Back in October 2019 I published a response to the breathless news reported across the tech, music and popular press that “vinyl outsold CDs” for the very first time. While true in terms of raw dollars, as I demonstrated, it wasn’t true in terms of volume. More than twice the number of CD albums were sold than vinyl […]
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 […]
Radio Free America is an online hub for community, college and public radio streams, serving up two weeks of archived programming, on demand. Founded by CEO Kenneth Pushkin in 2013, the platform now hosts more than 125 noncommercial stations free of charge. Pushkin and RFA’s station relations manager Jeff Abrams join to explain more about […]
After covering the comeback of the live streaming radio platform Live365 two episodes ago, listeners asked us to check out MixCloud, which offers free streaming of music radio shows, DJ sets, mixtapes and podcasts for anyone, including radio stations and independent producers. So this week we talk with Xanthe Fuller, Head of Community for Mixcloud. […]
There has been quite a bit of action on the digital and internet radio front this past week, including more terrestrial radio in smartphones, the sign-off of a streaming radio service, and indications that free on-demand streaming music may have reached its peak, ready for an inevitable decline. T-Mobile to Activate FM in Smartphones FM […]
I received some constructive feedback on my post arguing that internet radio should retire MP3 streaming. Twitter user Mark Mollineaux pointed out that browser-compatibility is a consideration: @RadioSurvivor MP3 has by far the best cross-browser compatibility. I'd prefer an open standard like ogg, but many browser's won't play it– — Mark Mollineaux (@bufordsharkley) May 11, […]
I have been listening to computer-based digital music for nearly two decades now. This includes streaming internet radio as well as music files like MP3s. It’s amazing to recall my first efforts to play then-new MP2 and MP3 format files I downloaded, very slowly, over my 56kbps dial-up connection, around 1996 or ’97. In fact, […]
Some of today’s most successful non-commercial radio stations owe much of their success to making good use of internet platforms to reach new audiences and provide ever-improving service to their own listeners. Younger listeners tend not to differentiate between a terrestrial broadcast signal and an online one, while plugged-in listeners of all ages increasingly want […]
The news last night that AOL is shutting down its Nullsoft division, which makes the venerable Winamp music app, hit me like a ton of bricks. Now, I haven’t used Winamp regularly in at least 7 years, so the loss of this software won’t have an immediate effect on my daily life. But what’s not […]
This is an update of a piece that originally appeared in the October 7 edition of our free weekly email newsletter, the Radio Survivor Bulletin. Sign up now to get this digest of important and insightful links and commentary about the future of radio. I’ve talked with a number of people, companies and groups making many different kinds […]
