Indie Spectrum Radio

Silas Scarborough · Indie Spectrum Radio

I never screwed around with this station too much but it's pretty cool. You can check it out at http://www.Indiespectrum.com. What's cool about it for me is that it comes in through iTunes and I can see the song name and performer. It also works for other audio players; it's not just a Mac thing.

Fox has asked people to provide links to it from their Web sites and I'm more than happy to do that. You're linked, Fox.

So what if you hear SL music and have no idea who it is. Indie Spectrum not only identifies the performer but also provides the performer's Web site and you may be surprised at how many people have signed up there. I had never even heard of ByrneDarkly Cazelet before and right now I'm listening to one of the most gorgeous songs I've ever heard. So far, almost all of them have been full band arrangements. This is up there with the best music I've ever heard in SL and it's been one after the other like that!

Very cool.

It should be possible to pick it up on an iPhone - I'll check that out and update.

isfullofcrap

I'll add it to my links list. Thanks.

Silas Scarborough

Pandora is one of the apps used for streaming radio stations to an iPhone. However, it locates stations by performer, composer, or song name. I know JueL is there but it couldn't find her. I tried various combinations to get a hit on IndieSpectrum but had no luck. There's a free version of Pandora with ads and a pay version but I don't know what the pay version costs.

Fox, I guess this means there's something else you need to be publishing / transmitting to provide that information.

There's also Pocket Tunes Radio for ten bucks or Wunder Radio for five bucks. It's tough to tell which would be the best but PTR supports the highest-quality audio. What I need to know now is what quality Indie Spectrum broadcasts as it's got to be aacPlus V2 as there's no point in spending the extra five bucks if it doesn't support it. Both of these apparently work by URL rather than search. More to come...

Fox_Reinsch · IndieSpectrum Radio on iTunes

Thanks for the post Silas,

I am not sure if you figured it out by clicking on the iTunes link at indiespectrum.com or if you searched radio stations in iTunes. If you do open iTunes and click Radio Stations it is under the genre of "Eclectic". Since I play everyones music it is an eclectic mix, the full "spectrum".

It was a huge hassle to get it listed on iTunes but I think it was worth it as it exposes the whole RL world to the music in SL. Also I elected to put the artists web addresses in iTunes instead of the default of indiespectrum.com. That required that I put the web url in the tag of every song that I have in the play list, at this point 663 orginal tracks.

Besides seeing who is playing in iTunes you can in world too! I have free virtual audio racks with who is playing on them and several IndieSpectrum Logo signs that show who is playing and who last played.

IM me in world, or get them from SLeXchange and rez one at your SL place.

http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules....0&&sort=price&dir=asc

Don't you just love all the great music in SL?

Fox

Silas Scarborough

By 'full spectrum,' I take it to mean you're broadcasting all different audio qualities so getting software specific to aacPlus V2 won't gain me anything. This is in reference to pulling you in on an iPhone.

I'm interested in the virtual audio rack and I'll get that set up as soon as possible but I don't go into SL all that much for reasons that don't need to come out here.

I'll tell you straight if it looks like your station starts to dominate in SL, I'll be jumping off and the reason is that I want to promote competition to prevent the Clear Channel effect and what it did to FM radio in RL.

As to the tags you're sending, you might want to look at what others you can send as it was disappointing that search in Pandora didn't find anything. I'll try looking for it in iTunes on the iPhone and see if it turns up there.

EvaMoon

I added the indie spectrum link to my site too. I already had you in iTunes, but I checked the radio listings and saw you in eclectic as well.

I wonder why iTunes won't let me search radio? It would be a useful feature.

Heh. I just turned it on and Silas was on! 'There will come'

Silas Scarborough

Silas Scarborough

The Wunder Radio app from wunderground.com goes for $5.99 at the iPhone app store and it pulls in IndieSpectrum just fine. It's a little annoying to have to enter the URL to find it but you can add it to Favorites so it's only necessary once. Note, if you kick out of the app, the audio will stop. This is not a multi-processing app. (This is not an app fault but rather a limitation of iPhone architecture. It's an easy bet that will change over time.)

The audio quality is adequate when played through the iPhone speakers but it can range up to excellent through headphones depending on the quality of the original file.

Fox, you need to get the station listed on more directories so more people can find you. As it stands, there's not a single search I've tried that has found it.

And there's Anj Gustafson with "Slipstream" - Very, very cool.

Hey, there's EvaMoon again! "Roadzilla"

(I"ll send you a bill for the car charger I'm now going to need for the iPhone!)

Fox_Reinsch · The tunes on IndieSpectrum

I don't claim that all the artists on ISR perform live in SL. Allthough I found them all of them through SL.

Some of them I never heard live in SL. Some did fantastic virtual performances such as Didier's band, Strangefates. Didier of course performs live acoustic and his new band Bouski has made several live full band performances.

I would love to hear ByrneDarkley peform live, her band COAL is some of the best music I have ever heard. Byrne is very active in SL but with visual art not music. She has a SL art gallery called The Tart Gallery. I know that several of her friends are after her to perform live. I am sure she would be great, even solo.

Fox

Fox_Reinsch

Hi Silas,

You said:

Fox, you need to get the station listed on more directories so more people can find you. As it stands, there's not a single search I've tried that has found it.

I think you mean Internet station directories on the web not directories in SL.

Most of them seem to require that I am playing ASCAP or BMI with royalties and of course that is a big thing with ISR. I am not playing covers with copyright royalties due to the music Mafia but playing the orginal works of SL artists with permission.

Also I think you mentioned Pandora, that is a stream provider that lets the listener pick what kind of music they like not a Internet station list.

There are many of them that require you join and pay them for a membership, can't afford that but I will search for more that don't require money.

BTW the "Spectrum" in IndieSpectrum has nothing to do with bandwidth or streaming, just I play a full spectrum of music from indie artists. I will even play Rap or Hip Hop if someone sends it; maybe..........

Fox

richdesoto

Hmmmm... IndieSpectrum. Yeh, I think I've heard of it.

Very Happy

Silas Scarborough

Fox, if it walks and talks like an Internet radio station then it might be a duck but I'd be guessing it's a radio station; it just isn't listed in that many places.

I'm not clear on royalties and why you would have to pay them. No need to name anyone but has the question been asked? I'm not getting the problem if no-one is doing covers.

Here's one for you: I've just released a CD so I'd like to make a short sound-bite to pimp it. The question to you is about a fee to run it. No need to name that fee here as we can get into that privately. I raise the question here as it's something Cher might want to consider as well. A wee bit of advertising could be helpful to performers without, hopefully, alienating listeners.

Silas Scarborough

What's become of Fox??

ticious

I dunno, I saw him at Nad's opening last night, so he's in world. Maybe try contacting him there. He may just not be checking the forum regularly.

Silas Scarborough

Thanks, I'll try it

Bibi Ballinger

He's definitely around. He was at Pranksters last night.

Silas Scarborough

Looks like IndieSpectrum Radio is going on the Silas World Tour (sadly still bereft of any dates or throngs of adoring fans). How can this be, you might ask and if you might not then you have already clicked away so I shall continue.

An iPhone doesn't have anywhere near the battery life of a regular cellphone so talking as usual with Thelma Flapdiddle about who is having new xCitations in SL will just run down your phone before lunch time. So if the iPhone is going to be any fun at all, it needs a car charger but I couldn't find one that was satisfactory.

I tried Kensington's charger and it's got a really thick coil that is supposed to support the phone and it does that but not in any position that was of any use to me. (They have others that may work better but this one sucked and ordinarily I like Kensington stuff.) I returned it for a Griffin charger and this one has an FM transmitter built into it. For newer cars this isn't important as they've got auxiliary audio inputs for iPods and the like. Older cars can only play the music via FM transmission (i.e. tune your radio to some unused channel and then tell the transmitter to use that channel to send).

It took a bit of experimentation as in-town you've got a whole lot of competition for FM bandwidth. Unless you can find a channel that's pretty much empty of anything but static, you probably won't like how FM transmission works. However, on the open road, there should be relatively little competition so it still might serve you well.

Taking this back to the iPhone, it's got Wunder Radio on it and that's tuned to IndieSpectrum Radio so there I was tooling down the road and listening to Slim who I must say has kicked it up mightily since the MacJams days. Back then her stuff was usually ethereal, quite beautiful but not at all the same as the high-polish punchy tunes she's cranking out today.

Plus, if you get a call, the music will dim and you'll hear the ring on your car speakers. Pretty cool. It's a Griffin iPhone car charger with FM transmitter for $99 at an Apple store but almost certainly cheaper anywhere else.

Silas Scarborough

Griffin Roadtrip for iPhone - Price range $54 to $99 - $71 at Amazon.

It serves as car charger and FM transmitter for an iPhone or iPod. You are not limited to FM as you can run direct audio from the Roadtrip to your car stereo if your car is new enough to support that kind of connection.

I've been playing around with it for a few days now and, even with FM, the audio clarity is quite good. There are dropouts from time to time that last maybe 20-30 seconds but they're infrequent. I've not noticed any shorter dropouts that would interfere with listening to a song.

I'll drop one star because the controls are kind of geeky and difficult to read but, in terms of effectiveness and reliability, it owns the other four stars.

Indie Spectrum Radio

IndieSpectrum Radio on iTunes

The tunes on IndieSpectrum