Slashdot Mirror
KPIG is Back - By Subscription Only
We've noted before that KPIG, one of the oldest internet broadcasters, was one of many to shut down their netcasts after the recent CARP ruling on copyright royalties. Well, they're back, but 128kbit mp3 streams have been replaced with with lower-quality Real streams, and free has been replaced with subscription-only. Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.
http://www.launch.com
They've got a shitload of stations, and on top of that, you can make their own.
Anyone remember the episode where they had a station mascot... the Carp (WKRP WCARP?) and the rival station was WPIG and they had a pig mascot?
Wierd!
Sig missing. Reward.
If the RIAA charges broadcasters more per listener than the advertisers will pay per listener (this is their end goal, afterall) then this is the only choice left for Internet radio. We can pay for a subscription that allows the small broadcasters to survive, or listen to free stations that play mostly terrible music nobody has ever heard of before. That's just how the world works now - write your senators and representative to change it, otherwise be prepared to pay up.
== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====
But not via RealAudio. Real sucks for so many reasons, allow me to list a few:
It likes to spy on users' listening habits
To prevent the spying, one has to tour through several configuration screen, and sub-screens, and buttons that open sub-sub-screens, making sure to select the right options, options which are described so ambiguously as to make me believe that all of this foofarah is designed to make it too onerous to prevent spying, while still claiming the option(s) are there.
Even after all this, even with all privacy options set correctly, you can't stop it from phoning hone once a month anyway.
It loads slowly.
Its interface is obstrusive, clunky and counter-intuitive, the better to provide ad space. (Compare this to winamp's ability to add skins and maximize or minimize different parts of the app.)
Its codecs appear to be inferior to free codecs, like Lame; its sound quality certainly is.
In short, RealAudio is just too slow, ugly, and nosey for me to run it. No mater how compelling the content.
The only thing in Real's favor is that it hired Andrei Alexandrescu, the C++ template guru.
Offer me KPIG at $5/mo via winamp, and I'm in.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Anyway, the issue is not that they're back so much as THIS IS WHAT THEY HAD TO DO to be back. Be suitably offended.
Lastly WE are not against anything. Remember that. You do not speak for me.
Lack of creativity is no excuse for not having a
Well, if you have access to the bandwidth, try streaming Triple J.
It's an Australian station, free-to-air (but internet streamed as well), and government funded, with a mandate to service the "youth" market. In it's FM, free-to-air form, it generally holds between 5% and 15% of market share in the 15-30 age bracket (depending on location).
Don't let the government funding discourage you - the only notable side effect is the fact that there are no ads (other than station ID's, and the occasional concert/competition promo). There is a reasonable current affairs show that runs 9am-12am (AEDT, GMT+10), and it is often critical of government policy.
It's very indy-centric (you won't _ever_ hear Brittney or N'Sync), so the playlist contains lots of Aussie independent bands with a history of putting on good gigs, and they only rarely step into the 80's, and then only for some Stranglers or Violent Femmes - don't expect to hear any Ultravox.
The DJ's are also very refreshing - very low key, laid back, not afraid to get down, dirty and swear, or get intellectual just for a change. None of that "All top 40 rock, all the time" overproduced, overhyped BS that seems to overflow on commercial stations.
Unfortunately, they only stream RealPlayer or Windows Media Player - but IHMO they're well worth the listen. Or, if you're in Australia, turn on the radio, and pick it up on the old transistor...
Russ %-)
... and never, ever play leapfrog with a unicorn.
If you really care about Internet radio and wish to see it remain free, check out the Internet Radio Fairness Act.
Quoted from Voice of Webcasters (VOW):
"Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA), George Nethercutt (R-WA) and Rick Boucher (D-VA) have stepped up to protect small businesses from being unfairly forced out of business by the performance copyright royalties recently affirmed by the Librarian of Congress. They have introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives (HR 5285) that would SAVE INTERNET RADIO (click here to view a copy of this important legislation). In protecting Internet radio, it will help ensure that artists will have a chance to receive fair compensation for their work and that webcasters will have a chance to survive and grow to provide artists with a place to promote their music."
VOW also has a page where you can send a fax to Congress about this legislation.
DISCLAIMER: I work for Real.
:)
That being said, here's my view from the trenches:
1) IMHO 64K Real8 sounds better than 128K MP3. 32K is actually pretty close. Just my opinion. (It's a hell of a lot better than WMA, but who reading this listens to anything via WMA?
2) One of the big reasons for stations to switch to a lower bitrate Real stream than MP3 is to save $$ on bandwidth, which is a killer. 64K MP3 sucks. 64K Real isn't bad at all, even if you prefer 128K MP3. Still isn't enough to offset the cost. Question for y'all: would you rather have an offer like $9.95 / mo for 128MP3 vs $5.95 / mo for 64 Real? 'cuz I'll give the feedback to the folks who can actually make it happen. The new Helix thing we're doing is actually having some internal effect, and we're trying to surface some other codecs to make the product better.
3) The sad little truth is that most of the folks out there making content don't have a real business model --- it costs them more to make content than people are willing to spend. The internet advertising model is a complete train wreck, and it's worse for radio. Royalty issue aside, local advertiser, who make up the bulk of a radio station's cash, don't like paying for extra exposure to random folks on the Internet, as they don't live locally and thus won't be buying locally.
So what Real is trying to do is package enough of it at a price point that people are willing to spend. That's it. This lets folks like KPIG can actually support themselves for their webcast, and folks like yourselves don't have to subscribe or pledge or whatever to a ton of random sites you listen to off and on.
-e
DISCLAIMER: I work for Real.
:)
;)
:), and (b) you get to bitch at us and we actually have to listen. It's been pretty helpful so far in getting a lot of stuff fixed.
:)
(figured two sep posts would be easier than one long-winded one
Re: adware: RealPlayer is, next to AOL, the most obnoxious ad experience I've ever seen. And I, and many of my colleagues, have told our execs that. At company meetings. And there's some acknowledgement of that; we reduced the streaming ad frequency down to once per 5 minutes last week. That being said, our ad sales group still managed to get tons of cash from Verizon and whomever sells FreeMem Pro (go figure). So we "monetize the free player experience."
My advice, in all seriousness: buy a subscription. By paying us for a service, this means (a) it's ad-free (and thus pretty useable
Re: spyware: it is, but we're crappy at spying. Legal is also pretty good about making sure we don't keep what we shouldn't. I know it's annoying, but as per above, creating a service that goes through Real (and thus potentially creates a log entry) is often the fastest way to get something to market. My advice: again, buy a subscription. Then ya get to bitch.
PS - you probably may also want to stop using Credit Cards... VISA / MC are much better spies than we are. They sell your purchases to whomever wants 'em. Which means when you want to launch a direct mail campaign to sell your cool subscription service and need names and addresses of people who have purchased similar content before, guess where you get the names and addresses from? Lovely, ain't it?
-e
I've just started messing around with Shoutcast streaming at home (into my Rio Receiver -- very nice!), and am amazed at the quality of independent stations out there. Like the bumper sticker on RadioParadise's monitor says, "Corporate Radio Sucks." I'd forgotten what it *could* be like.
That said, I'm honestly a little reluctant to make donations to any of these, for fear they'll just have to close up in October, anyway. But I've been wondering about two possible ways out, beyond requiring a subscription.
1) Can internet broadcasters join up with the Public Broadcasting System? They're already complying with the no-commercial ideals of PBS, and many are already accepting listener support via PayPal and such. What would it take to get some kind of formal support from PBS, in the form of grant dollars, legal support, technical advice, etc.? PBS has TV and Radio stations, maybe it's time they had an Internet arm, as well.
2) From what I understand, the most exorbitant fees are levied against internet-only broadcasters. Established radio stations (broadcasting via electromagnetic waves, insted of ethernet pulses) are exempt, or at least get to pay much lower fees. With the FCC trying to establish low-power radio stations (at one point, I'm not sure whether it's been quashed by ClearChannel or not), could stations like RadioParadise or KPIG simply apply for a low-power license, somewhere (not necessarily where their studio is), and use that as justification for lower rates?
Maybe they could combine the two?
Other ideas:
* Subsidies from big internet companies. Maybe AOL, Cox, AT&T, COVAD, etc. could pony up some money to help pay the fees, since, after all, the existence of quality streams will only get more people interested in broadband services.
* Tiered subscription models. Maybe lower rates for free streams, subsidized by people subscribing for higher bitrates? I figure if you're listening 4 hours a day, 15 songs per hour, it comes out to only $12 a month, or so.
Maybe we need plugins for WinAmp (or JReceiver or whatever) to give users a monthly report of how much they've listened, and to suggest a donation amount consistent with that usage. I know that if I can be shown that I've listened to $30 worth of internet radio in the last, say, 3 months, that I'd have no problem making a donation in that amount.
Are there any actual Internet streamers out there who can comment, on these questions or the overall story?