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Hobby Broadcasting
You are a Hobby Broadcaster when you just want to have fun expressing yourself through music
Broadcasting With LoudCity Is Flexible and Easy
- new! Choose your Listening Units. Listening Units are a measure of bandwith. You decide how many listeners and what quality they'll get. Use your Listening Units to broadcast in multiple bitrates. Move them around whenever you like.
Listener Units packs start at $35/month for 50.
(128kbs slot = 4 units, 96kbs = 3 units, 64kbs = 2 units and 32kbs = 1 unit.)
- Hook your broadcast software up to our relays
- That's it
To start broadcasting you'll need:
- A computer with Internet connection
- Broadcasting software. Spacial Audio's SAM or Winamp (Free!) + Oddcast (Free!) are great options. Any broadcast software compatible with Icecast will work (included in the above software packages).
- Your music collection converted to into a format supported by your broadcasting software. We recommend MP3 192kbs.
Ready to go?
Not sure? Take the one minute Tour!
Pro Broadcasting
We consider you a Pro Broadcaster if you are generating money from your broadcast and/or you have streams hosted outside LoudCity.
You'll still benefit from being part of our music community but have the freedom to manage your advertising programs and choose your streaming platform.
As with the Hobby plans, you'll still be required to direct your listeners to a full-windowed launch page on LoudCity.com, but you'll be given the option to upload
a customized launch page as well.
You'll need to:
- have a stream host provider (LoudCity stream hosting coming soon for Pro customers)
- Allow us to monitor your audio servers for royalty tracking purposes
- File monthly revenue/expense reports for royalty tracking purposes
- Obtain a separate SESAC license if you'll be selling in-stream advertisements or charging to access to your broadcast. They start at roughly $200/year. We've got your other royalty obligations covered.
- Adhere to the requirements
Ready to go?
Not sure? Take the one minute Tour!
This is a typical station page.
Here station fans can tune in, discuss, tag the station, and join a station's group. Groups provides a closer connection with listeners and allows you to build a community around your station.
Tags are a way for listeners to bookmark your station and also provide a way to classify your station for searching. For instance, the more people that tag a station 'Alternative', the higher that station will appear when someone searches for or clicks an 'Alternative' tag.
new!When you purchase a broadcast package you are given a number of Listener Units.
You divvy your Listener Units up among the four bit rate options: 32kbs, 64kbs, 96kbs, or 128kbs*. We came up with the idea of Listener Units so that you can re-allocate your bandwidth at any time.
For instance, let's say you start broadcasting thinking all your listeners will have a broadband connection. Eventually you start hearing from people that can't tune in because they're
(unfortunately!) still on a dial up connection. All you have to do is re-allocate some Listener Units to the lower quality 32kbs stream!
*bit rates correspond to stream quality - a higher number means a higher quality stream
Basic stats are provided for your station. You can see what's happening 'now' and the last thirty days.
Weekly spin charts are generated for your station. They contain the top 100 most heard songs you played during the week. Charts are often linked to by artists which drives traffic back to your station.
There are many ways for your station to be found on LoudCity
All active stations are randomly rotated and appear on the homepage as a featured station.
The most used tags appear on the homepage. Click next and you'll see what happens when someone clicks the 'Alternative' tag.
This is the search results for all stations tagged 'Alternative'. As mentioned earlier, the stations most tagged 'Atlernative' are listed first.
When someone clicks on an artist name anywhere on the site they're taken to an artist page where they can see the stations that play that artist. Again the stations that play that artist most are listed first.
Yet another way for listeners to find stations they're going to like.
In addition to all the features you've just seen we also offer a Custom Launch Page option. This allows you to upload your own html page(s) to LoudCity.
Since our webcasting licenses require our broadcasters to 'launch' their streams from the loudcity.com domain, the Custom Launch Page option is a great way to keep the
look and feel of your existing site when you send listeners over to tune in.
Whether you're a seasoned online broadcaster or just want to try it as a hobby, LoudCity provides a great set of tools and features for you to be successful. Give it a try!