Having spent the morning listening to the ‘mellow mix’ I realised the amazing curation of content they play. Consistent quality over two and half very enjoyable hours of lovely music. I will be sending a donation.
Sent them $ 10. They (Rebecca & Bill- a couple from California) responded with thanks and an assurance that my email and identity will be kept private and not used for marketing. I love their approach to their mission and their values!
User donation supported, they love what they do, provide consistently good quality service, no Ads, not primarily motivated by massive monetary profit or greed...what’s not to like?
Radio Paradise, Signal messaging app, some independent news channels online,....I am sure there are more?
IS THIS THE NEW PRIVATELY RUN BUSINESS MODEL OF THIS ERA THAT IS GOOD FOR ALL?
User donation supported, they love what they do, provide consistently good quality service, no Ads, not primarily motivated by massive monetary profit or greed...what’s not to like?
Radio Paradise, Signal messaging app, some independent news channels online,....I am sure there are more?
IS THIS THE NEW PRIVATELY RUN BUSINESS MODEL OF THIS ERA THAT IS GOOD FOR ALL?
Yogesh
Well-Known Member
May be such business model wouldn't work for long. One, People rarely appreciate RFREE things. Two, people will happily pay through their nose for "Status Symbol" products/services but will seldom donation support even better services.
I agree, good and clever marketing works and that’s why it’s being done everywhere for everything and is a multi billion dollar/rupee industry.
Then we have so called “free services” like Facebook, WhatsApp, google and such where we the users are the commodity being sold to market researchers and their wealthy-powerful and shady clients.
But I also feel models like Radio Paradise, Signal messaging service etc are alternates that need to be identified and supported as special and unique cases. I started listening to RP initially as it was free. I soon started listening to it regularly, in between Spotify, Tidal HiFi etc. After several weeks I thought to myself’ I am paying for Tidal, Spotify premium but not RP, even though I spent similar time with each. How do they sustain themselves? Can I do something in return?
RP is Ad free, and serves up some fabulous line up of music I like very much and I take it for granted...they pay musicians something every time they play one of their songs too.
Radio Paradise - Wikipedia
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D
Deleted member 15865
Guest
Their history is very interesting. They’ve been going strong since 2000, despite royalty hikes by music companies (2007) and a massive fire (2018).
These guys aren’t after scale up. They seem happy being a cottage industry. I find their revenue model quite interesting. I believe they have loyal customer base that wants to support them with donations. Every time I send them an amount, I feel good within. Models such as theirs or Wikipedia’s provide a much-needed alternative to the conventional buyer-seller-investor model.
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Thanks for this recommendation. I’m loving this.
Few years back I used to listen to ‘Jazz radio’ which played a great selection of different jazz sub-genre but then my interest had fizzled out once I subscribed to Apple Music.
But this station feels great, especially the wonderful comment section.
D
Deleted member 15865
Guest
Concertzender - Orient Express
Concertzender is a forty year old Dutch institution which runs a wonderful bouquet of live radio stations online, and is also a producer of music. Its tagline is indicative of its purpose:
The Concertzender; a refuge for music and music lovers.
Concertzender is primarily focused on classical music, Jazz and Word music with dedicated stations by genre/theme. Lovers of these genres should try downloading their app and exploring their offerings.
I have been in particular, listening to their Orient Express station for last few years. Most of its content is Indian classical - both Hindustani and Carnatic.
But that doesn’t say much about this station. What it consists is well-curated hour long programs focused on specific genres (eg Carnatic is playing right now). Its content goes deep into each - for example, the previous program had the late Pt. Kamalesh Maitra playing tabla Tarang - a very rare instrument (10-16 tablas of different size and tone playing raga).
Furthermore, you get an elaborate description of the said track/album in the app when the track is playing. There are also real person announcements (mentioning even the support musicians) before each performance, but they are in Dutch. The app however, is in English.
The sound quality is relatively good (low distortion, bit lean) and at 160 kbps (when natively played on CXN). You can download their app from App Store. It also supports Chromecast.
It’s a great way to explore Indian classical music. But you can even try it’s other highly recommendable stations for other genres. I also like their World Music station - it’s a gateway into traditional music from across the globe.
Finally, it’s a very noble enterprise that deserves support of music lovers. This, from their mission page:
Concertzender is a forty year old Dutch institution which runs a wonderful bouquet of live radio stations online, and is also a producer of music. Its tagline is indicative of its purpose:
The Concertzender; a refuge for music and music lovers.
Concertzender is primarily focused on classical music, Jazz and Word music with dedicated stations by genre/theme. Lovers of these genres should try downloading their app and exploring their offerings.
I have been in particular, listening to their Orient Express station for last few years. Most of its content is Indian classical - both Hindustani and Carnatic.
But that doesn’t say much about this station. What it consists is well-curated hour long programs focused on specific genres (eg Carnatic is playing right now). Its content goes deep into each - for example, the previous program had the late Pt. Kamalesh Maitra playing tabla Tarang - a very rare instrument (10-16 tablas of different size and tone playing raga).
Furthermore, you get an elaborate description of the said track/album in the app when the track is playing. There are also real person announcements (mentioning even the support musicians) before each performance, but they are in Dutch. The app however, is in English.
The sound quality is relatively good (low distortion, bit lean) and at 160 kbps (when natively played on CXN). You can download their app from App Store. It also supports Chromecast.
It’s a great way to explore Indian classical music. But you can even try it’s other highly recommendable stations for other genres. I also like their World Music station - it’s a gateway into traditional music from across the globe.
Finally, it’s a very noble enterprise that deserves support of music lovers. This, from their mission page:
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D
Deleted member 15865
Guest
The most popular President endorsed Radio over Music player? 
Just came across this on social media. I haven’t checked if the quote is actually attributed to APJ. But isn’t it so true? Not just the analogy with life, but the experience of listening to radio stations itself? The intrigue of what’s to come next cannot be had through even the best curated playlists. Probably, listening to radio also develops a certain ‘openness to experience’?
Further musing: Of course in these days of url based Internet radio stations there’s no adjustment of frequencies like in the older days of air waves. You have presets now that precisely get you the station you select. I wonder if the streamers (like my CXN) could have a ‘I feel lucky’ kind of button, which on pressing would tune into a random radio station (not necessarily in your presets). Wouldn’t that be fun too? The joy of randomness/surprise shouldn’t get lost in these designs focused on prediction algorithms. I’d not always like to be served either the popular lists or what an intelligent AI detects as of possible interest to me. Sometimes I’d love totally random dish served that has no connection with my choice!
Add your views.
Just came across this on social media. I haven’t checked if the quote is actually attributed to APJ. But isn’t it so true? Not just the analogy with life, but the experience of listening to radio stations itself? The intrigue of what’s to come next cannot be had through even the best curated playlists. Probably, listening to radio also develops a certain ‘openness to experience’?
Further musing: Of course in these days of url based Internet radio stations there’s no adjustment of frequencies like in the older days of air waves. You have presets now that precisely get you the station you select. I wonder if the streamers (like my CXN) could have a ‘I feel lucky’ kind of button, which on pressing would tune into a random radio station (not necessarily in your presets). Wouldn’t that be fun too? The joy of randomness/surprise shouldn’t get lost in these designs focused on prediction algorithms. I’d not always like to be served either the popular lists or what an intelligent AI detects as of possible interest to me. Sometimes I’d love totally random dish served that has no connection with my choice!
Add your views.
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skroderider
Well-Known Member
Rolling the tuning knob, tweaking it back and forth with smaller and smaller movements for weak stations, until the sound was clearest, used be an art. And the frustration when the taut string (I am ignorant of the technical name for it if it has any) rolled around the knob would be a bit unstable, and not let the knob stay in place, disturbing the tuning as well.
Yogesh
Well-Known Member
Wharfedale Linton Heritage Speakers in Walnut finish at a Special Offer Price. BUY now before the price increase.
