In this day and age of rapid information exchange, even radio broadcasting has gone ultra-modern and off the beaten track. Sure, we still have traditional radio stations that do perfectly well with their traditional equipment, but increasingly, more and more users have shifted to the internet. What’s the appeal of the internet? There’s about no easier way to create personalized radio stations without the endless hours of DJ talk and commercial ads, playing all your favorite tunes and allowing you to explore new music genres nonstop. Plus, you can keep track of the titles of each and every track. Gone are the days when you’d scratch your head irritably after having missed the DJ announcing the song title of that last track!
A lot of services offer customized radio stations for a low monthly charge. If you’re relatively new to the internet radio phenomenon, you might want to sample these free services.
Live 365 (http://www.live365.com)
This is a portal to the most extensive collection of free internet radio stations there are. Live 365 allows users to setup their own radio stations for a fee, and those who ever had childhood dreams of becoming a DJ can easily translate this forgotten ambition into a reality. For enterprising folks, setting up their own stations (which doesn’t require a lot of capital, since you can do it as a hobby, creating your own programs during your spare time and broadcasting straight from your home-no fancy equipment required) can become an additional source of income if you’re at soliciting ads. Hobbyists have created so many stations that cover every genre of music there is, and the advantage is for us music lovers and audiophiles. There are hundreds and hundreds of stations to choose from, all within the reach of a mouse click. You can switch to reggae, trance, gospel, blues, R&B;, rock ‘n’ roll, pop, hiphop…whatever’s up and running. A rabid Beatles fan? There are easily 4, 5, 6 or even more stations exclusively playing the music of the Fab Four. You can create a personal account and save links to your favorite stations. The free service has ads in between songs. A premier, ad-free service is available for a monthly subscription.
Pandora (http://www.pandora.com)
This web radio operates on a unique concept. Type in the artist or song title of your choice and it’ll play a random track from the artist’s discography or that particular song. Following this, it allows you to explore other artists of the genre by turning up songs at random. It’s a great way of exploring the music of other artists you might not even be aware of, and might greatly be interested in. It’s like a personal DJ that plays the kind of music you like,, minus the monotony. It’s sure to turn up a bunch of surprises and uncover musical gems you might never have heard of before. Pandora is for the musically adventurous and curious. By creating a personal account, you create custom stations that play music similar to, say, BB King or Carlos Santana. You can bookmark tracks that you like and even purchase them for your mp3 library. It’s a truly unique venture that’s sure to expand your musical horizons to new terrain.
ShoutCAST (http://www.shoutcast.com)
ShoutCAST is similar to Live 365 and it’s powered by AOL. There are thousands of user-generated stations at the click of a finger, and you can find any genre of music here any time of the day. You can also use their software to start broadcasting your own station, too!
GarageBand (http://www.garageband.com)
GarageBand hosts mp3 uploads, and it’s a thriving community for underground groups. If you want your music raw, indie or simply far away from mainstream commercial tracks you’d get from any other radio station, tune in to GarageBand. It’s a great venue for struggling artists and startup acts to get heard and reach out to a diverse audience. If you’re a struggling bedroom musician, you can also upload mp3 versions of your recordings here and work around developing a fanbase. In the internet age, it’s not just the record execs anymore that get first dibs into which artist makes it big. More and more musicians are learning to use the power of the internet for self-promotion and for reaching out to wider fanbases. Like a track? You can even purchase the mp3 or track down local gigs by that band! Tune into GarageBand and you might just be getting first dibs into the next big act in town, you’ll never know!
