internet ham radio software
Ham Radio Software For Mac
Following the DMCA, it was not economically feasible for thousands of internet radio stations to pay blanket fees for use of mainstream music. Therefore, a new market for royalty free independent music is being created. It is still not clear if independent internet radio will rival the power of terrestrial radio and it is also very difficult to measure the success of independent artists who may not be registered through Soundscan.
So, what might be the driving force behind this new development? I believe the only way for independent internet radio to succeed is to attract people. Hopefully, as people become aware of a reasonable alternative, it then becomes a matter of taste.
I think the timing may be right as we have been bombarded by the same songs mixed with a few new songs (averaging about 17 in rotation) for years now. Traditional music industry resources have diminished and infrastructure has downsized considerably. The downsizing of the traditional music industry can no longer provide enough music to satisfy the listening public.
Actually, supply has exceeded demand in the area of music for many years, but the supply is no longer limited to terrestrial radio and the majors. Many believe independent music is taking a small portion of the market share, but again, it is very difficult to measure as many sales go unreported. I believe the only real indicator will be the number of artists who are able to sustain themselves in the very near future. If independent internet radio survives, then we should see growth that is borne out of a return on investment rather than a love for music. It will take a while for the results to come in, but I suspect the Internal Revenue Service will be monitoring this very closely if it starts to show signs of life.
Meanwhile, royalty free internet radio does seem to be growing if you look at Live 365 or Shoutcast. In addition, I am able to Google hundreds of standalone stations that are playing independent music (I suspect I could find more if I had the time to dig a little deeper into the search results).
I think one element that will make independent internet radio a viable option will be the growth of mobile devices such as Blackberrys, iPhones, iPods, and a whole new generation of cell phones designed to offer the same new features as their competitors. The other element that will provide a boost will be the standardization of input jacks allowing mobile devices to play on car stereo systems.
About the Author
The Amateur Amateur Fills-In
By Gary Hoffman, KB0H ARRL Contributing Editor My efforts to set up an APRS station (Automatic Packet Reporting System) had come to a standstill. I had installed a program called UI-View32 . It was pretty slick, with volumes of data in its Help file, but there were still plenty of parts of it that I didn’t understand. It was time to find an Elmer. I won’t go into the serendipitous events that …