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DIGITAL RADIO GUIDE INTERNET RADIO
88
The main assets of Internet Radio are its global reach, interactivity and personalisation.
While today the users need a computer device and a broadband connection to access
Internet radio stations, in future they will be able to enjoy it on a number of portable
wireless devices. Internet radio will become ubiquitous.
Internet Radio has proved to be most successful if associated to conventional radio
broadcasting over terrestrial or satellite networks. Nevertheless, many standalone
Internet Radio stations have reached a break even point to become commercially
successful.
Internet Radio redefines radio content. Not only does it introduce new music and speech
formats, but also can embellish them with text, graphics and video. It allows users to
listen to a wide selection of audio items when and where it is convenient. These on-
demand radio services may dramatically affect the pattern of listening and listening habits.
Internet Radio has highlighted many legal and regulatory issues that need to be
addressed. These issues relate to copyright, licensing, content regulation, merchandising,
advertising and security. However, these topics exceed the scope of this paper.
6.12 Some Important Radio Portals
Beethoven
www.beethoven.com
For classical music lovers. Features include live requests, free e-mail accounts, chat
rooms, contests, classical music news and special offers for enthusiasts. Users can tune
in to either the free low-bandwidth stream at 28 kbps using Windows Media Player or the
$5.95 per month 96 kbps stream with Real One Player. It also provides links to online
libraries of classical music and various opera, ballet, and art sites. The navigational bar is
not uniform throughout the site so it is difficult to get to certain areas.
Launch: Music on Yahoo
launch.yahoo.com
As well as listening to Internet Radio, users can watch music videos, shop for ringtones,
search for song lyrics, play games and customize a station to play favourite artists.
Alongside the US version, there are editions for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK
and the Republic of Ireland. A "Turn Off Explicit Lyrics" option allows parents to control
what their children are playing. For $36 a year, users can upgrade to the commercial
version with twice as many stations. The sound quality on the free player is excellent,
although users will get commercials.
Live 365
www.live365.com
Live 365 broadcasts from over 100 countries, in 22 genres, and boasts more than 600
million unique listeners since its launch in July 1999. Users can add artists to a favourites
list, rate songs and stations and see which tracks have recently played, although some
play lists do not load onto the player. Tracks do not contain explicit lyrics. The VIP All