Quote:Direct Stream Access

Direct access to streams (eg opening the /play/ URL in 3rd party players) will no longer be available, also in January.

Why are we doing this?

The short answer is that we serve two flavors of TLH: Expensive, and Very Expensive. Expensive TLH is served to those listeners who are logged in. The costs associated with Logged in TLH is defrayed by the associated statistical information.

This helps keep broadcasting costs minimal, and no charge for listening. Without advertising we would not be around, remember!

Very Expensive TLH, on the other hand, is served to those listeners who do not log in, who access the site via the /play/ URL.

In a soft advertising market such as this one, we are unable to sustain the costs of Very Expensive TLH which has fewer incoming revenues - statistics and/or newsletter impressions - to offset it.

Logging in - which is and will always be FREE for listeners - will be begin sometime in January.

But....!

Many people suggested that this will discourage listeners and that it will actually do more harm than good...

While we understand that not everyone will want to register - remember that we will make it extremely clear that we are not using anyone's information to evil ends, but rather it will be used to improve the listening experience.

For instance, if you're a Christian music fan, you will most likely have way different tastes and interests than, say, if you like punk rock. And a progressive house music fan will likely have different interests than an oldies fan. The musical tastes that Live365 supports are more diverse than any other radio network in the world. This initiative will allow us to place fewer ads more sensitively, not less, and to get a higher CPM in doing so.

Live365 is an advertiser-supported service. These changes will enable us to keep listening FREE and broadcasting as affordable as possible, while continuing to grow and reach as many people as possible.