The Guitar Channel

I've shut down the Guitar Channel radio stream

Friends,
I've decided to shut down my SHOUTcast radio stream. The bottom line is it had become too much of a burden to run it, plus with the Sound Exchange nonsense regarding internet radio royalty rates, I figured it was time to get out. I can't tell you how many people emailed me thanking me for the stream, and for turning them on to music and guitarists they had not heard before. I think that's so cool. I originally started this site so I would have a homepage for the stream. Even though the name "The Guitar Channel" was a reference to the radio stream, I am not going to change the name of the site just because the "channel" is gone.

However, you can still listen to streaming music on my site! In place of the SHOUTcast radio stream, I have added a widget in the upper left that plays my Last.fm playlist. The playlist is mostly comprised of music I had in the SHOUTcast stream, but there's a lot of tunes that were not in the radio stream also. I even threw in a few songs that have no guitar at all (ie. from Billy Sheehan's band Niacin). The widget you see in the upper left-hand corner of the site is the small version (annoyingly, the full size version was too wide to fit in my sidebar). However, if you click the link below the player, you will get the full size widget, which includes the album art and track durations, in a pop up. (NOTE: if you click on a song title from the list, you will only hear a 30sec preview. The only way to hear the songs in their entirety is to let the player shuffle on it's own.) There were a lot of artists in my stream that are not available on Last.fm yet, but I'm a big fan of their site and will continue to add new music to this playlist (which currently has about 120 songs). One thing I noticed is when the playlist is shuffling (which, from what I can tell, is the only way to play it), it will sometimes repeat a song that was previously played even though it has not finished the whole playlist yet. Something to keep in mind when you are listening. Anyway, I wanted to keep some sort of streaming music on my site, and I think the Last.fm playlist is a pretty cool alternative.

Thanks,
Rich

NEWS FLASH: Internet radio may be saved

From the Radio And Interbet Newsletter:

In an exclusive interview, SoundExchange director John Simson told RAIN -- for publication -- that royalty-compliant webcasters can continue operating even after the July 15th royalty bill deadline without fear of legal action, a dramatic change from the position webcasters and audiences were expecting the organization to endorse.

Speaking to RAIN, Simson said, "For the people who want to comply with the law and are in bona fide negotiations with us, we don't want those people to be intimidated.  And we don't want them to stop streaming."
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Personally, from all I've read on this turn of events, it seems to a temporary reprieve that is only delaying the inevitable. But it is good news - many stations, including mine, that would have gone silent after this weekend will now continue to stream for the time being.

Rich

Out of town

Hey all,
I'm going to be out of town until next Tuesday. During that time the radio stream will be down, and I probably won't be posting any updates.

Rich

"Day Of Silence" tomorrow

FYI - I will be participating in the radio "Day Of Silence" tomorrow June 26th. Most major internet radio stream hosts (including Pandora, Live365, Yahoo!, and others) will be shutting down their radio streams tomorrow in protest of the recent CRB ruling regarding internet radio royalty rates. For information on this protest, and the  current state of the CRB situation in general, check out the Radio And Internet Newsletter.

Rich

Out of town

The Guitar Channel radio stream will be down for a few days while I'm out of town. I'll start it back up on Monday.

Rich

Bad news for internet radio

As you may have heard, the Copyright Royalty Board approved a new royalty rate structure on Friday that will likely put most Internet radio stations out of business. They basically rubber-stamped the proposal put forth by SoundExchange (the digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).The outrageous rates are so high, that even mid to large size stations would have an impossible time paying them. I'm not sure how long I will keep The Guitar Channel stream running in light of these new developments. There's no way I will even attempt to pay these new fees. And I certainly don't want to put myself in an actionable position by just coasting along and hoping no one notices. I think the days of The Guitar Channel stream are numbered folks. This website itself isn't going anywhere, but I may have to shut down the stream. I'll keep you updated. Meanwhile, here are some links with more info on the CRB ruling, and what you can do to make your voice heard.

Radio And Internet Newsletter
Broadcast Law Blog
Ars Technica
Save Our Internet Radio

Rich

Radio stream issues today

FYI - The Guitar Channel stream seems to be going up and down today. I'm not sure if my internet connection is spotty or what.

The radio stream is back up

The stream is back up. Enjoy!

The Guitar Channel radio stream is down

The radio stream has been down since Friday night. My relay server IP address is unreachable. I have no idea what's going on yet, but I'll post an update when I get some info.

Rich

Stream upgrade

The Guitar Channel radio stream can now support up to 15 listeners at once (up from 12). Enjoy!

Rich

The Guitar Channel Radio Stream

I've settled on SpryCast as my Shoutcast host for The Guitar Channel stream. I've been using them for about a week now, and it's been pretty solid.

For those of you who may be unaware, The Guitar Channel is a Shoutcast radio stream featuring instrumental guitar music. The music you'll hear falls into a variety of categories: fusion, jazz rock, instrumental rock, progressive rock, heavy fusion, etc. The stream can now support up to 15 concurrent connections. The bitrate is 96kbps. You can tune in here, or from the radio section in the upper left-hand corner of the site.

Please only connect to 1 listener slot at a time. 15 is still a small number. Even if there are several open slots available, I still don't want people connecting to 2 slots at once. And do NOT use stream ripper apps either.

Thanks,
Rich

UPDATE 9/3/07: I've shut down the stream. Click here for details.

Trying a new ShoutCast relay server

I'm trying out a new relay server for the Guitar Channel radio stream. The links at the left have been updated to point to the new server. Check it out. If anyone has any problems with the audio, let me know. It may be up and down a bit tonight while I tweak a few things.

Rich