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I used to play Desert Combat a lot a while back. I started playing with a clan (to get the whole 'teamplay' experience) who were involved in gaming league. During these games, there would be two spectators present, one on either team. These two specs would do a play by play of the game, both in contact with each other at the same time, and they would shoutcast these matches to the masses. These broadcasts also had a slight time delay to avoid cheating by either team.

One of these shoutcast groups is Team Sports Network you can listen to live games, or download past matches.

Check out shoutcast's industrial genre. There are some really great industrial stations out there, which is nice because there's nothing like it on the (real) airwaves around where I live.

I'll just take a moment to plug ampedOut, my favorite station. Tune in Friday nights for "Dopamine," which is their live show.

In response to the Radio selections, you can also play any Shoutcast streams as well. Also, in response to the AAC comment, I would prefer the higher quality AAC to MP3, or worse, WMA, any day of the week. Just because the iPod is the only player now to listen to it, how many do you think will be available in a year?

Not so. Sure, most of the p2p services don't allow you to "browse" music, but that's not a problem. Combined with sites such as AllMusic, I've been off on my own musical tangent since the very first days of Napster. I still have files missing the last 100 bytes, for those that remember that early bug!! ;-)

Another great source of inspiration and recommendation are the many thousands of streaming stations on Shoutcast. Simply listen to a station on a genre you like, and have a pen or an eMule search handy. Most of the time, if I hear a song I like, I've researched the band, seen listings/reviews of all their albums, and started downloading some, before the streaming track has finished!

And there is no way that traditional music sales models can compete with that. Game over.

My thoughts on eMusics demise and pending downfall; damn. It was a great idea, it was and still is the future model of distribution. Unless you can beat your competitors model (p2p), traditional companies (RIAA) don't stand a chance. However, as I've been saying for years, they know they can't stop it. Simply slowing it down will earn them billions.

Amazingly enough, this allows you to rip streaming audio onto your hard drive. I just tune in to shoutcast and streamripper rips each song using the meta data in the stream.

Separates each song and writes id3 information for each track. It may not be cd quality, but works great for any portable media player.

Internet radio has done more to broaden my musical horizons than anything. I can listen to any genre of music at any time, and have discovered an immeasurable number of new bands and even some new styles I didn't even know I liked. I don't mind being spoonfed music as long as it doesn't suck.

I'm going to continue buying music from independent/small label musicians (and continue writing my own).

I'm going to continue listening/donating to commercial free internet radio stations.

And I'll read too.

Home networks - remember fighting over who gets to dial-in

Internet radio (shoutcast)

I have to say, for many Windoze users, having the bandwith to download patches is a must (Win2k SP4 up to 129 mb = a few years over 56k).

Tho I have to admit, if everyone used dial-up, the /. effect would be somewhat lessened :)

I know, I know, my comment's quite disorganized a nd i'm not quite sure what my point is :P .

Audio and video surfing is already here. It's called Winamp 2.91. Yeah it's got shoutcast built in and now a new thing called Internet TV which is basically Nullsoft Public Acces TV. It's starting to catch on too, there are a number of shows ranging from someone getting drive thru at taco bell to shows like Cartoon Network's Auqa Team Hunger Force. So who needs cable when you have a broadband connection.

... is employees who know where the really good stuff is.

From my experience, the clerks in music stores - with a few notable exceptions - mostly listen to rap, metal, or old rock. What I want is to walk into a store, talk to someone, and have them guide me to where the good (!!!), relatively unknown music is. I love going to my friends with a new CD and saying, "Check this out, I bet you've never heard of them, but they're an excellent band!"

Until that happens, I'll listen to shoutcast and download the good stuff. I'll do the work myself.

Hmm, If I download mp3's for free, I'm destroying the music industry. But If I download child pornography pictures for free, I'm supporting the child pornography industry.

So how is this any different than
Shoutcast ? [AOL/TW]
they have had this concept for years on PC/NIX platforms and Apple have only just found out ?

shows your playlists ? like shoutcast
streams mp3 style music ? like shoutcast
can have private streams for friends ? like shoutcast
can set limits on number of streams ? like shoutcast
can be recorded to disk if the user is determined to ? like shoutcast

move along please nothing to see here, it is 2003 not 1998

Easy. Check here.

For example, check out the list available from Shoutcast; also check out SomaFM.

I frequently hear new music from these stations, which are never played on mainstream radio, and most of the CD's I've bought recently can be attributed to internet radio.

The PlayStation 2 has a SPDIF digital optical out that could connect to a very nice home theatre system.

Use Samba to mount your MP3s from your PC.
Using XMMS, you could play all of your MP3s over your home stereo system in full digital glory.
The same goes for most Internet Radio stations.

-- manu

--
Simon

Shoutcast

Basically, an extremely large list of internet radio stations, most of which are non-profit and done by music lovers, not executives. Simply select a genre and then a station. Listen.

If you hear something you like, the artist and track name are shown in the media player. Go to Allmusic or a similar music database, and you usually get a complete listing of their work.

Download said band's material from p2p and serve. Remember, if you like their stuff, don't forget to buy merchandise and go to concerts.

If you insist on hearing new stuff on MTV and radio, you'll only get the "commercially viable" stuff. That is, Britany Spears.

Shoutcast is a great source of streaming music.

My personal favorite radio station is Proton Radio. Extremly reliable, and great stuff.

But shoutcast's website has a search engine to classify the channels by bitrate or genre or whatever ... might be something worth checking out. Plus you pick the software you want to use, and platform.

And if you get bored a shoutcast server is always fun to play with, possibly set your own up.

like this. it's a really cool engine somebody built that takes information on what you like and suggests other bands. definitely click the "related bands" link under the suggested band it pops out. i realize that this is probably dooming somebody's server to a firey death, but maybe go back in a week or so. ;-) take what it suggests and pop over to shoutcast to look for stations streaming those (sorts of) bands. if you like what you hear, go to your local independent CD shop and buy it, making sure to tell them "yeah, I heard this music online from an mp3 station and now i want to buy it from you". most of the record store owners I know think that mp3s are satan incarnate, helping them see the benefits of fluid, low/no-barrier music preview and discovery would be a good thing long term...

Have you ever heard Epiphany Radio? It's a shoutcast station I used to listen to, until I ran into a 12 user limit imposed because the broadcasters couldn't afford the bandwidth to support many users. Thanks to peer to peer technology (the Gnutella protocol), I can once again listen to this station, via their peercast stream.

Great for troubleshooting - as soon as you fix the broken connection the stream comes back up.

I rarely do gnutella anymore. I just pick a radio station from shoutcast and go with it. I've got a 128k stream running for about 6-10 hours each weekday. Capping will kill that. It'll also kill any broadband based service -- like those legit movie and music sites popping up.

And people will get extremely pissed off by paying to download all those x10 popup graphics. Not that I see those anymore. (Thanks, Mozilla.)

How much time did you spend searching and researching online for the last car you bought?

I think it will dampen the online economy.

"The underlying claim from your argument is that P2P solves a technological problem - namely, bandwidth limitation."

"You are trying to justify a technology by mating it to a perceived, likely non-existent problem or future benefit of indeterminate nature."

I do this with a combination of streamripper and a crontab. (This only works if you have an always-on connection like a cable modem, of course)

• KCRW Santa Monica
• KPBX Spokane
• KUOW Seattle
• WYPR Baltimore

I just set a crontab to run streamripper and record from one of those stations, at the time and for the duration of the program I want. Then tell iTunes to dump the file to the iPod, and poof - several hours of interesting listening, ready and waiting!

All of the stations have program schedules available, or you can just guess for the live programs.

When I have some time, I'll be gussying this up in a Cocoa interface for any fellow Mac OS X users.

Nullsoft maker of the popular Winamp software is also maker of the Shoutcast streaming media server. It works with all copies of Winamp, iTunes, and a handfull of other players. It is efficient, configurable, and availible for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris. Besides that, you reach that huge market share which refuses to use the bloatware that is RealPlayer. It works by running on a machine connected to the internet, and then you can connect to it with the ShoutCast Source plugin availible for Winamp availible here. You can do this eather from a dedicated computer, or the same one running the server. You choose wether you want to stream whatever Winamp is playing, or if you have another input you can choose to use the soundcard. How I am streaming MY online station is a program called QuicPix made by the same people who do the wonderful iMediaTouch automation system going out the soundcard, into a mixer with a CD player and microphone, and then going back into the same computer where winamp sends it to Shoutcast ALSO running on the same computer.

Nullsoft maker of the popular Winamp software is also maker of the Shoutcast streaming media server. It works with all copies of Winamp, iTunes, and a handfull of other players. It is efficient, configurable, and availible for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris. Besides that, you reach that huge market share which refuses to use the bloatware that is RealPlayer. It works by running on a machine connected to the internet, and then you can connect to it with the ShoutCast Source plugin availible for Winamp availible here. You can do this eather from a dedicated computer, or the same one running the server. You choose wether you want to stream whatever Winamp is playing, or if you have another input you can choose to use the soundcard. How I am streaming MY online station is a program called QuicPix made by the same people who do the wonderful iMediaTouch automation system going out the soundcard, into a mixer with a CD player and microphone, and then going back into the same computer where winamp sends it to Shoutcast ALSO running on the same computer.

I prefer the more ambient beats, but I bet nobody listens to that either. (especially after the RIAA killed off somaFM :)

--

I'm one of them. And you know what: I don't care. Here's why:

Music is our birthright. It has been around for far longer than any of us have. Every culture has developed their own music, often very unique and distinctive. It is a human heritage we should be proud of, music can inspire and influence many emotions and express our dreams and fears. It joins people together in a common bond that we all enjoy.

In the past 100 years, technology has been developed to deliver pre-recorded music. From these inventions an entire industry has grown. The term "record label" comes from the fact that artists would go to the labels (who had the required equipment) to get their music cut to vinyl. The label would then reproduce the record and give the artist a good cut of the profits. The "label" attached indicated who had produced the record.

Fast forward to the 60s. Pre-recorded music is getting very popular, e.g. The Beatles. Live musical performances are becoming rarer as alternatives to live music are becoming cheaper and more accepted into society.

As the labels gain more and more power over the next 30 years, they start to realise that they have a large influence in what people listen to. Shops begin to be forced to promote certain albums with threats like "sure, you can sell this, but you must also sell this other product in a prominent place in your store". Eventually radio is given the same blow, the stations begin to lose control of what they can play. Currently, Clear Channel control/own an unbelievable chunk of the radio market. You can't play their music unless you stick to their rules. You can't have your music played on their stations unless you paid them. When was the last time you heard a discussion or even the mention of p2p technology on commercial radio?

This control of the market leads to the "industry" we have today. There are only 7 companies that control almost all of the media you can access. Everything is controlled and managed. Have you ever listened to the radio to hear a song from an artist that you haven't heard from in a while, only to find that they have new material that gets announced a few days/weeks later? That's them at work, playing the older stuff to get you ready for the marketing.

Over the past 40 years, the profits to be made are staggering. CDs are incredibly cheap to manufacture, yet they are able to price-fix the market due to their control. This control of the industry keeps the small acts and labels (indies) down. Even the current "indies" in the "charts" are owned by the large companies and them using that name is an affront to what it means and stands for. The true indies are still there, but only a select few people ever hear about them, mostly through word of mouth. When was the last time you went to a record store and listened to music from an act you haven't heard of before?

In the past few years, things have only gotten worse. The Billboard charts is a catalogue of music for you to buy, nothing more. The acts that consistently make it are the same old drivel; bubble-gum pop for the masses. Yet, the makeup of these charts comes from sales and radio play. Limiting the data sources to only stick to major retailers that are already under control controls the "sales". The radio play is also very controlled as we have already seen. What sort of a system is that to run a popularity chart? A fixed and corrupt one.

What really gets to me the most however, is the fact that the artists get a ridiculously small cut of these revenues. They get tied into disgraceful contracts that control everything they do for years, and when it's over the industry, not the artists, own the rights to their work. Artists only really get rich through touring, that's where their profit lies. Many acts have had major hits/albums and ended up very poor or even owing the record labels money.

Over the past few years, technology has advanced to the point that anyone can easily record, promote and distribute music. This scares the music industry more than the loss of sales through piracy. Internet radio has turned people onto acts that they would have never heard of had they limited themselves to traditional media. My own personal tastes in music have evolved completely away from the commercial music out there. My hatred of the industry came long after I "abandoned" it, my tastes merely evolved based on what I have access to. They have now lost a customer. Me.

Every time you download a song instead of buying it, you are contributing to the downfall of this bastardisation of an industry. It interests me that they once compared p2p to "downloading communism". Cold War politics and the lack of understanding of the difference between Soviet totalitarism and true communism aside, the only thing that sounds like the negative impression they are trying to convey on p2p is ironically their own control of the industry. Downloading music is a statement against it. If the legal/moral issues bother you, don't download from the major labels. Get yourself onto Shoutcast Internet Radio and start listening to the genres that interest you. Grab a pen while you are at it and note down the names of the acts you like. Download some of their songs to see if you like them. If you do, support them by buying albums, merchandise and live performances. Especially the live performances.

But don't buy Brittany because it's "cool". It's not, your just following the rest of the sheep and "cool" is never defined by following other people. Even the "alternative" scenes, like the gothic Marylyn Manson culture is merely an extension of this market, but the kids into it believe they are expressing their individualism by dressing like each other and listening to the same music as each other!

A few companies should not be allowed to dominate the development of one of the most creative fruits of human culture. They should not be allowed to bribe government (what else are "campaign contributions"?) into making laws that protect their backward and repressive business models. Civil disobedience is a valid way to protest laws you don't agree with, as long you don't cause harm to others. It is technically impossible to stop p2p without complete centralised control and censorship of every single person in the worlds internet access. That is never going to happen. Anyone that doesn't get that belongs in the past like the dinosaurs they are. Where would we be today if the railroads had halted the development of the aeroplane because it harms their business model? Don't let the music industry do this to something as important as music. Please. Think of the children.

In case you didn't know, the site also streams the movie soundtrack around the clock. Nice. Click Here to listen.

• Digital Gunfire
  
• DI: Eurodance
  
• DI: Trance
  
• DI: Hard Trance
  
• Wolf FM
  
• Knightcast
  
• ET: Rock
  
• ET: Fusion
  
• RCN Classic Rock
  
• RS: Alternative
  
• RS: 80s
  
• RS: Pop
  
• RS: Classic
  
• RS: Hard Rock
  
• Detroit Industrial

Almost anyone can sit at home, find songs they didn't create themselves, and edit them togother into a mix of hours of dance music. All clubs *really* need is a cd player

Another important item (posted to NWR on Mon, 13 Sep 1998 18:33:08 -0700 (PDT) ) was a list of Top 100 DJs In The World, adjusted for hype and cobbled together in response to the ever inane, almost exclusively talent-free and over-inflated annual Mixmag Top 100 DJs list, which exalts people like Oakenfold, Sasha, Digweed, etc. IMHO, such charlatans no longer do anything to further turntable art and culture (if they ever did at all, that is), other than to dilute its hard-earned significance. Admittedly, this list contains a slight north-western North America slant. Nonetheless, it also contains all the necessary world-renowned acts of any actual worth.

After this, I strongly recommend EPITONIC.COM, where you will spend days, if not months edumacatin' yo-self. SHOUTCAST.COM will also provide you with more music than you can shake a stick at in terms of streams. To download, nothing beats SOULSEEK.ORG in terms of the users' geekily-high encoding rates and unbelievably pedantic album/track-naming schemes.

While it's all downloading, check out the grand-daddy of them all: HYPERREAL.ORG.

One word of warning, however: electronic music is virtually boundless and can take most of your lifetime to discover. I started listening some 13 years ago, and to this day I simply cannot keep up with all of it. Good luck!

For starters, you are unfortunatly a little late when it comes to the internet radio stations that so often have good electronic music. The RIAA is in the middle of killing the free internet radio stations. Some of my favorite internet streams used to be over at SomaFM where among other music I was introduced to music from Tranquility Bass, Future Sounds of London, Aphex Twins and Orbital. I would prolly not have CD's by all these bands if it wasn't for da internet stream.
Not all streams have disappeared, Digitally Imported Radio is one of the finest that is still there. Offering Trance, hard-trance, Eurodance and hard-house. For more streams check out shoutcast a collection of online music streams.

To be introduced to Electronic music you should try to find which genres within electronic you like best. Some genres are (from mellow to really fast):
- Ambient
- Trance
- Down Tempo
- Trip Hop
- Acid Jazz
- Eurodance
- House
- Garage
Several of these genres are not per-se electronic but will contain lots of modern sound influences.

For the real electronic junkies there is also what is known as scene music. This will not appeal to most people out there, but please try it and check out the rest of the scene.

Why is it that whenever someone decides to come off like a dumbass on here, at least 2-5 people must follow suit? Besides, the question was what sources could one use (perferably Online), to wet someone's tastebuds to a genre they might not have really ever listened to.

I guess unfortunately, I am a fan of Oakenfold's, Moby's, Aphex Twin, Orbital, And the like. Mostly mainstream due to the fact that they were easily accessable to hear (concerts, commericals, etc.). And I have always found it disturbing, if not just flat out childish, when people come off with dumbass ideas of who and how you should listen to music. And while I'm on that, the term 'Sellout' is used by cronie lil' dorks that have nothing better to do than to waste their energy meddling in someone else's drama. Is it Jealousy? (shrug) I just don't get why people feel that when a band get's noticed and famous why they have the urges to start labeling a band they supposedly once loved, 'Sellouts'. Cause they appear on MTV? Hell, that's an accomplishment anymore, to have your video/music played inbetween one of their TV Shows.

Anyways, this is all stuff for a different topic or even a different forum. But to share a couple of links in support of the real topic at hand, I stumbled upon a primer over at http://phobos.plato.nl/e-primer/ which attempts to explain the different sub-genres of the catagorie. And if your friend(s) aren't one(s) to read, you can always send them over to WinAmp radio, here. And if that doesn't do it for you, go google.

Defining a 'best' in electronic music is like defining a 'best' in rock....Electronic music has the most sub-genres of any music type I know of. Nevertheless, there are the major categories, but keep in mind that often the most talented artists do not confine their music to one type alone.

The most well known word for electronic music is probably techno, however techno != electronic, rather it is a type of electronic popular earlier in the 90s, while electronic music was growing more mainstream. You'll most often hear (for subgenres):

Techno | Trance | Drum n' Bass | Breakbeat | House | Jungle | Industrial | Ambient | Chill

often used with the modifiers 'hard', 'acid', or 'progressive' as in hard house, or progressive trance. In a lot of ways, these are self-explanatory...hard means that the music is rougher, and is usually faster paced; drum n bass consists of drum beats and heavy basslines.

Everyone here will try to tell you the best artist to listen to....but I can tell you for sure that I know no two people with the same taste in electronic music. You really have to discover for yourself the kind that interests you most. I suggest listening to some generic online radio if you want to know the mainstream electronica, most of which is a carryover from europe's tech-pop eurotrash trance. That's where you'll find the names most people will refer to you.

However, the best way to discover electronic music is to support your local scene. I would list true local websites, but being low-budget community supported as they are, I wouldn't subject them to the bandwidth of the slightest slashdotting. You can, however, find your nearest real record store (good electronic comes out on analog lps for real djs) and they will be happy to direct you to flyers and websites informing you of local happenings. Go out and hear some of your best local djs, and truly experience the music for yourself (many djs of different styles will play in the same night) - that will be the fastest path to knowing your interests. Also, once you find a dj you like, find out his/her influences, and that will point you to some excellent (lesser-known?) artists.

Some of the best cuts are the hardest to find, but there's a ton of great music out there. I wish you (all) luck, and PLUR!!

• Project Pitchfork
• VNV Nation
• Covenant
• Decoded Feedback

• Project Pitchfork "I Live Your Dream"
• Decoded Feedback "Bio Vital"
• VNV Nation "Darkangel"
• Covenant "Like Tears In Rain"
• Apoptygma Berzerk "Love Never Dies (Part One)"
• Front Line Assembly "Mindphaser"

For finding new artists, I have found the various radio streams on Shoutcast to be great. For the more popular varieties of electronic music check out Digitally Imported, which is almost always on the top of the front page. There are a variety of streams for every variety of electronic music, including of course industrial.

Second, many of the artists mentioned also release DJ mixes of other people's music. Indeed several of these artists only release DJ mixes and write just the occasional track. Read the tracklistings closely and also note who may have remixed the tracks you like. Some of these artists may be hard to find (DJs like to pick that great rare track only they have), so try online auction sites. Many of these artists would love to sell their own releases rather than just rely on the royalties from others' DJ mixes they're featured on!

Third, figure out which subgenres you like. Maybe you love Techno (yes this is a subgenre, not an all-encompassing term) but hate Speed Garage. Maybe Hard House is great but Acid House isn't. Look for the words that keep popping up on your favorite mixes. There are tons of electronic music history sites on the internet that can help you understand what sets these very different styles apart.

Finally, buy something random that you're not sure if you will like that is in the cheapo used section of the store. I've found some duds for sure, but I've also found wonderful albums for 3 bucks that either didn't do that great in the States or just never found its audience. Online radio sites are great too, especially since they show artist and track information. Go to Shoutcast and listen to many different electronic stations.

Digitally Imported, I think, is a good place to start learning about electronica in general. It's internet radio, so it does kind of require a broadband connection, however it lets you listen to various artists without spending time randomly downloading/pirating MP3s, and it gives you (what I consider to be) a relatively wide spectrum. Also, electronica stations are in abundance on Shoutcast, check them out for links and info.

Another personal favorite is Massinova, which is a pretty small webcast station. Try them out, I'm almost always listening if I'm in front of my PCs.

AOL already has the broadcasting infrastructure and the reciever infrastructure. Shoutcast uses streaming mp3s which do stream very well considering its not the best compression out there anymore. Winamp is probably still one of the best mp3 players out there.

The problem of course, if they want to kill real audio, is that AOL does NOT have the infrastructure to do video. Others might say the problem is that all this is bottled up in the mess which is currently time-warner. The company which bought up all the tools to destroy microsoft then failed to develop them.

But all this is a moot point because a sizable percentage of people haven't used any real audio product or service in ages because microsoft's media player is adaquate, free, and doesn't require installtion (since it's bundled with the os) or navigating past the "pay for something you already have!" screens to get to the "free" player.

Real audio is a dying format. All AOL has to do is either buy the company (doubtful given the current economic climate at time warner) or simply throw their support to quicktime or windows media. Eventually real audio will go the way of so many other dot.coms that tried to play in microsoft's sandbox.

Study the chart here.

Under, "All other Internet transmissions ("Internet-only" transmissions) (whether transmitted by a broadcaster or a webcaster)" it clearly says $.0007.

You are also acting under the unproven, but hopefully true, assumption that non-RIAA music is not charged royalties.

Yes, there are stations which have over 1000 listeners.

Even if your numbers were correct, multiply $3 per hour * 730 hours per month and you get $2190/month in RIAA fees. With the 8.8% ephemeral performance surcharge, it increases to $2382.72. Don't forget ASCAP/BMI/SECAC fees, and actually buying the music you're paying the RIAA for the privilege of promoting. Oh yeah, web hosting and bandwidth costs too. A cheap bandwidth provider will run you $4000/month for 1000 listeners @ 128k/sec. Welcome to the world of internet radio!

If that statement is true, there is no power left in the hands of the consumer. I would like to think that my choice to boycott commercial radio has some effect on station ratings. But I doubt it does. As long as media conglomerates like Clear Channel can show advertisers that they're programming for a certain demographic, the advertisers will be happy to pay for air time on a station that monopolizes 50% of commercial radio in a given city. There is no way to measure the audience with pinpoint accuracy, and I question the accuracy of current methods.

Radio stations seem to have lost sight of the fact they have influence over modern music. By deriving radio programming from Billboard charts, the mega-stars' album sales inflate, closing the door on any rising stars. Not only does this mean that the consumer has no power over corporate radio, but we've lost power in the fight against the RIAA by allowing the centralization of media/power for non-democratic use.

Listen to internet radio while you still can, and support the phenomenal efforts of the independent stations, too.

TECHNO is not a genre, it's a subgenre within electronic music as a whole. Unfortunately, most people consider any electronic music "techno". The use of "techno" is usually accompanied with the famous line of "How can you listen to this TECHNO stuff."

The fact that you've "been into the whole techno" thing demonstrates the usual laypersons' ineptitude in describing electronica.

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music should straighten you out a little. While I don't like Ishkur's attitude that he can classify music better than anyone else, it does serve as a goode exposure to what's available in the electronic genre. Also, the music samples are the BOMB.

Techno is one of the major classes of electronic music along with breakbeat, house, jungle, and drum and bass.

As far as ambient, or illbient for that matter, being considered the same as downtempo and lowrecase, that's crazy.

I'd have to disagree with you that a lot of Moby's early works are really "lowercase." Most of his works are ambient and house(rave):

Moby - Ambient
Moby - Early Underground
Moby - Collected B-Sides

being three examples.

Autechre, IMHO, should be considered Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) and it's not very "lowercase". I thought my head was going to explode listening to it and processing all of the sounds.

On a final note, I'd use Shoutcast radio as a source of Internet Radio within the electronic genre. Highly Recommended:

Digitally Imported

Shoutcast has offered the possibility of starting your own station for quite a while already, it's free too.

And that thing is: Groove Salad.

Capped bandwidth reduces the cost of the service to ordinary users by not making the rest of us pay for what is probably P2P piracy.

Which could possibly be the big reason behind this.

It's also going to kill net radio services like shoutcast.

Another thought: It's going to make people (well, me at least) even more resentful of advertising.

I have to pay for (1) simple access, then I have to pay for (2) metered usage, then I have to be bombarded with (3) advertisements to see anything of value -- which I am paying to (4) download, and I have to (5) register with the content provider to get the content and advertisements.

I've got an internal network for testing and development. But I've been spoiled by the net. Maybe I'll just switch back dial up, and use lynx to read slashdot, google groups, search.cpan.org and java.sun.com. And pine (though Evolution is pretty nice) to read email. Maybe I'll resubscribe to a print newspaper and a weekly news magazine for news again.

I'll miss having so much technical information immediately at my disposal, but I've paid for all these technical reference books on my bookshelf. And many of them come with a digital version of themselves. Maybe it's time to use them as a first resource instead of google groups.

Yet another thought: I've been lazy wasting all this "precious" bandwidth by continually accessing content that doesn't change regularly. I'll start using local copies.

I'll have to look inito creating a caching server.

I'll certainly get some junkbuster software running now.

If they want us to *really* pay attention to bandwidth, it will kill a lot of the internet. Animation Express will die. That stuff is interesting, but I'm not going to pay to see it. Even stuff like Yahoo! Games (which I haven't played in while) won't last.

Think about it. A lot of the Internet is entertainment. What sorts of entertainment are people willing to *pay* for? Movies, Music, Pr0n... what else? This is all high-bandwidth, and outside of mp3, the online quality sucks.

Dancing Hamsters? 3 minutes Flash cartoons? Are you kidding?

Quickly changing information is useful to have. Weather, stocks, news. Which can all be distilled down to text and tranferred efficiently.

Technical documation, I can have a local copy of.

This is why I cancelled cable. If they started making you pay for each tv show you watched, how much of it is really worth watching? Not a whole hell of a lot, that's for sure.

So, for me, the internet boils down to two things: one-to-one communication (email and instant messaging) and e-commerce. I shop online to save trips to the store.

Here's a good question. If you had to pay for metered access, can you name any reason at that you ever, ever go to these web sites:

Burger King

7-Eleven

insert usless site here.

Lastly, one of the beautiful things about the Net was the smaller niche and fringe communities that conform without being bound by geographical boundaries. With metered access, those communities will have one more barrier. If you have to pay for acesss, people will more likely stick with the "tried and true" sites, rather that sifting through the mountains of crap to find the gems. This will undoubtedly result result in more concentration of users, content and money around the Big 10 Media Corporations. Which will incredibly boring.

Maybe this internet thing was a fad after all.

Don't mind me. I'm just bitter.

Duh!

Of course it will survive, maybe not in your godawful country but with shoutcast being free and winamp only a 2mb download away...unless "they" manage to legislate both broadcasting AND listening in every country on the face of the earth listening to radio over the internet is here to stay.

USA - home of the free indeed :)

Shoutcast is one of the reasons I stumped up for my ADSL connection. I like being able to search by genre (Downtempo is really cool to have on at home) and because my MP3 player displays song titles and artists (I use Winamp) I can buy or Morpheus the tracks that I want to keep. I can see a time coming when I'd be prepared to pay for the same system running into my car, especially if it meant that I could search for maps and information over the same connection (Surely a digital connection to the car is screaming out for this).

CNN LIVE audio feed

A sound feed for all those people who dont have access to CNN

Shoutcast Cluster

CNN Live Feed audio reflector

A sound feed for all those people who dont have access to CNN

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