Alternative Stream

We are looking at a subscription based stream that would not have any pop-ups or advertising. It would use your mp3 player or windows player and would have the ability to listen to 100's of other stations.

Is there any interest in this as an alternative to live365? The cost is $5 a month. The stream would be 128kps CD quality stream.

I'd prefer 20kbps real audio and 128kbps mp3/ogg stream
on the low end, 20k real audio is more GPRS friendly (can run on single direction UDP stream)
on the high end (through home broadband, wifi, EDGE, WCDMA, 1X), 128k mp3/ogg provides more ideal digital audio (ogg is more preferred, due to 128k mp3 still has a lot of distortion, as long as player supports)

I agree with Mingkee. I would happily pay more than $5/month for a reliable 20k stream that is GPRS/Windows Mobile 2003 compatible. MY VIP subscription to Live365 is largely wasted because I mostly listen at work, where the company does not allow installation of media players other than Windows, and has Live365 on its list of blacklisted url's. I can listen to other streams all day using a TMobile unlimited internet GPRS connection, but cannot get Live365 to stream more than a couple of minutes no matter what I do. Unfortunately, a 124k stream would be of little use to me.

I'd certainly consider it for the sake of supporting Highlander Radio, and for not having to DL a new pls file every day Not sure if I'd actually do it just yet or not, but I'd consider it. If I did, I'd pbly drop Live365 completely tho

I'd pay some (about 5/month or 50/year), and bring shoutcast back, and get rid of live365
the mono stream is so annoying
and hopefully there'll be realaudio format, it's proved GPRS compatible

I would be happy to do this if all the money went to highland radio.

I'd be willing to do this to support Highlander Radio.

Even as a poor student I would be willing to pay the $5 just to get rid of live365. But $30/yr would be preferable...

Thanks for the feedback.

I think before this year is out, we will have an alternative stream that is non-live365. We will support both a mobile device and broadband device. Is there any preference between mp3 or windows stream?

Actually, what we are looking at is to upgrade our DSL line to 768kps upload. That is twice as fast as it is now. We would then be able to support completely seperate services and our website would have better response.

I think we may get like a $1.50 a month from each subsciber, which is better than live365. But the remaining will go to pay for royalty and license fees.

Just a warning though, we could be looking at some potential down time in switching DSL services. I am not sure how long, maybe someone has some experience with this?

Please don't forget us Linux folks. I would be happy to pay for this service but do not want to change computers to get it.

I'd be willing to pay that for a seperate stream that benefits Highlander Radio more.

that's why I recommend real audio, due to cross-platform support
but don't worry, linux users, there's a player supports .asx
however, the player is console-based, the big plus is use less resources

I'll second that. mp3's are ok, but not wmv. ogg would be better still.

I would like to add that I am quite happy with Live365. I've paid the upgrade fee, and get good connections both at work and at home. I hope that this new subscription service would be a supplement to and would not replace Live365.

It would be a secondary service. Our primary service will remain and for the forseeable future will remain as live365.com. In fact, with their new radio365 player I am little more encouraged with their service!