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Name of Site: SHOUTcast
URL: http://www.shoutcast.com/
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: WinAmp
Review: Long before the humble MP3 became a household name, appearing
in phones, cars and Palm Pilots, WinAmp was a big favourite among those
in the know. Alongside their player, Nullsoft developed SHOUTcast, a streaming
enabler for the masses. Now thousands of people are broadcasting music,
talk and entertainment across the globe. Stations are rated by genre and
popularity and a well-laid-out listing allows simple perusal of station
stats and styles before clicking to tune in. Help on setting up your stream,
tech forums, and simple download info make it very easy and free to get
up and running. Obviously bandwidth and copyright are major issues, so
don't expect to be a superstar without burning a hole in your pocket or
getting sued, but you will certainly get a taste for radio stardom in
a few simple steps. Now all you need is some original content. - SS
Name of Site: Hard Radio
URL: http://www.hardradio.com/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Real Media, Windows Media
Review: Ok strap on your studded leather neck band, slip on the studded
leather gloves and pull on the studded leather undies (the right way round),
it's time to rock hard and loud all day every day at the home of streaming
(and screaming) hard rock. These dudes just can't get enough guitar solos
and histrionic vocals, so they keep it pumping for as long as their sponsors
will allow. The site navigates via a guitar amp knob set, and there is
quite a range of metal madness on offer. Black T-shirts (of course), discussion
boards, MP3 downloads, interviews, news, reviews and a fascinating history
of heavy metal. Crank it up and rock on to a continuous tribute to the
gods of rock. After a bit of a listen, you might even hear the occasional
tuneful melody drifting in amongst the demonic wall of noise. - SS
Name of Site: The Basement
URL: http://www.thebasement.com.au/
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media
Review: Telstra-backed broadband showcase venue, video and radio enterprise
features live DJs beaming from the studio intermingled with a broad range
of clips and tunes. Being a showcase for the big Telco, a lot of effort
has gone into showing off how wonderful broadband can be. Charts, chat,
competitions, shop, news, features, gigs, sponsors, fun and of course
the high quality subsidised streaming - something that most other stations
don't have the luxury of. It's all very flash and slick and the content
is varied enough to keep you dropping back in to see what's happening,
and maybe even rocking up to a gig or two if you are in Sydney town. -
SS
Name of Site: ABC Streaming Media
URL: http://abc.net.au/streaming/
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Real Media, Quick Time, Windows Media
Review: Thanks to our generous 8 cents a day sponsorship of this media
giant, a decent proportion of our donation has gone towards establishing
a might fine range of streaming stations. News Radio, Radio Australia,
Triple J, Asia Pacific, Broadband, and the newly launched "DiG",
a hip and funky foray into youth-oriented grooves and styles. There is
something for everybody and with such a range, you may well find yourself
crossing sovereign demographic borders and tuning into stuff you might
otherwise not have dreamed of digging. Yours truly is a rock freak from
way back and I find myself drifting to News Radio on a regular basis.
Someone call a shrink! The ABC has really established itself as a net
force to be reckoned with.
- SS
Name of Site: NetFM
URL: http://www.netfm.net/
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Windows Media
Review: I have to say this is the greatest Net radio station in the world,
especially between 4pm and 7pm weekdays. But then I am slightly biased.
OK I admit it - I am the 4-7 guy! NetFM is a fully fledged broadcast studio
with live DJs and a range of programs throughout the week, broadcasting
top 40, classic hits and an eclectic sprinkling of undiscovered talent
24/7. The site allows chat and request submissions which go direct to
the announcer, as well as info about the shows, and a bit of fun stuff
thrown in for good measure. One thing you will notice about NetFM is the
absolute optimal quality of the mere 20Kb stream. Low bandwidth that sounds
better than a lot of broadband stations, thanks to management's dedication
to being at the cutting edge of streaming technology. OK enough flagrant
self-promotion, go and have a listen for yourself. - SS
Name of Site: MSN Radio
URL: http://music.msn.com/
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: PC Windows Media
Review: With the limitless financial resources of Mr Gates himself, MSN
provides a seemingly modest but quite powerful little presence in the
Net radio market. A totally personalised multi-channel music server that
allows listeners to program music to accompany their lifestyle. Dining,
driving, lovemaking - it seems every human activity can have its own soundtrack.
Of course there is plenty of access to celebrity news, glossy photos and
shopping facilities for CDs and players. One thing they seem to have forgotten
in all this music mania is the human element of the good old radio DJ
for talk and talk back. If you want more humanity, just follow the link
to WindowsMedia.com and discover an endless list of stations to tune into
around the globe, using the customisable tuner. Net radio is exploding,
but it's still not making enough money to justify paying too many DJs,
even with Bill's buck banging capacity. - SS
Name of Site: Yahoo Launch
URL: http://launch.yahoo.com/
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Windows Media
Review: What doesn't Yahoo do? Now you can exclude Net radio from the
list as LAUNCHcast leaps into the streaming arena. Bright and bold colours
and links galore on the main page take you to a world of video and audio
streaming that only an outfit of Yahoo's magnitude could dream of maintaining.
Create you own station based on your tastes, which could range from 60's
psychedelia to Old Skool R'n'B jams to Elvis covers. If you prefer to
let the powers that be choose, just click away and let the music play.
The neat little LAUNCHcast player provides instant listener rating of
song, artist and album, an instant jump list to all the channels and the
ability to click and buy what you are listening to. Like many of these
mega stations, it still seems that live humans and conversation are still
low on the priority list. - SS
Name of Site: Live 365
URL: http://www.live365.com/index.live
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Player365
Review: Claiming to be the biggest Internet Radio network around, with
nearly 350 million sessions served since 1999, this is one hell of a broadcast
enabler. Yes, you too can set up your own station. They currently offer
50 genres, from Dub to spoken word, comedy to top 40, giving the audience
an almost endless choice of listening pleasures. Listeners can also select
amateur or pro, indie or official, and editors' picks, if you are not
sure which micro-niche you fit into. Gospel Quartets? 24/7 Mozart? Prank
phone calls? Meditation music? With so much choice and such varied standards,
one wonders if the good old days of just turning on your old fashioned
wireless and letting the professional program directors and advertisers
do the thinking for you wasn't such a bad thing after all. Reminds me
of an old Devo song... now that's a thought - channel Devo, weird 80's
synth pop all day, every day! I think I'll start broadcasting today! -
SS
Name of Site: Save Internet Radio
URL: http://www.saveinternetradio.org/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: After all the uproar over Napster a while back, the music industry
seems to have overreacted to anything that puts the words "internet"
and "music' into the same sentence. So much so that the US is drawing
up legislation effectively bankrupting the entire Internet radio industry
with outrageous royalty fees. Join the fight to save your local (global)
station by participating in this well-organised protest. Many stations
both large and small have joined the fight and this site provides a great
range of resources and information about exactly what machinations are
underfoot. It seems the record companies are sitting pretty with their
tiny stables of superstars and their affiliated retail shops - they don't
need the Internet. Oh, how naive they are! Wake up and smell the smoking
hard drives! - SS
Name of Site: Dub Lab
URL: http://www.dublab.com/index.asp
Load Time: Medium
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Real Media
Review: Welcome to the laboratory of love as the DJ rats are set free
to nibble on cheesy synths and lush furry layers of sample mayhem in an
endless maze of funky grooves. The mission of the lab's directors is to
improve life on planet Earth through positive creativity - and a hell
of a lot of chillin' to da soundz. An attractive Flash MX offering places
you into the realm of coolness, and prepares you for the audio landscapes
you are about to traverse. Read up on the philosophy, donate to the cause,
jump on the mailing list, buy a compilation CD, or simply click on the
stream and kick back to the happening beats. Though this site is a small
player in the streaming industry, the experiment is a resounding success.
- SS
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