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Music Media

Music From The Heavens - For A Fee 149

Posted by timothy from the shades-of-rds dept.
Judg3 writes: "There's an article over at Wired about how Sirius Radio [Warning: features rude Java - timothy] just launched the first of three satellites that plan to provide coast-to-coast digital radio to the tune (heh) of only 9.95$/month. Why pay for their digital radio when we have the free analog stuff? Well, according to Sirius, and their competitors XM Satellite Radio, people will pay the extra dough for the niche channels out there, somewhat like Cable TV these days. I dont know about you, but I'm looking forward to the '80s Glam-Rock Channel' and the 'Who 24/7 Channel'" I see this relegated to supplying soothing in-store Muzak(tm)-type background music -- won't free and micropayment-driven Internet delivery make this redundant for ordinary listeners? Still, I'd like to see a political-satire channel, or a stand-up comic channel, or a lot of other obscurities.

An unnamed correspondent adds: "Stereophile reports:'The Sirius 1, built by Space Systems/Loral, will be placed in an inclined elliptical orbit with high angles of elevation to the ground. The company says this type of orbit will improve reception in urban areas.'" Just as interesting, the article mentions a tabletop radio manufactured by Thomson, to be branded in the U.S. as RCA: "The AM/FM/IM (Internet Modulation) radio connects through an Ethernet connection on the tabletop product, allowing listeners to find thousands of different channels of entertainment." Nice to see Stereophile enter the MP3 age intact, too.
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Can Digital Kill The Radio Star? More

Can Digital Kill The Radio Star?

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  • hehe...oh my :)

    i don't think i laughed that hard in so long..
    *giggle*

    it was perfectly timed too, i jsut got in a silly mood.
    thanks man, hehe
    geez :)
  • Cable TV started out with many channels with no commercials.

    Now look at what we have today. You pay $50/month to get more commercials than on network television.
  • I've read the first few dozen posts, and most everyone seems to be forgetting who they're targetting this at - drivers, not people sitting at home. And if the price of the car component isn't too high, I think this'd be a great idea. I know I go on long trips pretty regularly , and my MP3 player only holds so much. Plus, ever try and change a CD while driving solo? =P

    ---

    Linux is only Free if your time is worth Nothing

  • Of course, that can also be said for *shudder*... MTV. :)
    ---
    seumas.com
  • As far as I could tell, what looked like rude ECMAScript is in fact Flash. Geez, I remeber when the Macromind stuff used to only trouble you if you happened to run a "Windows Multimedia presentation" or courseware authored with Director. It didn't end up inserted in the middile of your Internet traffic.
  • Oh, I don't know, you might start with talent and a message that people want to hear.

    Unfortunately, what most people want to hear has nothing to do with what needs to be heard. Look how long it took for violence in schools to become a topic. It wasn't new at all. It wasn't new to my generation, it wasn't new to the one before it and it certainly isn't new to the current generation. Until now, nobody wanted to hear it. And, unfortunately, most people don't -- until it's quite late.
    ---
    seumas.com

  • Aggh! College Music! Make it stop! Though the conversations would make me stop and listen though.
  • surfsalot wrote:"I think tim should get a life of his own. Too bad I'm too lazy to take him of the list of people whose postings I look at. Just cause rob likes the who and tim
    wants to be just like rob (who has the best posts) he has to mention the who. get a life of your own... "

    Well, the guy who submitted the article mentioned the Who, but I sure have nothing to do with the Who. Rob likes them, and Rob is a nice and intelligent guy, but I'm not sure I could even identify a Who song other than "Pinball Wizard," which my middle-school music teacher foisted on my class in 7th or 8th grade (a while ago). I know there's a guy named Pete Townsend or Townshend or Townedshend (well, I know there's a guy with a name sort of like that) and, uh, that the kids are alright and uh ... that's about it. People are free to like the Who, but I'm in the wrong demographic or something, since I think I would trade Who tickets for a nice dinner of Korean or Indian food and not feel cheated. The Pet Shop Boys are another matter!

    Sorry about that laziness problem, but until you get some vivarin I guess you can just not click on stories I post :)

    timothy
  • Does anyone know how they are going to encode the service? They seem to say CD quality on their site, to me this means uncompressed .WAVs. I think that 128kbit mp3 is great on my 2" computer speakers, when I make a CD and play it it my car, or hook my home stereo they sound like crap. I will pay 10 bucks a month for real CD quality music to my car and home. One last thing, do you suppose they will charge me 10 bucks each for my house and my car?
  • The first broadcasters were retailers who provided programming for free in order to sell radios. It didn't take long for radio, along with entertainment, to become commercialized. Today, broadcast radio programming consists as much of commercials as actual entertainment. Sirius will revolutionize the mobile audio entertainment marketplace by providing only music, interference-free and with digital quality, uninterrupted from coast to coast. Portable internet reception will probably never match this functionality--especially in urban markets--because there just isn't enough available bandwidth. The break-even point for Sirius is only about 100,000 subscribers. Yes, what they are doing is revolutionary. And yes, they will succeed.
  • Last I checked, the borders aren't too tightly controlled from the point of view of those heading south.

    Unitedstatesian who assumes everybody lives in the US. Need I say more?

    Believe me, it is logically impossible for me to leave the US.

  • Fine. I can live with your point of view.

    However, will I pay $9.95 a month for this like you would? Probably not.

    Question: Does this mean that advertisements will be excluded? It would be crappy to pay $9.95 and be forced to hear advertisements too. My take on the whole thing is that people will get spanked both ways. I suppose it is this kind of thing that that makes me state that I don't need any kind of fancy-dancy juiced up digital radio...

    John S. Rhodes
    WebWord.com [webword.com] -- Usability Vortal
  • I don't know if I'd pay ten bucks a month for it, but if I did ... I *would* like to be able to listen to a single radio station for hours while traveling long distances in my car
  • OK, so I don't have the extensive MP3 collection, or the time to keep up with the newest stuff coming out of Napter. For those of you that do, this isn't aimed at you. This is aimed at folks like me who live in Kansas City who have no decent radio stations AT ALL (ok, we have a 1000 watt modern rock station that is good that's in the extreme northeastern part of town that you can get with static over some of the city). I want decent radio. I'll pay $10/month to get it with no commercials and -fewer- annoying DJ's. I have a fairly long commute (It's Kansas City, we don't have public transportation, we've got highways). I can get NPR without it fuzzing out on me. I can get good music without the 30-minute commercial marathons that plague our local station.

    The local stations here spend 15 minutes every hour playing that one ACDC song, you know, that one. It doesn't matter which one, they all sound alike. Oh, and something from Pink Floyd's The Wall. They put out like 500 albums and they only play stuff from The Wall. It gets really old, folks.

    I'm thinking this satellite radio thing will either get me better music directly by subscription or indirectly through competition. Here's hoping anyway.

  • Last I checked, its a free country and nobody is forcing you to pay for this service nor listen to the music. If it were to turn out too many commericals, people would stop buying the service.
  • Finally all those "think road trip" hints make sense. It was a major headache, but it's easy to find hidden sid's if you read slashcode carefully. Anyway, I found the new sid that replaced k23320(or whatever)inchfan.
    Let's take a vote here:
    Should I
    a) spam them into non existence?
    b) wait for mod points and watch them scream "what the hell!!!" as I knock their shit down?
    c) tell vladinator and team up to rip them a new one?
    d) something else?

    I really want to do something clever and funny to those damned trolls, but I'm not sure what. Any ideas?
    Thanks,
    --Shoeboy
  • Maybe these folks will have a great product, but if their product is anything like thier web site, they are going to be a great company to avoid like the plague. No place to send in questions, no comment forms, sitty design with loads of slow loading graphics and no actual content.

    Not only that, if you cor to their home page without flash all you get is a blue screen of death. Cretins.
  • not only that, but there only appeared to be "benign" java scripts, at least that i encountered. There were no repeatedly popping up windows that wouldn't go away, just a script to figure out what browser you had and then pop up ONE window to make it easier to navigate. Didn't seem very rude to me. Not nearly as annoying as those ugly geocities fly up ads, for example.
  • the lack of non country stations in others annoyed me to no end.

    You mean they didn't even have AM talk radio with local programs?

    Anyway, if you live there, isn't it the natural thing to become involved with the community, learn what they do, what worries them, and such? Local AM talk radio is usually a great way to learn this kind of thing.

  • Are these signals encrypted? I would imagine they are. So where can I pick up an H Card for this great new service?
  • http://www.usadr.com (disclaimer...I happen to work for this company)
  • There is a company called worldspace that is doing a similar thing. Except i believe that they are just going to charge for the recievers that major companies like JVC, Panasonic, and Sony are already making.
  • If you need exposure to new music, try your local college station. They get the opportunity to play new music before most of the big boys -- and often choose better stuff than commercial radio program directors, whose music taste is dictated by $$$. Remember when no one thought we would need anything more than AM? Then FM came along...but I don't think digital radio will get the same lucky break.

  • Does no one see the potential for recording music?

    Picture this: You're driving down the road in your ride, you hear a new (to you perhpaps) song come on this digital radio, and you dig it.

    Theres no hoping the announcer says the title and artist at the end of it, or straining to remember it until you can get home to download it.. you hit the button on your car receiver, it pulls the song, title, artist and whatever out of its buffer and saves it. You get home, you take the receiver out and dock it with your box, and voila... a digital copy of whatever song you want.

    I wouldn't even mind paying for each saved song, its convenience in its most ludichous form...
  • >Why pay for their digital radio when we have the
    >free analog stuff?

    No, it should be:
    Why pay when you can get it elsewhere for free?
  • Geeks in space . . *Bam* the future of rock and roll.
    ___
  • I'm surprised nobody noticed that the FCC made yet another duopoly arrangement with these satellite licenses. Remember how long cellphones were that way? And remember how expensive they were until there were three or more players in each market?
  • Of course, then you'll never hear any new music will you, unless you happen to download a track just because you like the name of the song, or it was reccommended. I don't know about anyone else but often times i'll be in the vicinity of the radio, hear a song that i instantly like, and when i get home i go searching for my own copy of it, and other stuff by the same artist. There _are_ benefits to having music pushed at you, maybe not the commercials, but definately the music. of course, you also get played a lot of crap, but oh well.
  • I agree... I hate being out of town and not able to hear Afropop or, here lately, they've been playing the HHGTTG radio play...not to mention the news coverage and that hottie Terry Gross. ;-)

    The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
  • With Napster, Gnutella, Freenet, and the like, who needs any radio? Get the right player for your car and you're all set too. No channel hunting, just music that you want. All pull, no push, thank you very much.
  • The way this will play out is predictable. Now that it's starting, the pushers tell propaganda about how it will have "hundreds of channels" to please everybody. Then, when it is actually in place, it will all be commercials, paid programming and infotainment.

    Remember the "information superhighway" and the promise of "hundreds of channels"? When was the last time you heard of this in the media? In contrast, when was the last time you heard of "e-commerce"? Apply the pattern.

    The fundamental flaw behind this, of course, is that this radio service is being run by a corporation, which gets to decide on what is it that you and I should listen to. This is doomed to repeat the failure of the Web. The only way to make this technology really deliver is to make it accountable to the public-- say, make half of the channels public access channels (for a not very radical proposal). Why should the corporations get that much of a voice, and the public be forced to be silent?

  • There are only two reasons I have a cable line running into my home: cable modem service, and the digital music channels.

    Yes, I could use napster/gnutella, compile my own playlists...but why? That takes more time and more research than I really care to put into my music listening. The digital music provider has a much larger library, and is more in touch with new music in each genre than I can ever realistically hope to be.

    There are times when I do use Winamp to listen to a set of tracks I've ripped from my CD collection. But there are other times when I just want a little random backround music to fit my mood. Right now, I have the blues channel on as background music. Maybe tomorrow I'll be in more of a mood for Acid Jazz. Or Raggae. Whatever. It's almost all here -- enough to satisfy my eclectic tastes, anyway.

    I'll probably sign up for the new sattelite service when it starts up. It's a pain ripping music for a roadtrip off the digital cable audio, and burning it on to a CD for the car. :)

  • I don't like whatever food a particular resturaunt serves, I vote with my wallet and don't go there, I go to the place across the street that serves better food.

    As long as there is a strong enough noncorrupt government to insure competition this will work. Be afraid when the "place across the street" is also another McDonalds.
  • Now *that* would be worth paying for . . . DJ's instead of those "personalities" . . . The entire broadcast spectrum in the morning, regardless of type of music, has been taken over by the "morning moron" format. . . . Dozen's of stations competign to find who can most proficiencly display their lack of intelligence . . .

    So I want stations with DJ's, not "personalities"--just shut up and spin the records. (ok, I just dated myself :)

    Currently, I have radio channels on digital cable. The classic country station is better than the one that fidhnryeotk has, cutting off right before new country rather than the arbitrary 1979 (missing some of the best Merle Haggard, among others).

    hmm, I'm ranting :)

    hawk

  • For those without Flash... (Score:4)

    by pingouin ( 783 ) on Saturday July 08, 2000 @05:59PM (#948363)
    ...click here [siriusradio.com]. All I got was a pretty blue screen when I accessed the Flashful home page.

    --

  • This sounds a lot like the digital cable radio that some cable companies offer. I personally don't like it, the lack of D.J.'s make it dull and the lack of good music makes it duller. :P

  • Re:Geeks in space . . (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Thanks, hallada@msgto.com

    hallada@msgto.com [mailto]

    Keep it up!
  • The fact that they will ultimately decide what the content is really isn't all that different from the current radio model. Listeners can call in and request songs, but the DJs and station owners still make the final choices of what to broadcast.

    Most radio stations in the US are not owned by small companies, but major corporations that also own controlling interest in many other media industries (i.e., the same company that owns your favorite cable station also owns your local radio station -- and one just like it in all other major US markets -- and they ALSO own the artists that they choose to play on their systems.

    Many times, (I'll use St. Louis as my example) a single company will own SEVERAL of the radio stations in your area, further limiting your ability to hear new music.

    For example, Emmis Broadcasting owns 3 different FM stations in the St. Louis area... WXTM 104.1 FM, KSHE 94.7 FM and WKKX 106.5 FM. Their main competators own three other stations. So six of the major stations in St. Louis are owned by 2 companies whos only real competitors are each other.

    Listeners DO call in and make requests, but haven't you ever thought it was strange that NOBODY ever requests a song that isn't already on the playlist? I can tell you from my OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE as a radio station employee (WXTM 104.1 FM, St. Louis) that the only requests that EVER get played on the radio are the ones that were ALREADY ON THE PLAYLIST. It goes a little like this:

    Joe Listener: Hey guys, i haven't heard that kick-ass song "LATEST POP SINGLE" in the last few minutes, could you play it for me?"

    DJ (to himself): Hmm.. Let me check the list... yup, this one's scheduled to be played again in the next hour.

    DJ (to listener): YOU KNOW IT MAN! I'm here for YOU! Call in now with your requests to 555-1234. And here... BY REQUEST is "LATEST POP SINGLE"

    Next Caller: Hey man, I hear you're playing requests! That's great! Do you guys think you could play "ANY SONG THAT WASN'T OFFICIALLY RELEASED AS A SINGLE IN THE LAST 2 MONTHS?"

    DJ (to himself): Yeah, right pal. I just push buttons here. I can't make any real decisions, and besides, my playlist was decided a week in advance by the program director.

    DJ (to listener): Hey man, I'll see what I can do, OK? In the meantime, here's the latest by BANDOFTHEMINUTE!

    -The Reverend
  • Course who the fuck needs another centralized behemoth?
  • Why create a service like this when analog services such as this already exist and have for a while? (Where do you think McD's gets their Muzak)
  • Still, I'd like to see a politcal-satire channel

    A political satire channel? If they start beaming out 24-hour marathons of the "Capitol Steps", might I suggest using some of those US missile shield anit-satellite rockets to shoot those mothers down.

    I think anyone who's heard them will agree with me on this one... ;)

  • More lowest-common-denominator trash music that nobody listens to.

    Once more. Another "1337 geek" that thinks radio == music. Come off it.

    Public Access has largely failed anywhere it's been implemented.

    You must mean "I don't like Public Access media, since I'm too 1337."

    Public Access has to be promoted and encouraged more.

  • Have you never heard of On*Star?

    General Motors owns Hughes electronics and thus has direct access to a lot of satellites, including the ones which handle DirecTV.

    One of GM's goals is to improve profits through value-add monthly subscription services in their cars.

    Imagine if for $10-20/month you had a system in your car which would:

    - help you contact someone in an emergency
    - provide maps for whatever destination and helped you get there
    - allowed you to check email and get on the internet
    - provided coast to coast radio programming with a variety of channels to suit various tastes

    I don't see why you think it's a poor idea. GM has already been fairly successful with the On*Star service, and they've showed these other features in their prototypes at auto-shows.

    It's not too far off in the future.

  • ...isn't it the natural thing to become involved with the community, learn what they do, what worries them, and such? Local AM talk radio is usually a great way to learn this kind of thing.

    Yeah! Remember the AM talk station playing at the beginning of Children Of The Corn?

    "I will gladly pay you today, sir, and eat up

  • First of all, we have Internet radio. I know that most people don't have them in their cars yet, but, hey, it's all going wireless, right?

    Another thing is, remember the Superstation? Ted Turner's nationally broadcast satellite station? His big money-making idea? About the only thing it ever plays is 80's movies. Not to diss 80's movies (GOONIES ALL THE WAY!!!), but I don't think he has much of an audience beyond young Gen-X'ers.

    I doubt that people would be willing the pay for better radio in their cars, when they can just get an MP3 player, probably ending up cheaper?

    But then again, how much money does Turner have now...?
  • Ahh, yes, it's all the mega-corps.

    People are choosing wrong, they don't *really* want what they're buying, or choosing. Turn control over to us, and we'll give them what they want, instead of what they think they want.

    Oh, and for good measure, we'll forcibly relabel their nationalities. Goodthink all around.

    Nobody listens to us because we don't get the access. Give us the access (on your nickel, not ours), and we'd be just as popular.

    \end{sarcasm}

    The anglo-american notion of free speech is *not* the right to be heard, nor the right to the means to spread your message (although the constitution of the U.S.S.R. did guarantee these, along with religious freedom). It's the right to *not be silenced*. Getting people to listen is your problem, and noone elses.

    If you can show that the megacorps or government came and stole your publications (whoops, that was student radicals, not th government), or if you can show that they jammed your airtime, we'll get concerned. Until then, we'll assume that you're just not popular because noone agrees with you . ..

    hawk, an Americn
  • >Putting your toothbrush under your absolute
    >control has no ill effect on society;

    [ed note: you're making strong assumptions about his dental hygiene. How do you know he's not one of those people that society would be *much* better off if forced to use his toothbrush every day??? ;) ]

    >however, putting the means of production
    >under the control of a few divides society into a
    >minority of powerful owners and a minority of
    >alienated workers.

    Yes, we've seen the amazing successes of central planning . . .

    And how did the means of production land in the hands of those who control it? Gee, it might not have *anything* to do with them having created those means, or caused the production of those means by combining what already existed?

    And, certainly, they would create just as many means if they knew the fruits of their own labor would be taken from them in the name of labor . . .

    hawk
  • At which point, you open a burrito shop on teh next corner.

    Now, if you are prevented from doing this, even though you offer the prevailing rate to rent the premises, this is a serious problem. However, we've now left the realm of capitalism, and are discussing fascism

    hawk, the economist
  • >it's not the djs that suck, it's the commercials.
    >Think about, what is the reason, 80% of the
    >time, you change the station?

    In order?

    a) new country
    b) babbling idiot of an "on-air personality". (including all of those patronizing imbeciles on syndicated programming). DJ's are fine.
    c) commercials.
  • " "Megacorps" do not tell me when to wake up, when to eat and what to eat, when to sleep and what pillow to buy, and how many times a day I should pray."

    .... But the mere fact that something is advertised and I use that product doesn't mean that I'm being told what to do. The choice is still mine.

    Your choices become more and more limited as these large companies (without governmental regulation to stop them) shut smaller companies down by undercutting, superior marketing or outright buyout. (I could point to Microsoft, but we're all tired of that.) These megacorps *DO* effectively limit your choice, because they control which products will become available to the public, in which quantities, and at which times. Sure, you can still choose to not buy Taco Bell, but you've got to eat SOMETHING. What do you do when you need something and the only product available (or the only one you can afford) is created by a company that you dislike/disagree with? Your only "choice" at that point is to submit to their will or do without.

    You may say that it's just the "American Way" to allow those unscrupulous businesses to grow in any way possible... It definately is the way things *ARE* being done around here.

    Corporations now have more rights and political influence than individual citizens... If an individual citizen manages to hoarde large chunks of resources, we can at least count on the fact that they will eventually die and their earnings will be redistributed. Corporations never die, they just get taken over by a larger corporation.

    -The Reverend
  • to be honest, yes. AM radio in most rural areas is populated with the least exepnsive programming they can put out. Paying a local DJ/News man is more expensive than a syndicated program. So local prgramming is almost non-existant, meanwhile national programming with little or no real local importance airs all the time.
  • a) new country

    ??

    Is that like "young country"? :)

    --

  • I dunno (Score:2)

    by hawk ( 1151 )
    It's sure not like country, though.

    It seems to be a mix of about 10% country themes/melodic pattern, 100% pop-style shrieking, overinstrumentalization, and the like, and -10% any form of intelligence :)

    Stations are increasingly identifying themselves as either "New Country" or "Real Country."

    hawk
  • I thought this product sounded familiar, then I remembered the Kerbango (www.kerbango.com), which was released about 6 months ago, with and embedded Linux OS. Still nice to see products like this making news though, even though the fee is technically outrageous.
  • Pray tell me how one gets one's message out as much as, say, Rush Limbaugh
    One doesn't. Tough, eh?
  • I'd be interested in being able to get the 24/7 talk radio channel. I can listen to all of the greats, and the not so greats without having to be interrupted by baseball or soccer games.

    LK
  • Isn't it strange that the sports and religion channels seem to always come in clearest.

  • Grrrr. It's not bad Java on that page, it's bad JavaScript and they have nothing to do with each other. JavaScript predates Java and was called LiveScript until it was renamed to capitalize on Sun's over-hyping of Java. As it gets standardized it's getting called Ecma script and I for one will be glad to be rid of the confusion.

    Moderate this offtopic, please.
    --
  • he's written a new book since then.

    you can buy it here, or someplace else [amazon.com]

    And for you greenies in the crowd...
    (complete with programming realism)

    "RALPH NADER--"RICH MEDIA, POOR DEMOCRACY is more than a prolonged wake-up call; it shames those who do nothing and motivates~ validation-form-field.description_0001: ~ those who are trying to build a more democ ratic media that reflects the all-important noncommercial values which forge a just society."
    --
  • Last I checked, its a free country and nobody is forcing you to pay for this service nor listen to the music. If it were to turn out too many commericals, people would stop buying the service.

    Were it so simple. Last I checked, the US (which is not a free country, since every aspect of life is largely controlled by megacorps) has never forced anyone to watch the total crap the networks put on TV, eat the crap food the food establishments like McDonalds advertise there, drink the piss-poor beer that dominates 85% of the market, and so on. Still, that's what most unitedstatesians do.

    Even if people are not forced to take this service, what's put on it is of essential importance, since a huge public will be watching. Millions of lives could end up being shaped by this. Do you really want anonymous, unaccountable corporations to decide for you what's worthwhile seeing and/or listening?

  • Ages ago, I took trips from San Antonio to Waco. Along the way, we'd pass through the broadcast for the University of Texas in Austin's campus radio station. If we were lucky, we'd pass through at the right time to hear their comedy hour.

    I miss it...They used to play stuff like "Seven hillbillies in a haunted house," and "God told me to rob the 7-Eleven". I have NEVER found any tune I heard on that station ANYWHERE else. I'd seriously consider an act of maiming or other carnage for a chance to hear some of them again =)
  • OK, that was a flub (re. Javascript). Good point, sorry :)

    But the rudeness of site certainly affected me -- I get to their intro site, and hitting the "back" button only relooads it. (I'm using Netcape 4.7, haven't done it with Mozilla yet).

    timothy
  • I can already get close to seven hours of digital quality music on a single CD with the help of MPTrip portable CD player. And that's music that I want to hear - not stuff that's broadcasted at me. And those numbers will only grow, to the point where I can get literally hundreds of hours of the music I like to hear crammed on a DVD disc in MP[34] format and never have to worry about radio again. That stuff is just around the corner, literally. Sirius Radio bears many ominous similiarities to the last satellite-based debacle [slashdot.org] we had; they both seemed like a great idea when they were concieved 5-10 years ago, but technology has simply outpaced them as time was spent turning that conception into reality.

    --
  • This kind of thing would have been useful a decade ago. At this point, multicast technology is maturing to the point where we'll soon be able to have nearly infinite digital media capability without the ugly overhead of having to transmit a separate stream to each listener/viewer. At that point, everyone is a potential broadcaster, and the only difference between NBC and Joe Sixpak with a video camera is that the former has a bigger advertising budget.
    --
  • I would pay twice as much just to have a wider choice of music than is what currently broadcast on the radio. I work in a restaurant (yes, not exactly the ubergeek workplace of a regular slashdotter) and we have the celeste satellite music service, which provides roughly 30 different channels of music. And its not just any old crap that they can find. I was surprised that they were playing really good quality ambient music on the ambient channel. The quality of the broadcast is excellent (i think its exactly the same as cd)and its a whole lot better than searching for that elusive song on napster.

    What would really be convient with Sirius Radio is if you could connect it to a cd-r or mini-disc and make your own mix cd's which would actually be legal. And once again the quality would be relatively unaffected, especially if there is a way of sending the digital stream straight to your hardrive.

  • Form, DaimlerChrysler, and BMW are expected to offer Sirius Satellite Radio receivers in certain models beginning in 2001, with the subscription fee rolled up into the monthly lease or finance payment in some cases.

    Man, and people have conspiracy theories over the OnStar service that some vehicals come with. "Now Big Brother will not only know where you are, but what you're listening to!". Oh man.

    I would assume that you aren't forced into the service if you buy those cars and that it is considered a negotiable 'option' that you can refuse and, thus, not be charged for? Oh well, who cares -- apparently the service will only be available in yuppy cars. And only yuppies will fall for this gimmick in such droves as to make this a successful endeavor whatsoever. The same high-fashion wannabe yupsters who whip out that cell-phone at every chance will now have a new toy to impress the ladies and their friends. "I may have a teeny weeny, but I have digital radio!"

    Of course, if you already have a car, you can purchase the Sirius receiver system for about $150. Hm. Suddenly, this service doesn't sound so cheap as $9.95/mo.
    ---
    seumas.com

  • You just haven't seen those people live. They were some of the best comedians since the Second City came to town last year.
  • Hey, what the hell, since it's becoming ever easier to do such silliness, I'll toss in my own idea.

    Well, first you get VCs of course, but as I recall from a few weeks ago, for the talented, that isn't hard (certain full-motion video internet technologies come to mine...)

    1) Send up satellite. Start a website at www.ads.com (Administration that Don't Suck) (I'm sure the domain is available, if not I'll sue the squatting fuckers).
    2) Start broadcasting a TV channel called "Movies that Don't Suck". MoDS would go for weeks without repeating anything, and only shows old-but-good stuff.
    3) Launch the sister network, "Music that Don't Suck". Sucking is of course in my personal opinion. Yours will not be tolerated, and you will like it.
    4) Get a 50% market share in 6 months.
    5) Acquire AOL/Time Warner. Start showing first run films (Matrix II, Matrix III, come to mind) on MoDS. Likewise, brand spankin new Britney Spears would go only on MuDS.
    6) Use marketing power to disband the MPAA, RIAA, and other such shit.
    7) Acquire VA/Linux, Red Hat, Microsoft, and the FSF. Force RMS (through the use of crack commando squads) to denounce the GPL, and suddenly change the license to everything.
    8) Bundle Debian with AOL, Red Hat with MSN, and Windoze with pr0n (no need for browsers that way).
    9) Retire a happy multi-gillionaire.

    I figure I should be able to get this done within a few years? VC's, call me!

  • it's not the djs that suck, it's the commercials. Think about, what is the reason, 80% of the time, you change the station?
    --
  • Pray tell me how one gets one's message out as much as, say, Rush Limbaugh, when the big players in the media systematically refuse to carry your message.

    Oh, I don't know, you might start with talent and a message that people want to hear.

    Of course, "progressives" can't get on the radio because The Man(TM) is holding them back. It wouldn't have anything to do with ratings.

  • Dude, you are totally hepped up on goofballs.

    ....reads post again....

    This is doomed to repeat the failure of the Web.

    &#191Estanislao, como se dice "troll"?
    --
  • yup, that is a cool ass feature. And if you could press a button and buy the cd, it would be almost as good as Internet radio.

    Wireless, Ubiquitous, High-speed, IP.

    When?
    --
  • Sky Digital, who are responsible for the bulk of channels on the Astra 2A satellite, a full list of which can be found here [satlist.dk] already has, on transponder 25, 60 channels of nonstop no-DJ no-Ads channels of digital music. I guess it's not bad if you like that sort of thing, but I'm willing to put up with short commercials if there's a decent DJ who can liven up the programming.

    About 15 of these channels are part of the standard SKY Digital subscription [sky.com] with the remainder being a pay-for add on option. I don't see any figures showing how many people actually take them up.

    I'm happy with the programme content of that system, but I'm sometimes vigen to wonder what happens to all the data that their 'free' recievers collect. To get a free dish and box, you have to agree to have your box connected to the phone line for 12 months, and each week, the box sends back a list of what you have watched. If this is compiled for advertising revenue ratings purposes, fair enough, but the possibility for abuse is huge.

    Finally, if you want inane background music for shops, it's also there. A number of stores use satelite radio for their background muzak. ASDA (a UK supermarket group) have their Asda FM on the Astra 1 analogue satelite, and Costcutter (a smaller UK chain) use Astra 1D.
  • It's one of those parallel worlds novels, in which many different versions of the world exist, some better and some worse than ours. In one of the better ones, the radios display the name of the song and artist (yeah, yeah, computer CD and MP3 players can do this now). So what does this have to do with this article? Well, according to the web site, the proposed radios will have this feature.
  • You know, public radio has very few commercials. Excpept for the member drives. Give them money and they shut, though.
  • ...but you don't have a good reason to be. Just because morons like Penis Bird Guy can't do anything about you, doesn't mean I can't. Check the sid. I posted AC of course, but I'm there.
    --Shoeboy
  • AS a former college DJ, I can tell you that the broad range of stuff that you can get away with on a college station is great, but satellite is not going to be like that.

    A playlist on college radio:

    • Siouxise and the Banshees
    • Me arguing with my girlfriend on the phone
    • The Chiffons
    • The Pogues
    • The Old 97s
    • Me arguing with my girlfriend, then explaining to my 4 listeners (two of whom were speed freak roomies) that we were fighting over the rent and her reticence about buggering.
    • The Replacements
    • Girlfriend bursting into studio and throwing my clothes and dog at me.
    • The Clash
    • Eddy Izzard routine
    • Station Manager calls to scream at me.
    • On Air Bong Hit
    • Girlfriend calls to say she's sorry. Consents to anal sex.
    • X
    • The Drifters
    • A surf tune
    • Show ends with me telling some shitty story about how life sucks and quoting Bataille.

    See, satellite will never be like college radio. You might hear the same music but you won't hear freaks talk their girlfriend's into cornholing.

  • "Last I checked, the US (which is not a free country, since every aspect of life is largely controlled by megacorps) has never forced anyone to watch the total crap the networks put on TV, eat the crap food the food establishments like McDonalds advertise there, drink the piss-poor beer that dominates 85% of the market, and so on. Still, that's what most unitedstatesians do."

    First of all, we're called Americans. Unitedstatesians is not a word.

    Second, your comment is a complete load of bullshit. The United States *is* a free (as in speech, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) country. "Megacorps" do not tell me when to wake up, when to eat and what to eat, when to sleep and what pillow to buy, and how many times a day I should pray. Case in point: I *don't* pray. By contrast, there are places in the world where people are told to obey or die. Therein lies the difference, which you don't seem to grasp.

    "Even if people are not forced to take this service, what's put on it is of essential importance, since a huge public will be watching. Millions of lives could end up being shaped by this. Do you really want anonymous, unaccountable corporations to decide for you what's worthwhile seeing and/or listening?"

    You're right, what they broadcast is of essential importance. Not enough content or too many commercials will, without a doubt, end the service. On the other hand, you ludicrously overestimate the power of the medium.

    "Millions of lives could end up being shape by this."

    Specifically, what you refer to with that statement is the content of the service. Unless they implement some kind of subliminal messages, I'm skeptical how many lives will be "shaped" by niche radio stations.

    The last statement in your comment is a rant about anonymous, unaccountable corporations making decisions for people. The company is hardly anonymous, and is probably accountable to investors who will no doubt closely monitor subscription rates. The fact that they will ultimately decide what the content is really isn't all that different from the current radio model. Listeners can call in and request songs, but the DJs and station owners still make the final choices of what to broadcast.

  • "The Establishment"?

    Yes, the Establishment [fair.org]. The handful of media corporations that overwhelmingly produce the content most seen in the world.

    No one is stoping them, after all the USA is a Free country. If they want to get their message out they can.

    Pray tell me how one gets one's message out as much as, say, Rush Limbaugh, when the big players in the media systematically refuse to carry your message.

  • That's the big question. I'd definitely be interested if I could escape advertisers, but I can't imagine that they'd igonore such a major revenue generator. I didn't catch any indication of which way that wind was blowing in the Wired article....
  • Being an instructor of Java, I must correct the (once again) misconception that Java and Javascript are the same thing. They are not. Thank you for playing.

  • I just finished watching my recently-procured goose porno, Geese Us H. Fleiss, starring famous Hollywood "madam" Heidi Fleiss. It is a must-see for all goosophiles.
    Okay Reverend, that's just fucking disgusting. Geese are sensitive animals that need to be treated with love and respect. You don't use a goose for mere pleasure (which is all that happened in that video) you have to treat the goose like a lover and a partner. I don't think this is going to work out at all. And to think, I was all ready and willing to let you beat me senseless and urinate on my unconscious form. Well you can forget about that. You redneck reactionaries are all alike - You fail to recognize that animals need to be treated with respect.
    --Shoeboy
  • First of all, we're called Americans. Unitedstatesians is not a word.

    You insist irrationally on being called "americans". But an american is someone from the continent of america, which spans from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

    Second, your comment is a complete load of bullshit. The United States *is* a free (as in speech, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) country.

    Tell that to the FBI. They seem to have forgotten it [icdc.com].

    Anyway, the wealth of the US, and the "freedoms" that accompany it, are founded on economic exploitation and the support of murderous thugs in the third world. A beautiful idea of "freedom" you have, that stands on this basis.

    "Megacorps" do not tell me when to wake up, when to eat and what to eat, when to sleep and what pillow to buy, and how many times a day I should pray.

    Do you have a job at all? What do you eat and drink, and when?

    Specifically, what you refer to with that statement is the content of the service. Unless they implement some kind of subliminal messages, I'm skeptical how many lives will be "shaped" by niche radio stations.

    This is a truly stupid statement. Do you really believe that what you see and hear does not have any effect on you? Do you really believe that the way you interact with the people and institutions of your society has no effect on you?

    The last statement in your comment is a rant about anonymous, unaccountable corporations making decisions for people. The company is hardly anonymous, and is probably accountable to investors who will no doubt closely monitor subscription rates.

    You just proved my point. The corporation is not accountable to the listeners. And the decision making is anonymous and unexamined by the general public.

    A corporation is a totalitarian organization. It is a private dictatorship. If you reject totalitarianism, you must reject corporations.

    The fact that they will ultimately decide what the content is really isn't all that different from the current radio model. Listeners can call in and request songs, but the DJs and station owners still make the final choices of what to broadcast.

    You have assumed that the current radio model is ok. And even worse, like a totally stereotypical slashbot "geek" with no social and communal conscience whatsoever, you have assumed that radio == music. Pathetic.

  • cid=5, cid=17 and cid=23
    See an optometrist trollboy.
    --Shoeboy

  • I listened to about half of the samples they have (the RealAudio ones) and there didn't seem to be much on them that you wouldn't get through analog radio anyway. (Lack of commercials aside.)

    If anything like this ever becomes popular, I hope it's because it tries new ideas and doesn't just keep playing the same big label stuff repeatedly but through a different medium.


    ===
  • I like music as much as the next guy but I'm always disappointed by the lack of non-music radio programming. Radio is good for a much wider range of content. When you have to spend a lot of time in the car wouldn't it be great if you could get real brain food from your radio instead of a thousand channels of mindless thump-thump-thump and the same endless repetition over and over of skimmed news headlines and sickeningly predictable political sound bites.

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • The one advantage Radio has over your CD collection is that it can introduce you to new music. If there was a local rock/goth/industrial music station, I'd listen to it, purely to hear music I might like that I've never heard of before.
  • I agree! Having lived in rural Montana, rural Wyoming, rural Colorado, rural California, rural Nevada, rural Kansas, rural Arkansas, rural Mississippi, rural Oklahoma, rural Georgia mountains, rural Texas, and rural Alabama, $10 a month for a choice of radio stations is cheap to me.

    Just because there is no discernible market in one's domain does not mean there's not a market in someone else's domain. For those of us who actually live in the hinterlands and actually travel the hinterlands, this is quite attractive.

    -

    I like Dr. Demento, news-talk radio, techno, progressive rock, and foreign language broadcasts (gotta practice dem accents!). [And, when there is something particularly interesting or onerous going through the local or Federal governments, I want to keep track of it.]

    But, there is absotively, posilutely NONE, here. No Demento. No techno. No progressive rock. No talk radio. I've done everything short of leasing a direct line to radio stations to get a signal. [For some reason Dr. Demento, AgDay, and Kraftwerk are not found on the same radio station ... Here, anyway.]

    -

    So, I turned to the net.

    There are NO good ISPs, here, for netcasts. The regional vice-president of the telephone company said there will NEVER be ADSL in this STATE. The telco does offer ISDN for a mere $70-100 a month with a three year guaranteed contract, a $300-500 installation fee, a second telephone line at $25 a month, and a non-guarantee of up to 256kps ... Then, of course, you still have to spend another $20 a month for an ISP ... *IF* you can find one that supports ISDN.

    The local ISPs depend upon the marginal service of the telco, so, everything comes to a congested halt. [Three-odd years ago, when I was desperate to transfer some business files, I couldn't get the local ISP modems to answer. I tried AOL. I couldn't get an answer, there, either. I kept calling and complaining to the ISP and AOL that their services would not answer. They said they had no one logged in and no problems reported. We tracked it down to the telco who had severed a fiber line: my modem went to an unconnected circuit; the ISPs modems went to unconnected circuits. The telco said nothing and the ISPs got a black eye.]

    The ONLY cable television company changed their official response from "never" to "no plans."

    For the DirecPC advocates, I live on the wrong side of the hill.

    So, for this hinterland location and my wants and needs, I think digital subscriber radio is feasible.

    -

    Also, I think this digital subscriber radio service is good for when I leave this hinterland and go to another.

    I (too-) frequently drive from this location to Las Vegas, Reno, San Diego, and other parts west. I estimate that for well-over 80% of the trip, there is no desirable-to-me radio programming.

    While I do load up the MP3 player and carry lots of CDs and cassettes and books-on-non-print-media, sometimes I just want to hear news, talk, sports, weather and road conditions, whatever, coming from a LIVE human voice.

    And, in my experiences, unlike the promises of the manufacturers, the cellular telephone/mobile ISP coverage does not exist, yet. [And, adding $1 per minute for six or seven minutes, just to go to a specific point on the web only to find that there is net congestion and I cannot hear the weather through the computer/ISP ("Please try, again, later.") is a little rich for me.]

    -

    So, on the one hand, national digital subscriber radio sounds impractical and niche. But, on the other hand, it sounds quite attractive. It all depends upon your individual and geographical wants and needs.

    -

    P.S. In 1994, when I moved to my current location in this uninhabited area, I needed a pager for work. I called Sk*P*g* who advertise 100% coverage of the US. They said they had no coverage in my area. "But, you advertise that you have 100% coverage of the US!" "Yes, we do. And, we do have 100% coverage of the US. But we have no coverage in your area." I guess '100% coverage' depends upon what your definition of 100% is ...

    P.P.S. There is a major national airline which is constantly bombarded by customer requests for inflight pay radio to listen to a particular radio talkshow, either live or recorded. While most of their customer balk at the $3-5 inflight movie headset rental, they claim that the average offer is $10 for a flight's worth of pre-recorded radio broadcast.

    P.P.P.S. I think I remember some of these same 'against' arguments were used for pay-tv, cellular, pager services, ISPs, owning your own telephone ...

    -
  • I believe that satellite radio from Sirius and XM will probably be a success. There's still a large percentage of people that don't know what MP3 is, let alone have an MP3 player in their car. Programming from radio also doesn't have to be music. Talk radio is the largest money making genre on radio and obviously it doesn't lend itself to mp3 format. Talk radio is all about interaction with the audience and allowing people to call in to voice their opinions. The problem is that if you're in the middle of Montana, odds are you're only going to hear Rush Limbaugh and the rantings of militia groups. Also think about people that have to do a lot of traveling for their jobs. If they drive several hours a day, now they can at least sit back and listen to the same music channel, genre, whatever. you're not forever searching for the "alternative station" in each city you drive through. Many people listen to radio because you discover new music. Obviously this is an area where mp3 is lacking. For the most part, people download or rip music they know. Very few new music discoveries are made via mp3. This is really a mass-market technology, designed for audience much wider than the people that read slashdot. It's a model based on DirecTV, Dish network, et al. Who would have though that cable tv would prosper... "pay for tv when you can get it for free... never!" Who would have thought that satellite tv would grow so fast. Internet music is cool, but it's not convenient for most people. My parents don't listen to mp3, does yours? However, my parents do have DirecTV and when they buy a new car, if satellite radio is available, they'd probably accept that. Think mass market people... not geek market.

  • Oooooh, a press release. DMX + Music Choice exist (Score:3)

    by hatless ( 8275 ) on Sunday July 09, 2000 @03:56AM (#948420)
    So there's another company trying to compete with DMX, MusicChoice, Muzak and SkyRadio. Their one hook is that they're trying to be the first to get portable and mobile receivers made, which will go thr way of the dodo, quadraphonics, 8-track and AM stereo if the receivers are designed only to hook to their system.

    Satellite and cable narrowcast "radio" stations have been around for some years now. And yes, while DMX and Sky are available to digital cable and home sattelite customers at home, their core revenue source is commercial subscribers: shops, restaurants, offices, buildings and so forth, which pay a higher fee.

    There's certainly a niche for this sort of thing for mobile delivery. But it's going to be short-lived. Once wireless broadband rolls out in larger metropolitan areas in a couple of years, you'll be able to listen to your favorite high-bandwidth streaming audio services--or even access the MP3 jukebox you have at home, for that matter. Of course, there will have to be a way to make up for the lost visual ad revenue for some streaming stations, but that will probably come from ISPs paying a blanket charge covering all of their subscribers, just as cable and satellite TV companies pay fees to providers of the "basic cable" channels.
  • Well, you could join us...
    ...I'm feeling a bit masochistic tonight.
    Well hell, with an offer like that I don't know how I could refuse. 2 questions though,
    1) do you live in the Seattle area?
    2) do you mind having your feet slobbered on?
    I'm a bit of a switch, so if you feel sadistic on other nights that's perfectly fine.
    Feel free to email me.
    --Shoeboy
  • Political attire channel? About power ties, Armani suits, etc? Seems like it could get rather dull.
  • You seem to be under the delusional capitalist idea of "private property". The idea that the means of production can be legitimately "owned" by corporations in the same sense as people own their personal possessions.

    Think about your toothbrush and a factory: are they the same sort of thing? Are the effects on society of putting each of them under absolute control of some individuals the same? Of course not. Putting your toothbrush under your absolute control has no ill effect on society; however, putting the means of production under the control of a few divides society into a minority of powerful owners and a minority of alienated workers.

    All right, I'm ready to rumble about the ills of socialism. Your entire point seems to be that you're tired about who owns the means of production. I've got news for you, buddy, under socialism, communism, stateism, anarchism, whateverism, you still have the same thing. There is still the elite managers who decide what gets produced, with even less responsiveness on what gets produced. I don't like whatever food a particular resturaunt serves, I vote with my wallet and don't go there, I go to the place across the street that serves better food. If enough people don't like a place, then that place will either change itself to make it more likable, or it will go out of business, it's that simple. There is very little in a true capitalistic state stopping you from going out and competing against anyone to get business.

    Same argument works for satellites. Do you really want communication, the activity that makes us human, controlled by a small group of people whose interests are contrary to yours?

    See above, if I don't like their programming, I don't subscribe to their service, and/or, I pony up the few million dollars and launch my own competing service.

    I will agree that capitalism has it's problems, but it has fewer problems than socialism and stateism when changing the human condition to reach the unnatainable state of happiness for everybody.

  • every red-blooded male in my hometown has mounted a goose above his fireplace.
    WOW!! You must have pretty big mantles on your fireplaces to allow you to climb up there and hump a goose. That's got to cost a fortune. Why on top of the fireplace anyway, isn't the bedroom a bit more comfy?

    --Shoeboy
  • Now we'll have thousands of hack Dr. Lauras, Gordon Liddies, Rush Limbaughs, Michael Reagans, Joy Browns and Art Bells instead of a few.

    Part of me thinks that this is a great idea. Hell, some form of competition to the tradtional forms of transmission and media usually is. I'm just not convinced it will offer anything I will care to pay for. I have my CD's and MP3's. What else do I need? If I want non-stop Industrial music, I'll pop a bunch of discs into my changer or fire up a decent playlist in my MP3 player.

    I would think the lure of targetted demographics would be enough to land some advertisers and, by removing any subscription free, they would find that they could gain a pretty hefty base of listeners.

    Then again, look at all the idiots who actually pay for Cable because they feel it's such a necessity that they'll croak without it.
    ---
    seumas.com

  • I've got three quarts of motor oil, six feet of rubber tubing, a yak, and a crate full of cock rings just ready and rarin' to go!
    Wow! I need to buy an airline ticket to wherever it is that you are. Do you mind if I bring my pet goose [pornopartners.com]?
    --Shoeboy

  • Re:Who really needs digital radio? (Score:3)

    by spudnic ( 32107 ) on Saturday July 08, 2000 @07:23PM (#948453)
    I can't believe this attitude. I've been following this for quite some time and personally can't wait for it to happen.

    Yeah yeah, I've got tons of mp3's burned on cd to handle most of my music cravings, but this is so much more.

    I spend a LOT of time in my car, often times driving in rural areas where reception is shotty at best. The idea of being able to pick up NPR at anytime, anywhere I am is great!

    They're working with the Sci-Fi channel for doing original programming... and old-time radio shows... news... and great late night talk shows so that I won't have to change channels every 15 minutes driving down the interstate to keep listening to "Dreamland".

    Will I listen to it at home? No, probably not. They understand this. That's why they are targeting users in their car!

    Will I pay $9.95 a month for this? I can't wait to.

  • Whoever put this web site together is definitely in search of their first clue.
  • I don't get it.
    5, 17, 23
    Think about it.
    Do you get it now?
    If not, you need to think harder.
    --Shoeboy
  • Ok, you have a fowl sense of humor and can improvise as well as I can. I'm impressed. I'm going home now. Goodnight.
    --Shoeboy

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