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Zara VS Sam and Live 365 VS Loud City.

M

Mid West Clubber

Guest
Which is better, both offer free, and paid versions,, I would bet the free versions of buggy with limited features. But which should I try when I move to loud city.. Also,, can you use Loud city behind a router,,and without a static IP.. If not I have no choice but to remain on Ustream or go Live 365.. Ive found a loophole to legally stay on ustream,, play non copyrighted and Indie Artists, or use labels like Ultra and Robbins that dont have the FBI Piracy warning. Most of my music is from europe as of now, since it isnt copyrighted in the U.S.... Someone who knows more than me clue me in, and why is it taking so long to get my legal license,, Ive got money,,, I just need to make sure that Loud City will work for me before I sign up.. 35 a month isnt bad if they honestly do keep your royalties legal.. I think you still need your ASCAP License, which im waiting on... Apparently they dont think I have enough listeners to give me the time of day, and right now I dont. How long does it take a webstation to build an audience, Ive been streaming the new Naptown AKA Indianapolis Energy Radio for about a week,, I would have thought to have at least 5 to 10 concurrent listeners by now,, but its mostly o or 1, maybe 2 to 3 listeners, the good news is they listen for a long time, and its not the same listeners every time, which is good. I wonder how many listeners stations like 96.7 party and Ascendance get, and how long it took them to build an audience,,, should I give up and go CHR with a Dance Lean, it would be alot easier, and the net has so many dance streams,, and ustream has a ton of Dance streams, mostly pirated, so its hard to compete with them.
 
Try to get listed on iTunes, I used to run highenergyradio.com in 2007. It got listed on iTunes one day and all of a sudden, my bandwidth and royalties costs soared to over $150/month so I had to shut it down ironically because it became too popular with hundreds of concurrent listeners. Also, the SoundExchange fee proposal was a factor in me shutting it down. I feel bad for shutting it down because if I had only kept running it, it would have been much more popular today, or I could have handed it off to one of you to continue running it. The domain is now registered to a spammer.

I used sleepyengineers.com for bandwidth and swcast.com for licensing.
 
i dont want more listeners than I can handle,, I would be happy with 10-20 max listeners. I just want it as a hobby. I cant afford much more than maybe 50 a month. If it gets higher than a house or car payment it isnt worth it.. Can you sell adverts on net radio and make money, or at least break even... i think you have to have a bigger than 35 a month package to sell adverts.
 
I don't know who's giving you legal advice about copyrights but you should sue them for malpractice. Your information couldn't be further from the truth. There are no loopholes and major, indie or unsigned are all covered by copywrite law and if you broadcast on the net, cable or satellite you owe someone money unless you have a signed waiver from an authority that is able to grant that write. ;)

jp
 
Well you would know since you work or worked for a major dance label.. But what about artists and DJs who give me written permission to play their music.. Or if I play a bootleg remix,,, Im guessing its up to the labels and not the artists to decide,, right JP...?? Im trying to get it legal guys. I shut down the FM down after almost 15 years of off and on broadcasting,,, Although I changed station names and frequencie alot, and sometimes would disapear for a year or more,, but now I can sleep at night knowing the FCC isnt gonna drag me outta bed. Im trying to get it legal,, I have their one year license fee,, why are they not responding to me,, Does anyone know,, Do I have to be approved, or can anyone with the money run a net station. And no one here or at loud city or SWCAST knows if it can stream behind a router. I think im just gonna go with live 365 if i dont get a response soon, cause at least all royalties are paid, and it wont use my bandwidth. I can get a Pro package at 99 bucks a month and I can link it to a website, and have no adds and listeners wont need a subscription.
 
You can broadcast indie artists that explicitly give you permission to play their music without royalties
 
I think you really need to ask yourself, is this worth it? If you are going to do it, then do it the right way. You cant go by just getting permission from indie artists. They sign with a label then its nulled. Besides you want more people to listen then you are going to need to play the bigger records. Don't give up, but you might have to step back to see if you can spend the money on this.
 
Ive suspended my Ustream but im not done with streaming.. Im going to do the 99 a month live 365 pro package all royalties paid and I wont go off air everytime crapcast has an outage in my area, nor will I have to worry about bandwdth caps or having a constant connection to the net. I cant get enough listeners to make it woth it.. I was getting like 15-20 listeners at a time when I was on fm and doing mainstream dance similar to Energy 98,, C-89.5 B-91 Etc,,, but now Im lucky to have 2 listeners and its either my friends or the artists and djs that supplied my music. I shut down about 2 and a half hours ago, and told them to listen to Energy 98, Fusion, c-89.5, WMPH, Z88.9 before 6 PM and after 2 am.. and of course Vibe vegas. There are just so many well programed and legal dance stations on the net, its hard to compete,, their are several pages of dance stations on Shoutcast with 0 listeners,, some are legal, some are not,, most dont care that they only have a handful of listeners, but I would like to have at least 10-15 listeners,, I know im never gonna have as many listeners as Mike or Manny, but im not in the bizz of competing with them, it takes years and money, and as much as id love to be, i cant program mainstream dance as well as Mike Manny, JP, or you Brett, nor Kris, or Chris LOL... Thats why I play mainly hard dance,, hardstyle, Jumpstyle, Makina, and Hard house, and Drum and Bass, as Ive found artists that even offered me Payola to play their records,, which I politely declined... Brett and Nick and JP thnks for the advice and encouragement. I want a website as well, not just a stream,,,I dont have the money for one right now,, I may link it to myspace, but that usually doesnt get many hits. Im thinking of going CHR or CHR Rhythmic with a Dance Lean,, as there are far fewer CHRs on the net than dance, and none of those lean on dance. Hopefully Live 365 will be an easy setup, cause I had a server for shoutcast in Louisville, but I couldnt get shoutcast to work, so I dont think I can do loud city or SWCAST without help from a fellow streamer.
 
I have only used Live365 for the past 3 years, with 3 stations (now down to one) i think it's the easiest because they wrap everything into packages that fit every budget, but noted in my playlist post, as you get popular it gets harder for "free" listeners to tune in. I have used Sam and LOVE it.
 
I thought about doing live 365 on the cheapside, but I want a add free 128k stream that anyone NON VIPs can listen to. and I want more than a 8 hr playlist, cause I want to rotate through about 800 songs,, its not going to be chart based, so thats ok RIGHT.
 
I've used Live365 for years, I agree that it is a pain for the "free" slots to have issues (i.e. listeners must sign in for a free stream, thinking they are going to end up paying for listening, you must have a Pro package to avoid having people signing in) but at least with the VIP listeners, a portion of their subscription does go to your station. There were periods where the VIP listeners covered my monthly payments. I also did try Studio365Live, but sometimes when I do change songs on the fly, it will stop the current song and will play the track I moved. As far as pricing goes, Live365 does save me in the long run. With LoudCity, to be honest, I know streams are cheaper and you dont have to sign in to listen, but I did sample SAM Broadcaster, and it wasn't my cup of tea. I like Zara better, but the issue with Zara is there is no log that can be kept.
 
I operated my station on one of Live365's cheap plans for years before becoming a part of their X5000 pro package this year. For $50 a month you can broadcast at 128k and yes listeners do have to log in but you can pull decent numbers for this cheaper rate.

The X5000 plan is a pro package that is only offered once a year by Live365 and is by invite only, although their are some ways around this. I split my package with 3 other broadcasters and pay the same as I was before but with much better results. An iTunes listing, no login's and triple rewards on those that pay to listen commercial free.

Within 2 months of the switch I went from #2 in the Dance Pop category to #1 overtaking The Original Hot 97. I've since switched over to the Electronica/Dance genre where my station sits at #4. For me, the Live365 experience has been fantastic.

jp
 
Re: Zara VS Sam and Live 365 VS Loud City.

Those were the days of being in the Top 5 for the Dance Pop category, sadly, I did have to shut down for major personal reasons. I am ready for the rush again, and hope that my former presetters know I'm back. I purchased the P3 package and pay 45 a month, but by next month or June, will upgrade for more slots and storage.
 
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