As The World Tunes

Internet Radio

by Steve Bussey
GeoSynchronous Records

Have you ever tried to get your song played on the radio? Are you tired of hearing the same 40 songs over and over on the too few local stations? Then you are ready to try Internet radio.

Today's broadcast radio dial is owned and tightly controlled almost exclusively by large corporations. Their only concern is the financial bottom line, so they tightly control the play lists in order to attract a specific demographic group with spendable income. The station can then sell advertising to companies that want this specific group to buy their products. As a result, the music that is broadcast is only the most commercially oriented, and is played over and over to breed familiarity with the listener.

As a result, it is almost impossible for an independent band to get air play for its music, and the avid music listener can only hear a few dozen songs by the most popular artists. And that is really a shame, because there is a lot, a lot of great music out there that never makes it to the radio. Yes, there is a lot of garbage out there too, but wouldn1t you like to decide for yourself? One man1s garbage is another man's treasure.

With the advent of the Internet, it became possible to easily start an Internet based radio station, without the high over head of transmitters, antennas, FCC licenses, and without the geographic broadcast boundaries. Such a station can easily and profitable target niche markets, and is less "hit2" driven than standard broadcast radio.

So what is Internet radio? All types of music, talk programs, sports, news, etc., but it is not really "radio" at all, since it is not broadcast thru the air at radio frequencies. It is available on the World Wide Web via the Internet. You "tune" it in by clicking your computer1s web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) to the web page of any one of hundreds of Internet radio stations. You will need player software, such as RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, MacAmp, or others. These are available free and support Macintosh, Unix, and Windows operating systems. The station will tell you what you need and where to get it, and installation is usually not difficult.

How does it sound? Somewhere between conventional AM and FM radio reception. You will get better results with a faster connection, but even a 26400 BPS will sound okay.

The exciting thing for indie bands is that most of the Internet radio stations are much more likely to play your music. In fact, many are dedicated to the indie musician. Here is what Mark 'DJ DAWG' Douglas of DH NetRadio, Greenville, SC (www.madawg.net ) has to say. "We are ever amazed at the vast amount of talent out there that goes virtually unheard by the general public. Sure, every one knows who B.B. King is, but do they know of Roy Cox and the BluesKnights, Paul Cummins and the Lion Dogs, or Sonya Kay? These grass roots blues artists, and hundreds more like them, are equally talented and equally dedicated to their craft. DHNR's prime directive is to re-educate the global listening audience that indeed talent doesn't necessarily come in glitzy, neat, little packages, nor is it always found in top 40 charts."

Many of them allow you to submit your songs by email as MP3 files, so you save the expenses of postage, envelopes, and the hard copy of your CD. Some of them allow you to post a link back to your web site to sell the listener a CD, and some even sell your CD for you!

Who is listening? Plenty of all types of people! Lance Stinson (Stammerin' Banzai of M4Radio.com in Sanford, FL) says "When we started M4Radio.com we thought our demo would be college aged guys.. you know this 18 to 24 male demo... but what we have found is a much wider cross section of people tuning in and enjoying the show , I get regular emails from guys and girls as young as 13 and as old as in their forties. Although it seems that in the older age bracket actually more women tune in. We right now are getting a few thousand listeners".

A good place to start is Radio Free World, http://www.radiofreeworld.com/, a directory of stations on-line. This also includes standard broadcast radio stations that are also on the web, plus talk and other format shows, so you will need to search around a bit to find out if the station is interested in your style of music.

About the author: Steve Bussey is a singer/songwriter/guitarist and is currently the owner and general manager of GeoSynchronous Records (http://www.pan.com/geosync, Listening Line 800 235 9193, ask for a free catalog), an indie label handling artists such as Les Dudek, Mike Pachelli, Bong Water Taffy, and Big Red & The Bus. Prior to this, Steve earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Georgia Tech, designed sound equipment and guitar amps for Fender, and supervised design of communication systems for the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.