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).
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Construction of New VoyagerRadio Website Has BegunI finally began building the new VoyagerRadio website. You can view the work in progress in its "staging area" at VoyagerRadio.com/Experiment. Any and all feedback is welcome.
The new site will have less links in the navigation menu, combining some of the existing links while introducing another, Artists. This new link will showcase the artists played on VoyagerRadio, and probably list some of their recording labels. There will be a few other bells and whistles, but the new site may turn out to be short-lived since I want to add a myriad of other features that I haven't yet learned how to implement. (Such as a PHP discussion forum.) Knowing how things often turn out, though, it's likely the new site will be around for awhile, so I want to make sure it's, at the very least, as usable as the current site. With your help, it could turn out much better. So send me email or Instant Message me to let me know your impressions of the new site design. I welcome your comments, criticisms and suggestions! Arbitron Stops Measuring Internet RadioGreat. Just fantastic (and I mean that sarcastically). Arbitron, the wonderfully thorough radio measuring service, has decided to end to its weekly and monthly measurement of Internet radio listening. By providing these ratings, Arbitron was helping establish a way for advertisers to recognize the growing number of Internet radio listeners, in turn providing a means of income for fledgling Internet radio broadcasters. Although they say they plan to offer a revised service, "better aligned with the needs of the market", I fear this will create a setback for any potential revenue models for us webcasters.
Does anyone know if there is another Internet radio ratings service out there? Grey Tuesday Protest Aims to Get Music HeardToday is Grey Tuesday. Have you downloaded your copy of Danger Mouse's Grey Album yet? Bloggers and other website owners are offering MP3 downloads of the album in a coordinated online act of civil disobedience, a protest "signaling a refusal to let major label lawyers control what musicians can create and what the public can hear".
I'm listening to Grey Album now as I'm downloading it. I'm not sure how much I like it--I probably won't know for certain until after I've heard it again, since that's how it usually happens for me--but it chills me to think that creative projects like this can be stifled by copyright issues, or more accurately, the actions of a record company in enforcing copyright issues. (In this case, EMI, which, in claiming copyright ownership of the Beatles samples used on the album, requested that record stores destroy their copies of the album.) On the other hand, because of the Internet, the project isn't completely stifled--in fact, it's probable that more people are aware of this album as a result of EMI's actions. Well, it's not the first time EMI lost record sales due to a disconnect with potential customers. Anyone remember a little band called the Sex Pistols? You know, the little punk band that EMI fired? EMI must have been banging their heads into the walls for a few years after that mistake. Then again, maybe I'm wrong. What do you think? Is EMI making a bad call here, or have they made a worthy business move by protecting their copyrights? Internet Radio Now Available In Your Palm"He's got the whole world in His hands..." This old spiritual hymn comes to mind now that there's an audio player available for mobile Internet radio listeners. If you have a Palm Powered device, you can now listening to streaming audio via a nifty software application, Pocket Tunes. The application provides playback of MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV files, and live Internet radio-streamed audio, and is available in Basic and Deluxe flavors--although I believe the streaming functionality is only available in the Deluxe version--and there's a trial available for both versions. There's even an iTunes 4 skin available if you want the app to look and function like your favorite Apple audio player.
Sounds great. If anyone gets their hands (or Palms) on one of these, please let me know how well it works. I'd love to see a good streaming audio application for mobile devices; I believe the future of Internet radio will be determined, in part, by the introduction of mobile (or wireless) streaming audio devices. Internet Radio Players for Live365 StationsYesterday I announced the release of Radio365, a wonderful Internet radio player that is mp3PRO-capable (which means CD-quality sound), displays a 10-track playlist, and has instant access to iTunes Music Store downloads. The player also displays CD artwork and has a quick link to a CD's listing on Amazon.com, providing two ways of buying music you're listening to on an Internet radio station: download and physical delivery. The player was developed for Live365 listeners and is only available to Mac OS X users.
Today I'll tell you about the Windows side of this equation. The basic player Live365 offers for Windows users is Player365. It has some of the same features of Radio365, such as a playlist display and links to buy the music you're hearing. But unlike Radio365, it doesn't play mp3PRO streams. Another player is available to play mp3PRO streams--to download it you'll need to upgrade to a Preferred Membership with Live365; a free trial is currently available. As you upgrade to a Preferred Membership you'll be presented with the download link for your mp3PRO audio player. Both Mac and Windows players can be downloaded free, and both require a Preferred Membership to hear the CD-quality sound of mp3PRO Internet radio streams on Live365.com. Both of these apps also offer a free trial period, so try them out to hear what your ears have been missing. And I mean it--please try them out. You may be convinced to upgrade to an ad-free Preferred Membership permanently, and by doing so you'll also be helping to keep Internet radio stations like my own transmitting. By the way, if you sign up for a Preferred Membership, please use this link so that I'll get credit for it! Radio365 for Mac Now AvailableGood news for Macintosh Internet radio listeners! Live365 has released an OS X version of its proprietary Internet radio application, Radio365. Now you, too, can listen to my Internet radio station, as well as thousands of others, in streaming CD-quality audio!
Download Radio365 today (it's free!) and you'll have immediate access to features such as:
Recording Your Favorite Internet Radio BroadcastAlthough I'm waiting to see how well Griffin Technology's radioSHARK works once it arrives (reportedly in April), there are already several software applications that can do half of what the radioSHARK will be able to do: mainly, record Internet radio programming. Like the infamous TiVo, the radioSHARK will be able to digitally record your favorite programming; in its case, AM, FM, and Internet radio rather than television.
But if you're willing to forgo terrestial (AM and FM) radio in favor of Internet radio, you can already use either Replay Radio for the PC or Audio Hijack for the Mac. These products allow you to record any audio on your computer so that you won't won't be tied down to your computer to listen--you can simply transfer the digital recordings to your iPod or burn them to CDs to carry with you wherever you may travel. The advantages to this are obvious, and currently make digital recording applications and devices more interesting than TiVo--by providing mobility. As far as I know, with a TiVo you're still stuck at home; you'll have to sit on your couch to watch your recordings. With digitally recorded radio you'll be able to waltz around your neighborhood or hike in the mountains while enjoying your media on your iPod or Walkman. I'm excited about these applications, though I haven't used them much yet. About a year ago I regularly used an earlier version of Audio Hijack, when it was still a plugin for the now deceased Macamp. I used it to "hijack" a stream for rebroadcast on my Internet radio station. Now before you begin jumping to conclusions, let me inform you that I had the best of intentions in mind: I was using the technology to provide a lower-bitrate simulcast of a friend's high-bitrate webcast in order to accomodate dialup Internet radio listeners. The technology worked brilliantly, and I understand the newer stand-alone version version of Audio Hijack works just as well. Yet I didn't find myself using the technology to preserve archives of my favorite webcasts so that I could listen to them later. Perhaps it was because I've always preferred to listen to content live, as it's happening--I've never had much use for the recording feature of my VCR. Still, I once made ample use of the recording feature of long-lost my cassette recorder, and once in awhile I get the urge to take a recording of my favorite Internet radio show on the road. If an archive of the show isn't already available, one of these applications will most certainly come in handy. Janet Jackson's Boob Sells Out All Venues in World TourOkay, my headline lied, but if I was a producer with an entrepreneurial bent, I could almost certainly make a quick buck by starting a lousy garage band today and naming it Janet Jackson's Boob. It would be short-lived, but it would be sure to succeed--for a few days or so, anyway. Then it would be forgotten, of course, and left to traverse the domains of other forgotten gimmick-bands. (Of course, I could be wrong--look at how successful Shirley Temple's Pussy got.) 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!
