Bytemarks
Cool sounds from hot sites on the Web

By Burt Lum

With the current state of streaming technology, there's an incredible number of radio stations webcasting their programming across the Internet. But I have also noticed a disturbing trend of some stations shutting down their webcasts. One local example is KINE 105.1 and its discontinued station feed.

For radio stations, the Internet should be seen as the next broadcast frontier. Stations that have a site but no streaming have no Web appeal and little retention value.

So why the sudden change of heart? Back in October 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, also called the DCMA for short. This act addresses a number of issues, including copyrights extending to the Internet. In essence, the law requires that webcasters pay licensing fees to record companies. Unprepared for this additional expense, many radio stations took their streams offline.

This has led to a proliferation of Internet-only radio programs, and some viewed the DCMA as the great equalizer. While radio broadcasters wrestled with the Internet as an additional licensing expense, Internet-only webcasters already had built that expense into their business model.

Without much effort, I found a vast assortment of Internet-only broadcast stations. For a continuous stream of jazz, try this site. Those with more specific tastes can try this site for music from Brazil; or, if a hip trance sound is more to your liking, here's your match. If there is a specific genre of music you are looking for, you will more than likely find it on an Internet-only webcast. At another site, you can search the world for your favorite style.

Although the DCMA might appear to stifle some traditional radio stations on the Internet, there certainly is no lack of Internet-only webcasts. What I need now is a random shuffle feature for my media player so I can automatically shuffle through all that cool music. ;-)

Burt Lum, cyber-citizen and self-anointed tour guide to the Internet, is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.