Poll: Do you ever listen to Internet Radio?

Internet Radio is in danger of becoming extinct. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) raised the rates for Internet radio by a factor of 20 and made the changes retroactive. When the payment becomes due in July many, probably most internet radio stations will go bankrupt. There is a bill before congress to change to prevent that from happening. You can find out the details and what you can do to help by going to Saveinternetradio.com.

I'm posting this psychotically.

radio, internet or broadcast, simply isn't worth saving.

I don't like having someone else tell me what to listen to. That's why I have an iPod.

How do you decide what to put on your iPod?

Most of the bands I like now I've discovered either through friends or by seeing good openers for other performers I was specifically going to see.

Word of mouth is remarkably powerful, especially with the internet. Internet radio is taking an existing format and trying to use new technology to simulate what was done before. But it doesn't have to be that way now, because the internet is interactive. There are better ways to gain exposure that fully use the available technology.

It would be like if the very first cars were literally mechanical horse-drawn carriages. Why approximate what you know with new technology when you can do something much more efficient?

But what will become of Garrison Keillor? Or the car guys? Or... dare I say it... Jian?

Radio isn't only people playing lists of songs by bands that have given them money. There are still a few, like, actual SHOWS on the radio that are their own sort of entertainment.

Exactly. When I'm in my car to and from work I listen to NPR. The songs they play during the news or at other times? Completely affected by the rule change. Say goodbye to public radio over the Internet.

Other times I listen to 93.9 WRSI which plays a great selection of music, some of which I've later looked up and purchased. They play the Winterpills all the time and I know they've done GOOD things for them. Plus I went to a PACKED Avett Bros. show at the Iron Horse. Who up here would have ever heard of them if not for the airplay they got from WRSI and the concert they sponsored in Greenfield?

Radio is not dead for everyone.

Ah, but aren't radio shows like those moving more in the direction of podcasts now? Obviously call-in shows can only ever be live (do live/call-in podcasts exist? are they even possible?) but I have to imagine most listeners would still prefer to be able to listen on their own schedules, not the radio station's.

So perhaps radio is going to become more like television has always been, where people tune in to specific shows and tune out at other times, leaving music to be discovered organically and interactively. And with DVR having changed the way TV schedules work, I can see the same sort of thing happening with 'radio'.

(as an aside, I'm reminded of Früvous' attitude towards music videos, which was that they were purely a promotional tool, and not really intended as a form of entertainment for the fans. And I wonder if radio has always been that, too - a tool to promote the music, with a side effect being that listeners are entertained by it, rather than the other way around. If it was, than music radio as we know it is almost certainly doomed.)

Maybe I'm a bit of an old fogey, but I admit that I actually really like radio, and listen to it often, both in my car and on my computer at work, especially NPR and the one really great station (mentioned by Paul above) in our area. I even really like tuning in for specific programs. I've always had a "thing" about listening to or watching things and knowing I was listening or watching along with a lot of other people--strangers, mostly--all over. Like, I always wanted to watch certain holiday specials, but only if I could watch them when they actually *aired* because it wasn't the same otherwise. The excitement just wasn't there. I like the idea of sharing an experience with a lot of other people, even if we're all having the experience in our own private spaces. This is why I hate that Jaci is three hours behind me when it is time for "Heroes," and things like that. There's something special about the moment. So while I enjoy the convenience of the DVR and such, there is still something worthwhile to me about actual broadcast schedules.

I can't be the only one, can I?

Of course you aren't the only one. I listen to radio more than CDS and mp3s combined. I love the radio. I listen to WFUV for Americana and Irish music; I listen to classical music on WQXR and WNYC; I listen to Car Talk, What Do You Know, and public affairs on WNYC. I even occassionally listen to sports talk. I used to listen to Al Franken's show religiously. I'm listening to WFUV right now. Tori Amos is the featured artists today.

Melinda, you have one person here who will always watch Heroes in the same time slot as you.

That's, like, the sweetest thing I've ever heard.  I'm getting teary-eyed.

I know! If I want good stuff, all I have to do is listen to NPR and WFMU, go on Last.fm/Pandora, or just listen to my iPod (which I seriously can't find right now) and/or my CD/MP3 CD player

I used to be a disc jockey for a tiny out-of-our pockets internet radio station. It was a sort of community project for a small MMO I play.

As of yesterday, it had to shut down.

I can see taxing for-profit stations who also broadcast over the air. We were operating at a loss just for the pure love of it. This is really a dark day.