Every once in awhile we review the radio directories which list online streaming radio stations. This morning we watched a YouTube video that described over 30 online directories with each one listing around 70,000 radio stations. As it is our station has a courtesy listing provided by Icecast's developers, known as xiph.org., which we find to be an incompletely cobbled scantily managed slapdash affair loaded with abusive streamers occupying more than a fair share of slots by splatting out multiple instances of the same program under numerous fraudulent genres. The point of being listed on directories is one's hope of being found by prospective listeners, but we are rarely 'found' on xiph and consider the notion of being crowded among 70,000 other radio stations to be just plain silly, so we bypass other directories as not being of any value. What we have going for us is pure vanity impressed as we are by our ability to stream internationally with a reconditioned computer stuffed in the corner of a room.
It's getting more and more difficult to get noticed in the crowd of streaming stations and podcasts that are 'out there' on the Internet.
Most of the stations that are listed on Xiph have only a handful of users, if any.
I view the Internet streaming component of Artisan Radio as a supplement only to the over-the-air broadcasts. We get a few listeners, but our focus is on the airwaves. Although, I often stream Artisan Radio in the car with my phone, through my car radio (connected to the phone via bluetooth). Even at 64kbps mono, it sound really good, as good as any licensed FM station.
I have posted many times why I don't even consider streaming and yes you are seeing it now. If I go to your stream I see 1 listener...me. Same with others too. I know about it but other than that you are lost in the crowd, 1 tree in a national park. And 500+ are doing the same as you so what would make them find you over all the others. 1 listener in the whole world isn't getting to the world.
I still believe that people don't use their computer as a radio. Or phones. Not to mention all the expense and other stuff and the cost of the server that gets your stream on.
When I go to your stream here on my computer and I see 500 current listeners then I would think about it. I like over the air radio that I grew up with. I keep hearing why go with Terrestrial RF and cover a block when you can stream to the world. Well, no one has yet disagreed with my point on streaming.
If one takes the view that you, the operator, are the prime listener of your radio station, then streaming makes a lot of sense. You just can't get hung up on the number of users. More on that later.
As I stated in a previous post, I use streaming to extend the range of Artisan Radio. Streaming with my phone via bluetooth to my car radio, I can receive the station anywhere there is cellular service. A lot better than the few hundred meters over-the-air gets you.
I've also stated that you have to take the number of listeners reported by Xiph with a huge grain of salt. I don't know what they do, but the only way to know the number of listeners is to go to the server statistics. I usually see anywhere between 2 and 5 peak listeners per day. Xiph seems to always report 1 listener.
The most users we can handle is around 40, given that our stream is 64kbps mono, and the upload bandwidth restrictions. The most I've ever had was about 125, when we had more bandwidth, and we heavily promoted a special weekend of programming. That was quite a while ago, when there were far fewer stations streaming, and podcasting was just a gleam in a few eyes.
There's not much expense associated with streaming but whether you stream or not is really up to you. I find it useful. Others may not.
The biggest potential cost is the copyright licensing. I managed to convince SOCAN that we were a non commercial radio station, and the fees are very low (considering that our ongoing costs are almost non existant). Most computers can handle the server functions of streaming in addition to automation duties, so you really don't need another one. You do need to set up the infrastructure for a static IP (or, at least, what looks like a static IP to the rest of the world - we use hopto). And you also have to take extra security precautions with firewalls and the like.
But it's knowledge, not cost, that is the limiting factor.