Blues Asia Network

Image by Chris Pirillo via Flickr

As everyone knows by now, more and more people are turning to the internet for their radio and music programming, via their desktop computer or netbook — and now via iPod, iPad and smartphone.   I, for example, have not listened to an actual radio for many years now.  I’ve long been a fan of Live365 and its broad range of narrow-niche streaming audio.  And for “local” radio, I’ve been tapping into the internet streams of their programs, particularly on local station Under Ground Radio 105.9 in Manila.

And over the past year, I’ve been closely following the emerging convergence of the internet and traditional TV monitors.  I already spend more time watching YouTube videos broadcast onto my large-screen TV via a Western Digital “box,” than I do to regular TV programming.  And the new wave of TV’s have “internet TV” built in, which will open the way for lots of internet TV.

The competition for our ears and eyes is now growing truly intense.  And there are so many emerging options that most people are confused by it all and are waiting on the sidelines for things to “shake out.”

Here are just some of the general options.

Major Streaming Audio Platforms and Software serving up huge playlists: These are generally sites or software the listener calls up.  These sites are nowadays running into licensing problems that are restricting their use to countries where licensing of music has been arranged.  Pandora, for example, is now restricted to use in the United States.  Spotify, on the other hand, grew up in Europe and now hopes to spread across the world.  MOG, or Music on Demand, is yet another that is highly regarded, but it is currently available only in the US. LastFM also falls into this category.  These are more like big radio networks.

Over-the-Air Radio Stations with streaming options: Traditional radio stations are fighting back by offering online streaming options, in addition to the on-air broadcasting.  There are even quite a number of websites and computer programs that offer a world-wide catalog of the thousands of radio stations with internet feeds.

Internet-Only Radio Stations: Indonesia’s Bandit Blues, who seems always to be ahead of the curve, has brought to my attention a new internet-only station in Indonesia.  Check out IndieMusik Net.  I’m sure there are a lot of these springing up all over the world.

Niche Radio Podcasts: These are “home-grown” radio shows or webcasts.  Live365 falls into this category.  For a small monthly fee, radio enthusiasts can upload a program to its platform — and listeners can stream it on demand from there.  Currently becoming very popular is BlogTalkRadio.  Blues musicians and fans in Indonesia will remember Rob “Bluebird” Ruggeri — he’s just launched a weekly blues show on this platform.  Quite new is Spreaker, which is really aimed at producing music shows with its DJ mixer-like interface.  There is, by the way, an excellent review of this facility at Social Media Examiner.  And there’s Mixlr, another DJ-oriented facility, which allows live listener feedback and program embedding in Facebook.

Online Video Webcasts: In my view, YouTube is revolutionizing user expectations about content delivery.  I foresee more and more people delivering their content via online video.  Some of this video will simply be embedded into existing blogs.  You may have noticed that Blues Asia Network posted its first video interview just a couple weeks ago.  And, yes, we are definitely moving in that direction.  One of the major players in online video is Ustream, which offers both live streaming with immediately viewer feedback and archiving of past shows for viewing on demand.  Vimeo is like YouTube, but with more serious content.

THE PROBLEM:

With so much online programming heading our way, how are we, as viewers and listeners, meant to discover programs we want to view and listen to.   And how are we, as musicians, especially in blues bands in Asia, going to get our music out to an audience eager to listen.

Tune in next week.  We will have some thoughts about this.

In the meantime, share with us your experience with radio, both traditional and online.  How often do you listen to radio, in any of its forms?  Have you ever tried your hand at podcasting?  How does one build an audience in an arena that is so vast and crowded?

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