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Celtic Radio Community > Technical Support > Listener Capacity

Posted by: Meryat 18-Nov-2007, 04:39 PM

This is the first time I've gone back to listening to Highlander Radio in a month, and I tried to request some of my favorite songs.

My connection basically stalled, so I looked at the number of listeners and thought I was fine to stop and then start it, given that only 30-something listeners were listed as listening to the live broadcast.

Instead, I got the message that the station was at its free listener capacity, so the songs I requested are playing without my being able to hear them. I reloaded the main page again, and now it showed 153 users. Did 120 people really start listening in the course of a couple minutes?

I find it especially annoying because I have been unable to locate a way to purchase the CDs featuring two of the songs, so Highlander Radio is my only source of being able to hear them.

I stopped listening to Highlander Radio a while back because I got sick of the connection constantly having problems causing the music to keep skipping or the connection to drop entirely. It seems that is still an issue, which is a pity, as I love the music played here.

I don't know whether it's something that affects paid listeners or not (as I doubt many would tolerate it), but it's been a constant issue that I've faced. Ironically, it's what keeps me from getting a paid Live365 account that would eliminate part of the problem (suddenly being blocked out as a free listener or just having to hear the ads so often from the connection failing) because I don't want to pay for such poor reliability.

Posted by: Meryat 18-Nov-2007, 05:06 PM

There are now only 9 listeners showing for the live broadcast.

Something very strange is happening, for there to suddenly be a jump in the listener count of over 100 in just a half-hour space.

I listen with RealPlayer, but it has my Live365 name in the URL, so it shouldn't do something strange like count my stopped connection attempts as additional listeners, should it?

Posted by: CelticRadio 18-Nov-2007, 10:22 PM

Hi Meryat,

Thanks for reporting this! We just took a look at our log files - yes we independently monitor Live365 and I see exactly what you are talking about.

3 times today the numbers spiked about 100 listeners for perhaps a few songs, then returned to normal.

Not sure what the problem is - I know that Live365 recently upgraded some of the servers/software - so it might have to do with that.

Just to be on the safe side we will restart our broadcast on Live365 and see if that stops these wierd listener numbers.

Thanks again for reporting this!

Posted by: subhuman 04-Jan-2008, 09:48 AM

QUOTE

I find it especially annoying because I have been unable to locate a way to purchase the CDs featuring two of the songs, so Highlander Radio is my only source of being able to hear them.

If you can, find out how those two songs are protected. If they're protected by a Creative Commons license (much of the celtic music is) duplication for non-commercial usage is legal. If that's the case, there are ways to grab streaming audio. Do a web search.

On the other hand, if the songs are protected by a normal commercial copyright, that would be very illegal and I would never advocate anything of the kind.

QUOTE

I don't know whether it's something that affects paid listeners or not (as I doubt many would tolerate it), but it's been a constant issue that I've faced. Ironically, it's what keeps me from getting a paid Live365 account that would eliminate part of the problem (suddenly being blocked out as a free listener or just having to hear the ads so often from the connection failing) because I don't want to pay for such poor reliability.

There are ways around their ads, too.

I haven't heard one in over a year. (it's my computer. I have a right to refuse any data that is sent to me)