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Post by bonnevillemariner on Apr 5, 2013 8:13:20 GMT -7
Hey Danny, a friendly word of advice if you'd like retromediaallstars to catch on: Focus less on streaming via the website and more on mobile delivery. It's one thing to make your stream work on a phone, but it's quite another to make it work well. People don't want to bring it up in a mobile browser-- too many extra steps. Will it play in the background so other apps can be used? What happens when the screen locks? Do listeners have to pinch zoom to hit the button accurately? Do they have to re-click your button to reacquire a dropped stream? If so, you won't get past a cursory glance.
Hire somebody to write an app, a simple app that features a familiar audio interface (pretty standard across streaming apps). Make it listenable in the background and in lock screen mode. Incorporate ads and, more importantly, a sharing option that allows listeners to share your stream on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Publish the stream URL to prominent apps like TuneIn (for listeners who would rather listen to all their streams in one app).
Worry less about the video. There's a lot of hype about streaming video these days, but honestly it's still a novelty. People don't have time to watch a radio show. If streaming video is important to you, keep it on the website. People are more likely to watch if their sitting at a computer. They won't watch on their phone.
It sounds like you've got great content; now you need to focus on proper delivery.
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Post by egnlsn on Apr 5, 2013 8:39:03 GMT -7
An app would be good. Perhaps, check into getting RetroMediaAllstars added to some of the music services such as TuneIn Radio (app) and RadioSure (client). Those are apps or standalone clients that let people tune into radio stations from around the globe; some regular radio stations that also stream, while some are internet only. The one that I would like most to see is vTuner. They offer 48 stations from Utah -- a few internet only and a few AM stations, while the rest are FM stations; HD1, HD2, and so on. There are a lot of A/V receivers that have vtuner as part of the receiver.
You also need to setup a Facebook page, making it so much easier to get the word out about this fabulous, new station.
BonnevilleMariner brings up a good point about streaming video. While streaming video is cool and all that, realistically, how many people are going to watch it on their mobile device? Streaming video eats up battery and draws a lot of processor resources.
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Post by danny on Apr 7, 2013 9:55:00 GMT -7
thanks ever so much. This whole thing is a little daunting to me, but I have to remember to take it one step at a time. This is a whole new world to me, so advice is always welcome and I am attempting to surround myself with some smart folks who can help me make this a success. Not gonna allow the big boys to knock us down and feel that they have won. I am passing your suggestions on to my Tech/Engineer, and will take the next strides to pulling this off. I am really pleased with the feedback from the first group to respond to the music and the mix. Need to make it readily and easily accessible to the masses. Any further suggestions are always accepted with my great thanks.
Danny
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Post by egnlsn on Apr 7, 2013 11:38:06 GMT -7
I absolutely love the music and the mix. Perfect blend of All American Classics and Adult Standards. I've looked around for several years, and I've found no place like it. Thanks so much for bringing this GREAT sound back!
Now, if you only could get Hans Petersen to come onboard...
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Post by egnlsn on Apr 7, 2013 13:03:20 GMT -7
If 19.5 were running right now (with Mark & Gail on 12-3 and Danny on 3-6), what would the other 18 hours consist of. Would it just be a simulcast of 19.1 as it is now, or would it be audio only of RetroMediaAllstars.com. Perhaps the streaming audio, and the video portion could be the homepage of RetroMediaAllstars.com?
If you recommend 19.5 to people because of the great music and wonderful personalities there and they tune in to see a '40's or '50's movie or TV show (the same thing that is on 19.1), they're not gonna return.
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Apr 7, 2013 21:29:02 GMT -7
I would strongly recommend a plain vanilla MP3 audio stream that's easy to find on the website. That will work with anything and it's simple for the listener to start. If you want the apps or Flash or whatever, that's fine too, but a lot of people are just not going to bother jumping through hoops. (I'm one of them.) This way, you just click, the audio player on your device loads and starts playing. No fuss.
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Post by bonnevillemariner on Apr 8, 2013 7:38:55 GMT -7
I would strongly recommend a plain vanilla MP3 audio stream that's easy to find on the website. That will work with anything and it's simple for the listener to start. If you want the apps or Flash or whatever, that's fine too, but a lot of people are just not going to bother jumping through hoops. (I'm one of them.) This way, you just click, the audio player on your device loads and starts playing. No fuss. I think a vanilla mp3 stream would be great for listening via the website on a computer, but not for mobile listening. I'd definitely go app and/or published stream to an existing service. KSL did it right. They've got their app, within which I'm two taps away from their stream. They've also published their stream URL so I can listen to it via multiple other players. I find myself doing both quite often. What I don't find myself doing (and will probably never do) is navigate to their website in my mobile browser and pinch navigate to their stream button. A dedicated app or published feed via an aggregation app (no flash, please) is not jumping thru hoops. Trying to listen on a mobile device via the website is definitely jumping thru hoops. Cawasinnj, I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. Are you saying you'd rather bring up the website on your phone and pinch navigate to the stream button (then tap your screen every 2 minutes to keep the screen active) than to simply launch an app and tap 'Play'? |
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Post by danny on Apr 8, 2013 7:49:47 GMT -7
Keep your ideas a'comin. At this point, a person can go to the website and with a simple click of the earphones at the top you go to the stream. We hope to streamline that, as there is a "listen live" little button that is the second and last step. We need to decide how much or little to do with the tv stream. The channel is mine for the use and originally we had planned on streaming both audio and video on 19.5 24/7. But that's down the line on my priority list and I have to take a deep breath daily and get the most important things either done or well into being done. Right now I am totally
involved in getting the music right and of course getting the word out. The KDYL audience wasn't especially large but had some major problems with low power at night, and power cutback in the winter and of course the AM signal, but listeners were loyal and now have no place to turn. And we hope to let everyone know that this is easily accessible and as long as we can continue to get some advertisers, we can make an impact. We will limit the spots and with long music sets, hopefully this will be a destination spot for this music. Thanks for all you provide through this board.
Danny
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Post by bonnevillemariner on Apr 8, 2013 8:10:55 GMT -7
We need to decide how much or little to do with the tv stream. The channel is mine for the use and originally we had planned on streaming both audio and video on 19.5 24/7. But that's down the line on my priority list and I have to take a deep breath daily and get the most important things either done or well into being done. Most successful streaming operations started out pretty focused on programming and audio. Once that's down pat, they start delving into video. If you've got the tech and are all set up for the TV, might as well keep it going, but your audience's primary gateway to it will be the audio. Get them hooked with an easily-accessed audio stream, then bring them to the video. The KDYL audience wasn't especially large but had some major problems with low power at night, and power cutback in the winter and of course the AM signal, but listeners were loyal and now have no place to turn. What, you don't think they'll tune into in-depth Chinese analysis of 90's pop or Mandarin Today! on KDYL?  |
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Post by egnlsn on Apr 8, 2013 13:53:20 GMT -7
Keep your ideas a'comin. At this point, a person can go to the website and with a simple click of the earphones at the top you go to the stream. If only it were always that easy. With a good WiFi connection, it takes a minimum of 4 or 5 attempts (an attempt is tap the headphones and then tap the play button on the next page) on my phone to get to the music. With no WiFi connection (just 3G) this morning, after 15 attempts on one browser and 6 or 7 more with another browser, I gave up. A few hours later, I tried again to no avail. After I got home I tried again. Five attempts and I was there. I shouldn't have to tap 8 or 10 times to listen to the music I want. Not exactly mobile friendly (at least for Android, anyway).  An app for Android would take care of that. Never an issue on my desktop. Sounds fabulous!!! ;D |
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Apr 9, 2013 1:14:39 GMT -7
I'm not saying that. I'm saying there should be a URL that could be put into a standard MP3 player (I use Winamp myself but there are plenty) and then you don't need to go looking anywhere at all. It's as simple as making a PLS file with the stream information in it. Then I can use whatever MP3 player I want and even change it and I can still just load the PLS file and play the stream.
As for hoops, if I want to sample a radio station and I have to do anything like downloading something, I'm almost certainly not going to do it. I have a player I like that conforms to standards. I don't want more junk cluttering up my computer. I think it's fine to offer that for those who get really into the station, but for the casual listener or the browsing listener it's going to be a turn off.
Danny, the listen live link you referred to at the top has a few problems. First and foremost, for the large and growing part of the internet community that doesn't allow scripting (which nobody should by default) there no indication that there's any stream available at all. The logo just loops back to the same page. The only way I found it was by reading the page source code. I'm probably the only one who did that. Once I got to the streamlicensing site, the player needs scripting also and it's Flash. I don't run Flash, and it isn't even an option on some platforms like iPhones. (And don't get me started on the security issues of Flash.) The good news is that reading through the source code it looks like a straight mp3 stream is available, though how the URL is put together I'm not quite sure. And one last piece of advice: before you try to solicit former KDYL listeners, make sure all this stuff is nailed down tight. If you get someone to visit the site and they run into the problems that we've been talking about here, they're pretty much gone for good and won't be back.
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Post by bonnevillemariner on Apr 9, 2013 19:30:52 GMT -7
I'm not saying that. I'm saying there should be a URL that could be put into a standard MP3 player (I use Winamp myself but there are plenty) and then you don't need to go looking anywhere at all. It's as simple as making a PLS file with the stream information in it. Then I can use whatever MP3 player I want and even change it and I can still just load the PLS file and play the stream. I don't think we're understanding each other. I believe you're talking about desktop listening and possibly devices running the Android OS. I'm talking about mobile listening and specifically IOS. For desktop listening and for Android phones with something like Winamp installed, I agree about a the mp3 stream. But I want to be clear that online audio providers will never, ever get listeners by requiring that they stream through the mobile browser. As for hoops, if I want to sample a radio station and I have to do anything like downloading something, I'm almost certainly not going to do it. I have a player I like that conforms to standards. I don't want more junk cluttering up my computer. I think it's fine to offer that for those who get really into the station, but for the casual listener or the browsing listener it's going to be a turn off. Again, I'm not advocating requiring listeners to download anything when listening via desktop. With mobile, you have various options depending on OS. In general, I believe Android will open a straight mp3 stream in whatever default player you've got, just like a desktop. Not so with IOS. On Apple products, you open an app and click play. Many stations have their own app, which allows them to control the look, customize interaction, and deliver ads. Others publish their URL to directories that apps like TuneIn use, so they open TuneIn and select their station from favorites. These are both familiar, stable ways to deliver audio and interact with listeners. The other option, which Retromediaallstars currently employs, is the least effective (and most maddening). You must pinch navigate the browser and listen via the browser's native player. As an avid listener to online media via mobile, and somebody who runs pretty extensively in those circles, I think KSL has the right idea. Their app has a streaming feature, plus I can access their stream via numerous other apps. For instance, they offer an extremely low bitrate stream which I access via TuneIn or OoTunes when I'm not on WiFi and don't want to use too much data. KSL is ubiquitous on mobile. It's easy to find and access. That's what Danny needs if he's to succeed here. As an online stream provider, he'll be competing with thousands upon thousands of other online stream providers. He thinks his station is good (and I agree), but I can think of about 85 similar stations that are one finger tap away via mobile app. So he needs a leg up. A nice looking app and a stable stream will go a long way toward bringing in and keeping listeners. Don't discount the value of social media and the power of integrating that capability into the listening interface. And one last piece of advice: before you try to solicit former KDYL listeners, make sure all this stuff is nailed down tight. If you get someone to visit the site and they run into the problems that we've been talking about here, they're pretty much gone for good and won't be back. Absolutely agreed. |
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Apr 10, 2013 0:40:25 GMT -7
I don't want to discount anything. Make it as easy as possible, including just grabbing a standard MP3 stream. I know iOS does some really bizarre things, so that has to be considered as well.
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Post by egnlsn on Apr 10, 2013 6:55:10 GMT -7
Any particular reason the audio stream isn't currently running on 19.5? I know that OTA is last on the list of priorities, and do I understand that you want to get everything running flawlessly before going on TV.
Every now and then, I do a scan to see if there's anything new out there (or something has gone away). Others do that as well. What better way is there to get out the word about RetroMediaAllstars than making it available as much as possible. Have, as the video portion, the homepage alternating with the "About" page. That would also increase exposure for your sponsors.
That way, people could run across the great music by accident. As it is now, nobody could.
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Post by danny on Apr 26, 2013 9:58:39 GMT -7
Whew...been to busy of late, but that's a good thing. quickly, want you to know we are working on apps
for Apple and Android. At this time Mark and Gayle and I and Greg Carlisle and his broadcast partner Mike (UVU professor and audio genius) are our live folks. Hope to add more in the future, but the music is the star of this thing and I'm happy to track and play the music the other off-hours. And the TV thing is gonna happen, but not on my to-do list at the moment. You can scan the 19 channels and get what programming they are sending out, and in time I will have content and to what degree or which stream I will determine as time allows. Right now I'm working with some really smart folks with marketing and will have some interns from a few of the Local universities and we will get this thing working as well as I had hoped. For now I have to remember to take baby steps and not eye that elephant as a full meal...you know that silly metaphor. Thanks for any kind words. you probably have no idea how much work is involved in trying to create all facets of a radio station with a minimal
number of helpers. Quite a challenge, but it's truly gonna be worth it.
Danny
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An app for Android would take care of that.