Thank you iPartyRadio

[TonySantiago]

For those of you that may not have found out via Facebook, today (May 26th) is iPartyRadio's last day on the air. From what I understand, rising streaming and royalty costs are the factors.

I want to thank Will Calder, Bryan Carstensen and the rest of the iPartyRadio staff for bringing good quality dance music to the Internet "airwaves" for the past 5 years or so.

Any dance station that leaves (terrestrial AND Internet) is a loss for the genre as a whole. But let's look at the happy moments this station has given to us, the dance music community. And to that, we thank you.

TS

 

[Mid West Clubber]

oh man im very sorry to hear that. :'(

 

[nd2023]

This was the second online dance station I listened to since 2005 (my first one was 95.3 Party in Orlando before iPartyRadio existed). I first discovered it when browsing Shoutcast. That was around the time KTU started to lean older dance and Party 105 started its channelcasting, so iPartyRadio.com was my source for dance music. I'm very saddened to see it go. One of the problems that Internet stations face is that it costs more to broadcast as the station gets more popular, but there are not enough listeners to any single Internet station to sell commercials and all the listeners are spread out all over the world.

Thank you for the 5 years of awesome dance hits on iPartyRadio!

 

[d21ofnj]

Indeed, another lost for dance music, but there is a gain afterwards. Thank you iPartyRadio!!

 

[only1moore]

The loss of iPartyRadio.com is sure going to have a impact on Dance music on the internet, but I hope that we don't see this as another loss. We'll have other internet Dance stations that will carry on the fight long after iPartyRadio fades into Dance history.

 

[nd2023]

If the SoundExchange proposal passed in 2007, iPartyRadio and many other Internet stations would have been out of business then, and all we would have left today are a few "pirate" Internet streams that don't pay royalties (that would be shut down faster than the FCC shuts down pirate stations), and stations from other countries. Most FM stations wouldn't stream online either.

Blame the greedy companies that demand too much in royalties especially from stations that generate 0 revenue.

 

[JohnParker]

For the record, it isn't just SoundExchange repping for the artists/labels that collects money from the internet stations but we must also pay ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Which, by the way, I have no problem with. But when you look at the costs involved for having to pay SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and then all of your overhead costs it's very easy to see why not very many stations can survive legally.

As I've said many times before, there is no advertising revenue at Internet radio for the small guy. Our listenerships are spread out, not just across America but across the world. I don't really know of any internet station that is making money from their stream alone although they could be out there.

jp

 

[d21ofnj]

There's a discussion about internet radio profitability on the webcasting board.

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=162586.0

 

[nd2023]

A lot of Internet stations are a labor of love. People could spend a few hundred a year to broadcast their music to the world legally. But when you become big, that cost becomes a few thousand a year. Internet streaming of FM stations directly improves the ratings of the FM station, translating to more advertising revenue. But all of the small Internet stations can't afford to hire a sales team like a regular FM station.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Some of us want to become legal and get some bandwidth, but SE wants nothing to do with us,, they say to go to loud city or live 365.... Loud city holds a whopping 10 listeners at a time for 35 a month,, plus bandwidth and royaltys,, plus I have alot of trouble with shoutcast, as I am not computer savy. If anyone knows how I can get legal using easier software please help.. I dont mind paying royaltys, but they act like I have so few listeners they could care less. Ive tried contacting Network web radio sites like .977 to see if I can get my dance channel on their,, they want nothing to do with me,, or the so called **** house they say I play.....ROLLS EYES.... IDK If Russ Haney is reading this and you want another dance channel,, pm me... Can anyone help me stream with shoutcast or WMA through a router, cause now im limited to only over night broadcasts while everyone is asleep. And I want to do this legally so it can help bump the songs up the charts....

 

[d21ofnj]

Some of us want to become legal and get some bandwidth, but SE wants nothing to do with us,, they say to go to loud city or live 365....

Well, Live365 and LoudCity is legal. I don't like the way people have to listen to live365 stations, but it can't be any simpler to operate.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Live 365 would be ideal if I could afford the Profesional package without adds.. i dont want just a 64k 22khz stream with adds embeded, and I dont like their 8 hr playlist rule, and how you have to operate buy their standards,, I want to do what I want with my station, and if Adds are gonna play,,, I wouldnt mind so much if the adds didnt interupt the music,, I used to have a subscription to live 365,, just for your station,, B-91, and Hot 97,, but I found that hot 97 plays add free with winamp and in HQ if you DL mp3 pro,, and your station went away for awhile,, and JPs B-91 which I also enjoy has a HQ package now,, I also used to listen to Blazin 95.7, but it went away too.. I couldnt justify the cost after that. I need like a package that holds at least 25 listeners and can opearate either through a router, or without neeeding a consistent connection, thats why im most likely going to do live 365 pro when I can save enough money to do it. I am a Janitor at a middle school, so i dont have much money,, and LOL I look so young,, often students think im one of them,,, no one beleives im 30,, but I show them my I.D...

 

[TheBigA]

There is a basic inequity between songwriting royalties and recording royalties. On average, BMI and ASCAP get about 1% of revenue. SoundExchange gets about 15%. That's not fair. Especially when so many of the internet stations play music not available on broadcast radio. I've read the coming attractions, and SoundExchange is petitioning the Copyright Royalty Board for cost of living increases. How do they justity cost of living increases when Medicare and Social Security have put stop on COLA?

 

[willcalder]

Thanks to everyone who's either been involved or supportive of us over the years - you've been amazing. We don't walk away from this experience feeling sad but we feel accomplished and successful. We went out on the top of our game, sounding better than we ever have and more successful than we have ever been in the past.

Unfortunately, that success comes at a price and we realized that dealing directly with SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI & SESAC would end up being too expensive for our operating model (not to mention the endless amount of paperwork associated with those direct licenses. Regardless of my personal feelings about the current royalty system and how fair it truly is for those of us who are not Pandora or AOL and are too large for Loudcity and Live365, it's the cost of doing business. The decision seemed clear as day in the end.

We hang up our headphones knowing that we've made a difference. We've helped to create awareness of new artists that do not and will not get traditional airplay on FM stations, we've sold records and we've had fun. That's all that matters. We did our part and gave back as much as would could when we could.

Will we come back? Perhaps, only time will tell. We've had several ideas, offers and proposals show up on our doorstep in the days since we announced our shut down. All we can do is, listen to those ideas, offers and proposals - weight all the options and decide what's right for our operation.

Again, thank you to everyone who's been apart of this amazing experience known as iPartyRadio.