, the new boss is a young entrepreneur and recent University of Pittsburgh graduate who already runs another streaming media company by himself, along with the help […]
Apple Ends Free iTunes Radio – Not All Curation Is Created Equal
On Friday Apple sent an email to iTunes Radio listeners announcing that the free ad-supported version of the service will shut down January 29. Thereafter iTunes Radio will only be available to Apple Music subscribers, without any advertising. Beats 1 Radio will remain Apple’s only non-subscription music service. This announcement follows news that Apple shut […]
Why American Independent Internet Radio May Go Extinct in 2016
The new performance royalty rates that internet radio will pay artists and record labels were released on December 16 and many small and mid-sized internet-only broadcasters are now fearing they’ll be put out of business. While there was a modest increase on the fee paid for each song played, the bigger concern is what’s missing. […]
Digital Watch: Watch the Final Pitches in WNYC’s Podcast Accelerator Competition
Podcasters wanting an inside look into how public radio and podcast experts evaluate new show ideas have an opportunity to peek under the hood of WNYC’s Podcast Accelerator Pitch Session. On Friday at 3:30 PM PDT the Online News Association will live stream the five Podcast Accelerator finalists giving their last pitches to the judges: […]
Digital Watch: If Streaming Music Were Cheaper, but Limited, Would Listeners Buy?
Terrestrial and satellite radio still lead music discovery in the U.S. according to Nielsen’s new 2015 Music 360 report, released this week. Although 75% of the population now reports listening to music online, 61% of Americans say they found out about new music from radio. Surprisingly, this represents a 7% increase over 2014. Despite the […]
Digital Watch: Reviewing the New TuneIn Premium
TuneIn Radio has been kind of a deceptively quiet player in the online radio wars that have heated to a boiling since Apple introduced Beats 1 Radio at the end of June. Yet the service claims a user base of 60 million monthly active users who clearly find value in the service’s single-platform access to […]