Just posted on our home page:
My own 2/5 of a nickel: I haven't listened to it myself since February (dropped connections and poor sound quality do not go far with me), so my own gut reaction is that I just let it go. Advertising intermixed with the broadcasts is still on the rise, and Live365 has slowly been chipping away at my 'broadcaster' features each time I turn around. And in another effort to raise money, listeners can now pay $4.95 to turn off all the intrusive ads. (The only was I ever listened was by saving the station as a bookmark in Winamp, and playing it w/o all of Live365's added crap.)
My other option awhile ago was to run a Shoutcast server from my web server here at home, but it would be a "pirate" station, since Shoutcast is just a technology (meaning it does not use, or imply, any licensing).
Any comments?
-= N =-
It had to happen. Everything else on the internet that is free (or should we say, was free) is slowly going away. As a charter broadcaster of Live365, we've been streaming A&M music for many months now, free to both us and our listeners. Due to heavyhanded legislation from Washington, bought and paid for by lobbyist organizations like the RIAA and other music industry concerns, Live365 is now imposing a $5/month fee on all broadcasts. If broadcasters don't sign up, these broadcasts will go off the air as of August 1, 2002. To its credit, Live365 is still trying to oppose the fee...but in the meantime, they're now asking all broadcasters to cough up the fees. What's really frustrating (the "untold story", so to speak) is that, as broadcasters, we see nothing in writing that guarantees that the artists and composers will ever see a penny of this money! One just gets the feeling that corrupt lobbyist organizations like the RIAA will use it to line their pockets and continue their "the consumer is the enemy" crusade against all of us...and why should we fund something that goes against our listening experience?
My own 2/5 of a nickel: I haven't listened to it myself since February (dropped connections and poor sound quality do not go far with me), so my own gut reaction is that I just let it go. Advertising intermixed with the broadcasts is still on the rise, and Live365 has slowly been chipping away at my 'broadcaster' features each time I turn around. And in another effort to raise money, listeners can now pay $4.95 to turn off all the intrusive ads. (The only was I ever listened was by saving the station as a bookmark in Winamp, and playing it w/o all of Live365's added crap.)
My other option awhile ago was to run a Shoutcast server from my web server here at home, but it would be a "pirate" station, since Shoutcast is just a technology (meaning it does not use, or imply, any licensing).
Any comments?
-= N =-