Archive for: radio
Snowtape is a new Max OS X application that lets you easily find, listen to and record from online radio stations.
It’s like the combination radio/tape deck of the future! If you were fortunate enough to come of age in the age of the mp3, then just think of Snowtape as the awesome “record” button that iTunes doesn’t have.
Snowtape doesn’t just play and record, though. It also lets you name, tag and add album art to your recorded audio files, so they’ll fit right in with iTunes or your iPod. It has other perks, too, like the ability to schedule a recording using iCal, in case you’re worried about missing a favorite radio show. Snowtape makes discovering new favorites easier, too, by building in a directory of stations, and allowing users to add their own stations to the list.
If you need more proof that Snowtape is a really well-thought-out app, check out the integrated editing feature that lets you trim the beginning and end of your recordings. There’s even a companion iPhone app!
Eight months after releasing their iPhone / iPod Touch App, Sirius XM has finally released their Blackberry app.
The app gives BlackBerry users access to 120 channels of music (most of it commercial free!) news, talk and sports. Some will be disappointed that Howard Stern isn’t included but Stern says it’s because of “contractual reasons” and that he hopes to be added to the app at a later date.
The app is free but the service is not. You’ll need to be Sirius/XM subscriber ($12.95 a month) and add the $3 a month online streaming service. I’ve been a subscriber for 7 years now and it’s been worth every penny. The app is compatible with the Storm/Storm 2, Curve (8500, 8900), Bold (9000, 9700), and Tour (9600).
At the past CES Slacker has mentioned that they were developing a webOS and had even shown demos to a few people. Well, in a little bit of good news for those sporting a webOS handset—that app is now available.
The app, which became available earlier today is currently listed as a beta, and is at version 0.9.4. Users can find and download the Slacker app in the official App Catalog.
As always, there are two listening options available, either listen for free and listen to an ad every so often, or upgrade to the Slacker Plus account which costs $3.99 a month (billed annually).
While terrestial radio has suffered severe losses in listenership, satellite radio and applications like Pandora and Slacker have been on the rise. The transition was bound to happen as listeners sought after a la carte style music that played exactly what they wanted. The ability to make your own stations is the next step in this hierarchy of listener ownership of the digital airwaves.
So where does terrestial radio stand these days? Radio stations still maintain an online presence, now offering their streaming content direct from the website. So while advertisers begin to shift with the transition, radio struggles to stay relevant these days as the primary source of information, entertainment and our favorite music.
It was years ago that I was introduced to a little application called Earthtuner. I think it was around 1997 when I came across this application that allowed me to find radio stations from around the world. I remember this clearly because I loved listening to stations directly streamed over the computer from other countries. In the days before iTunes, music apps, and stations with stream content there was Earthtuner, my virtual connector to anything I wanted from around the world.
More recently there is a similar application called Antenna that runs on the Adobe Air platform and offers up similar services to Earthtuner. The application allows users to search a database or interactive map of thousands of stations. User will be able to search by country, genre, or by clicking on any area on the map. Leave ratings for other users as you browse the most popular stations that others have recommended for you.
Do apps like this make terrestial radio interesting again?
Antenna allows you to stream stations from around the world.
Radio Tuna is a new real-time search engine for online radio stations. Currently Radio Tuna searches through 20,000 online radio stations and can search by artist or genre.
The Radio Tuna interface seems to be very slick. The sites search capabilities are a little limited at times, but I love the fact that whenever you perform a search the page doesnt reload, its all done within the one window.
It would be nice to see Amazon or iTunes download option integrated into the site, because this would allow the user to listen to a song and then download at the same time. Additionally, this would give the site another revenue stream. I could see Radio Tuna becoming a great directory of online radio stations, however im not entirely too sure about the name, plus this service would need to be a small part of a much larger company to make it viable.
However, if your at work and your network has blocked you out of most sites, then take a look at Radio Tuna to see if you can still get your music fix!
It has been reported that Radio One has signed a deal with AllHipHop.com to sell advertising on their site for the next five years. The agreement provides Interactive One, Radio One’s digital division and exclusive agreement to sell all of AllHipHop’s ad inventory. Advertisers who already run ads on AllHipHop will have more access to the Radio One system and also their advertising opportunities. Currently AllHipHop has over five million monthly users in which will lead to a good return for Radio One who are trying to broaden their reach in the African-American hip hop audience. Last month it bought social network operator Community Connect and launched NewsOne.com, an African-American news site.
There has been a lot in the last few days about the announcement by Last.fm about there new business model. Their business model has moved from 30 second clips of songs to full length streams. This however has a restriction of only 3 streams per song per artist. This is a major negative point with the new business model, because once you really get into a song I know I tend to play mine 10 times a day. All these announcements came on the back end of Last.fm signing content agreements will all four major labels.
Artists will be monetized by these streams through the advertising revenue made by the site. I know for a long time Imeem has been attempting to do exactly the same business model and they have had a great deal of success with this. Imeem now has all four major labels signed up and they are making a great deal of money off of the advertising model. Last.fm has also announced that their new revenue model is not exclusive to only the major labels, and anyone on Last.fm can now opt-in and stream their full music for very low royalties.
This all being said I would have really like to see Last.fm slightly change their model. I dont see why there is a limit on the amount of streams per song, unless they have an additional model that allows members to sign up at an additional fee to be able to play the song unlimited times. It is also good to see that Last.fm has partnered with 7digital to offer the music downloads, however a long term solution for Last.fm must be to kill this partnership and enter the download market independently, this might even be a threat to iTunes!
I am still not convinved by Last.fm. The have a great piece of technology in the scrobbler, but I dont think their professionalism on that software has carried over to the site, monetization options and also profile and social network strategy.
I have been waiting for the last five months for Pandora to re-open their international service, but still nothing has happened. The site is still down for non-US members and the company is still saying the royalties required to pay labels and artists are still too high to provide an ad-supported web radio service. So what am i going to listen to during the day? At the moment it is my ipod and I really need some variety.
