Amazon is Building a Clubhouse Competitor That Turns Hosts Into DJs (theverge.com) 25
Amazon is next on the list of companies getting into the live audio game. The company is building a new app, codenamed "Project Mic," that gives anyone the ability to make and distribute a live radio show, complete with music, according to a presentation viewed by The Verge. From a report: This project's big goal is to democratize and reinvent the radio. The app will be focused on the US initially. Listeners will be able to tune in through the app, as well as through Audible, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Alexa-equipped devices. With the Alexa devices, listeners will be able to interact with shows using just their voice. The app experience will also be optimized for the car, playing into Amazon's idea of trying to reinvent radio. A mockup app image viewed by The Verge depicts a screen listing shows that are currently live; trending topics, like #NBA or #hot100; and featured creators. Users will also be able to search for content by topic, name, or music.
Might as well use a Zune (Score:1)
"Hey, this is Sticky Nicky with Moldy Oldies on the Morning Zoo, saying gooood morning to our wonderful 14 listeners!"
Re: (Score:2)
Funny...it wasn't classic rock when I listened to it!t
Re: (Score:1)
I'm a "classic person", not a "boomer"
Soundexchange is salivating... (Score:1)
I wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
Will the artists whose music gets played be compensated?
Re: (Score:2)
Will the artists whose music gets played be compensated?
I'd assume licencing agreements are already in place with the various rights holders and that some money would eventually find their way into the pockets of the artist. Is there some loophole because it's "radio" or something else I' not aware of that begs your question?
And tuntable.fm is back (Score:1)
Making right wing radio (Score:2)
positively sane by comparison...
I predict this will not end well.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you miss my point, but that's okay, I probably wasn't too clear to begin with. ..and all trying to be more outrageous than the next guy.
No, I didn't read the article (in time-honoured slashdot tradition) but if anyone can have their own radio station, you can bet it will be filled with insanity, conspiracy nutjobs, 2nd revolution wingnuts, and so forth, all desperately trying to their message out to anyone who will listen...
Talk radio? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Probably alt right stuff. We should ban it"
It's a bot.
On the internet.
How many hours do you think it takes to make it alt-right?
Re: (Score:2)
With any copyright material (nearly all music) presumably forbidden, I'm guessing these will nearly all be talk radio stations?!?
That's not how I read TFA: "Anyone will be able to pull from Amazon’s music catalog to arrange their program."
Performance, copyrights, royalties? (Score:2)
Re: Can't play, so dj (Score:2)
Millions of channels, all playing the same handful of "lah dee dahs" the RIAA would permit to use on this platform.
Add regurgitated and same crap talk content. Channel 2 sounds just like Channel 3,387,239, whooptie freaking doo..
This is just asking for quantity over quality, and it could become the latest infuriating fad before it dies out and becomes forgotten in 6 months.
Oh well, just let the noise spike to get it out of society's collective system, so we can get back to signal as quick as possible.
What about Twitch? (Score:2)
That is an Amazon property and they already have stuff like that.
Until it gets (Score:1)
Re: Until it gets (Score:2)
At this point, popular "music" is just the 4 chords rearranged and regurgitated over and over again. Listen to the crap now (if you can stand it) vs what was popular even 10 years ago. The difference in quality is striking. Keep going back further, and this difference becomes more obvious.
All they have going now is peer pressure amongst the young crowd striving to be "cool" in the eyes of their peers, flash, glitz, and hype. The actual art left the building a long time ago and the RIAA knows their c
We did this 20 years ago. (Score:1)
It was called Live365. And it was a great way to share and discover music via "radio" stations made by regular people. You could do true Live streams, or you could create a playlist and let it run. Listeners would stream via the Live365 web applet or use WinAMP to open the stream URL.
As I recall, the company eventually hit the royalties barrier HARD, and back then there wasn't yet enough critical mass of Internet users + Big Data backend to make the revenue lucrative enough to payoff the licensing and opera
Re: We did this 20 years ago. (Score:2)
Had this 'barrier' not been hit, Live365 would've run into the same problem the platform in TFA is about to:
Oversaturation, limited unique content, and quantity over quality.
There will be a spike as every "me too"er gets on board, but most of the "me too" stations will die off as people are spending their time listening to the handful of ones that do offer quality.
Really, I'm suprised that the ones bleating "everybody canz havez their own radio stashun" seems to not be aware of this ever rep
Saturation (Score:2)
Wait until this quickly becomes saturated and you are dealing with millions of "stations" most with bad and very questionable content, and it becomes hard to impossible to find the handful of stations that are good but not well advertised.
This is yet another case where idealism gets knocked over flat by grim reality.
Big deal... my dog is a better DJ than top DJs (Score:2)
My dog :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Top DJs :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The difference is obvious
Clubhouse fad is over (Score:2)