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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!
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