Hear IT- An introduction to internet audio media.

The internet and digital media The internet is the perfect medium for the distribution of digital media. This includes Music and Video. As music and video is stored on your computer as files transferring them across the internet is very easy. Your computer doesn't know if the machine its getting the file from is next door, or in France.

Internet Radio Lots of Irish stations broadcast their content on to the internet. Lets look at a few – Just click on Listen Live a large choice of stations on the right hand side of the screen. – Just click on listen live – wait a few seconds to go to the main page

What do I need to listen in? Windows Media player – Comes with Windows. No need to download. Real Audio player – Download from Apple QuickTime player Apple ITunes All available for FREE.

Limitations of live feeds As the name implies the feed is live, you can’t replay it later. You must have a connected reasonably fast internet connection or the playback will pause. You can’t pick just the bits you want. It’s just like listening on a normal radio. You get all of the information sent out including the adverts if there are any.

Ripping web radio Allows us to extract the songs from all of the rest of what the station sends out. Labels the songs and downloads the album art as well. Puts each station in its own folder. The songs are stand alone and can be listened to off line or copied to a MP3 player IPod etc. Is currently in a legal Grey area.

Is it against the Law? European Context The EU passed in May 2001 the Information Society Directive which has since then been transposed into the national laws of most of the Member States. Article 5 – 2/b of the directive states that “[Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the reproduction right provided for] in respect of reproductions on any medium made by a natural person for private use and for ends that are neither directly nor indirectly commercial, on condition that the right holders receive fair compensation which takes account of the application or non-application of technological measures referred to in Article 6 [ie. Digital Rights Management ] to the work or subject- matter concerned”.EU2001Information Society DirectiveDigital Rights Management In short, copying music from the radio for private use is permissible if the artists receive a “fair compensation”. In case of a lawsuit against radio music ripping technologies, the whole debate will be about the meaning of the term “fair compensation”. It can be argued that Radio stations are already paying a “fair compensation” to artists as they know their songs might be copied. Moreover, in an increasing number of EU member states, importers are charged a private copying levy on the purchase of recordable media (mp3 players, writable CDs or DVDs). The tax or levy is usually administrated by copyright collectives. However, at the time of digital copies, the outcome of such a lawsuit is far from being certain if it should occur.artistsEU member statesprivate copyingmp3 playersCDsDVDs As Long as you don’t redistribute the content online you should be ok. The Radio stations that transmit the music have already paid the royalties. As long as its for private use. This may change in the future as the laws catch up with the technology.

Is it easy to use web radio? Yes – very easy. Firstly we need to be able to listen the these online radio stations. This requires some additional software to the ones already mentioned. The most popular free player is Winamp

Pick the Full free version And Click on the download button

Run the install program Click on Run Click

Shoutcast Network

Now that we can hear the stations Lets download the type of music we like on to our computer. This will require an internet radio ripper program to record the songs for us.

Click

Click on Shoutcast

Find a station you like and click on tune in

The software listens to the station and automatically records just the songs.

Let it run and your library builds up With the free version you can record from a max of 2 stations at once. Try and stick to stations with 128kbps feeds as the quality of the results are better. You can double click on any recording stream to listen to it at the same time. Click on the music library button to view your saved songs

Podcast’s: How to listen and download A Pod Cast is like a radio show that can be downloaded to your computer. Many of the Irish stations have programs available as Podcasts. Normally they are talk shows or news programs. To listen in you need Software and ITunes would be the most popular.

ITunes can be downloaded from Click

Begin your Download Click

Install ITunes on your Computer Click on Run and follow the instructions on screen

Due to the huge amount of content the power search option is best

Once you find a Podcast of interest click SUBCRIBE to add it to your list Then Just click on the program to listen to it at any time