- Web music broadcasting is the best thing to happen to
radio since FM.
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- The concept has many names: Web radio, webcasting, streaming
jukeboxes, Internet broadcasts. But the idea is much the same. Music fans
"tune in" to various services through their Net-connected PC,
where they can hear music from a huge range of genres. And not just the
same 20 songs over and over again, like commercial radio. With Internet
radio, listeners can tap libraries of millions of songs that would never
be broadcast on the airwaves.
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- The best part about these services is that they don't
confine you to one genre. On broadcast radio, you tune in to a country
station on the radio dial for country tunes, and that's pretty much all
you'll get. But with some of the webcasting services, you can specify your
musical taste and favorite artists, and the software will automatically
mix up playlists for you. You could hear Ella Fitzgerald one minute, Primus
the next. Even the most eclectic college radio stations can't match that.
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- Web radio has been rapidly gaining popularity. The top
five Internet broadcasters increased their audience by 32 percent from
June 2003 to February 2004, according to Arbitron Internet Broadcast Ratings.
The top five are AOL's Radio@Network, Yahoo's Launchcast, Live365, Musicmatch
and Virgin Radio.
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- "Internet radio is becoming the radio at work because
you don't have interference or reception problems," said Laura Behrens,
a senior analyst with Gartner/G2. "You're sitting at your PC anyway."
Downloading music, in contrast, has dropped off during the day, she said.
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- The new medium still has hurdles to overcome, but analysts
predict music fans will eventually stream their music to a variety of wireless
devices, allowing them to take the music anywhere. Of course, the music
industry, with help from allies in Congress, is doing its damnedest to
shoot itself in the foot and kill the medium before it takes off. They're
extorting fees from webcasters for each song they play to each user. So
for now, most of the best services are offered by companies with vast financial
resources. And increasingly, the services are relying on premium features
for extra monthly fees, which may be off-putting to users who haven't tried
them.
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- Wired News looked at some of the popular choices for
free radio. Here's a rundown of how they compare:
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- Radio@Netscape: Formerly known as Spinner, this service
is now the free arm of AOL's Radio@Network. AOL also runs Radio@AOL and
Radio@AOL for broadband, which both require an AOL membership.
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- Radio@Netscape offers more than 175 free stations with
fixed genres. In addition to the standard pop, rock and jazz categories,
there's a great mix of less-common genres including Hawaiian, klezmer,
Bollywood, doo-wop, Motown and baroque. The single-minded fan can catch
channels devoted to Ray Charles, Prince or the Doors. The WB channel features
music from its various television shows.
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- To use the service you must download a program, which
has an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. It includes a list of all of the
stations in the player, making it a cinch to navigate to another genre.
That makes up for the absence of a song-skip feature. Also, those who appreciate
visuals will find no album cover art. A time-remaining feature counts down
each song.
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- But here's the sucky part: The party's over after two
hours each day. A couple of months ago, the company decided to limit each
user's time, presumably to cut streaming costs. Now, the only way to get
unlimited music streams is to become an AOL member, and who wants to do
that? The company also limits the number of preset (favorite) stations
that a listener can save to five instead of 15 previously.
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- Launchcast: Yahoo's Launchcast has a lot of nice basic
features that make it easy for a beginner. There's no need to download
a player -- it opens a new window from the browser. It has far fewer stations
(or channels that stick to one genre) than Radio@Netscape, however. The
40 or so free stations offer pop, hip-hop, alternative and country, to
name a few. For anything edgier, like electronica, you have to subscribe
to a premium service. Additionally, the sound is a bit tinny.
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- But Yahoo has its own charms. If listeners are registered
Yahoo members, they can skip songs (much like a skip track button on a
CD player). They can also rate tunes, artists and albums on a five-star
scale. By doing so, members can build a personalized station that serves
up songs based on the listeners' personal tastes. Members can also select
other Launchcast users to influence the music on their personal station.
This adds a nice element of serendipity, helping listeners discover new
songs or artists they may never have come across on broadcast radio. Each
Launchcast track includes album cover art and a countdown feature. And
if music isn't enough, the Launchcast site also offers music videos and
interviews. Another added bonus: Yahoo Messenger users can link to Launchcast
radio through the newest version of the IM client.
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- Live365: Downloading the Live365 player is quick and
easy, and the sound quality is excellent. While it doesn't look as slick
as some of the others, there's great variety here, thanks to programming
created by listeners broadcasting from more than 100 countries.
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- The channels span all sorts of genres, from bluegrass
to drum 'n' bass. On the Aperture station, we found a fabulous mix of Bjork's
"I Miss You." The Live365 charts track the top 30 songs, and
listeners can click the musicians' names on the list to get the stations
that play their songs. Music fans can also rate tunes and add stations
to their presets.
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- The downsides of this service are frequent pop-up ads
and annoying audio ads inserted too often between songs.
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- MusicMatch Radio: To get this service, you have to download
the MusicMatch music player software, a fine rival to applications like
Winamp. A free version of the program offers free streaming -- unlike competitors
like Napster and Rhapsody. Just keep in mind you have to keep a full-blown
application running in the background to use this service.
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- The stations are fairly basic, with a few nice options:
Listeners can skip songs and are alerted to the next artist in the queue.
And, like Launchcast, users can create their own station based on their
favorite artists. The more you use the service, the better it is at identifying
your tastes.
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- A music store is integrated into the player, making it
easy to purchase songs or albums you just heard. You also get an added
bonus if you decide to use MusicMatch to store and organize your MP3s --
it has some of the best rating and personalization features around. It's
just a shame you can't carry the power of that personalization to the online
radio features, which would make the whole package the ultimate jukebox.
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- Radio Free Virgin Lite: Here's a player that lives up
to its lite name. It has virtually no features. There's no need to download
anything -- the Web-based player launches at the click of a button on the
homepage. A listener can select from 30-odd channels -- some that are very
slow to load -- and that's it. While the player displays the song title,
artist and album cover, there's no countdown, skip button, song history
or customization options. While there is a volume adjustment on the player,
it didn't work during our test.
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- Perhaps the only thing going for this service is that
it's easy on the ads. There aren't any pop-ups, which is nice. And the
audio ads are few and far between, making it easy to listen to a number
of songs without interruption.
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- Winamp Radio: While better known as an MP3 player, Winamp
shouldn't be overlooked as an online radio service (in version 5.03c, click
the Internet Radio link in the Media Library). It features a diverse collection
of free music with superb sound quality.
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- Listeners can also access several of these stations through
the Shoutcast directory. Shoutcast is a Winamp-based streaming audio system.
It's also where aspiring DJs can spin their tunes for other listeners.
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- Scroll through the list of 500 streams and you can find
everything from Korean DJs broadcasting blues to Russian pop hits, and
find entire symphonies or video-game soundtracks. It's a nice alternative
to some of the Net broadcasters that make you join their premium services
to access the more obscure music.
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- You can also see cool information like bit rates and
the number of other listeners tuning in. Another cool feature: Right-click
on the station and you can bookmark it. No pop-up ads, either.
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- The drawbacks? Stations are occasionally cut out or are
inaccessible, because many of them are run by independent broadcasters.
And listeners don't receive much information on each song beyond artist
and title.
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- © Copyright 2004, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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