Welcome to 'Transmitting to Earth'. I'm Charssun and I'll be your host. This blog and podcast is a byproduct of VoyagerRadio.com and is intended to provide the most timely information about this Internet radio station. It is also intended to be a fun and accessible electronic journal with commentary focusing on Internet radio, podcasting and webcasting issues and technologies, music, and some of my other interests. I also offer personal perspective about being an Internet radio broadcaster (and podcaster).
My Feed:
This is the RSS (and podcast) feed for this blog (and its podcasts);please copy the link and paste it to your newsreader and/or podcatcher.
P2P Internet RadioAnyone ever try P2P Internet radio? A new service called Mercora promises to allow you to "play your digital music, and webcast this music to others on the network legally". How do you do this legally? Well, I'm glad you asked. Apparently, the developers have obtained a license which conforms to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, "pertaining to the digital performance rights of sound recordings and the associated reporting and royalty payments to SoundExchange®". So you'll be webcasting without having to worry about paying a cent to the RIAA.
I'm in favor of P2P networks, or at least the existence and concept of P2P networks, particularly in the distribution of content you simply can't buy or find anywhere else, but I'm not so sure about webcasting via these networks. As I mentioned in this blog once before, the sound quality of MP3s distributed via P2P is often iffy and the process of finding quality files is time-consuming. P2P is good for that bootleg stuff you can find anywhere else: live recordings, home recordings, album/cassette/8-track-to-MP3-conversions-when-the-CD-version-or-digital-download-doesn't-exist-yet. But Internet radio? Is that really necessary? Do we need another low-quality and unreliable way of accessing our music? Besides my apprehension over the sound quality of a P2P webcast, I get the feeling there's a screamingly large loophole being exploited here or something. I don't profess to know all that much about copyright law; you can ask Mr. Lessig about that stuff. I began delving into the matter a couple of years ago during the great Internet radio debate, but once a resolution was determined, more or less, I stopped reporting on Internet radio copyright issues. It's an exhausting field, and someone can spend a lifetime working out its intracacies. I'd prefer to spend my time reading good literature or scouring the universe for the best downtempo music, and doing so legally, as long as the means of doing so are legally available and not prohibitively expensive. In my experience, the music I wish to consume and distribute is available legally and, though not always cheap, it's within my means - and believe me, my means are not extravagant. I admit, however, that my opinion is probably biased, since I receive alot of free music from recording labels in the hopes that I will webcast their music on the best Internet radio station in the world. I'd love to hear from anyone who's actually used a P2P webcasting service. Please share your experiences by using my feedback system, currently available by clicking the comments link below.
Comments:
Post a Comment
Besides this blog, a narrative blog called something that happened, and various other projects, I also moderate a discussion forum: Please consider subscribing to engage in a dialogue about all things having to do with Internet radio! |
Send Us Your Music
Artists! Want to be heard on this station? Email your MP3 audio, one file at a time, to our Program Director or mail your CD promo(s) to the following address:
Harold J. JohnsonVoyagerRadio
547 Gayley Avenue #1
Los Angeles, CA 90024 Make certain to let use know whether we may use the audio in our podcast, too!
Download the Podcast
We are officially podcasters now that we have revitalized and reintroduced our downtempo show Tempo of the Down, this time around as a podcast. Now showcasing independent downtempo we've been granted permission to offer for download, Tempo of the Down is our entry into the future of Internet radio.
Head over to our new Podcast area to download the latest session!
