Internet Radio: StreamHosting or Dedicated? And WHO???
 

Ok...

With webcasting comes lots of bandwidth and processing. StreamHosts are expensive, however you can have them take care of the licensing and royalties. For a small business the licensing and royalties really aren't that hard, but there is loads of paperwork.

My options if I choose to operate from my own servers...

Dedicated: Cheaper than StreamHosting but have to apply for licensing and royalties and submit info on everything aired EVERY month. More control.

Bandwidth: Purchasing a 3Mbps-10Mbps bandwidth package and have it routed to my office through Verizon (Uggghhh!) and pay for both the ISP and Bandwidth Provider. TOTAL control.

Which is my best option and from whom should I purchase my services? If you have a deal let me know.

Thanks.

Any experiences and tips are appreciated.

Having your own dedicated server would give you the same level of control as routing the traffic directly to your home or office. If you have all of your paperwork in order and you keep everything legal then there would be no reason for your host to intervene. Additionally you would have a stable server on a stable connection so you would have no worries about uptime, while even the best office service always runs into issues and companies like Verizon are horrible on tech support or getting things resolved.

At least in my area (NYC metro) they suck ass when it comes to that, so I think the best route would be the dedicated server. Most hosting companies dont care what you do on your machine as long as its legal and doesnt attract negative attention to their network which could lead to DDoS attacks or other worrying factors.

If you have any questions hit me up on icq at 36837470

Dedicated servers are absolutely your best route, although depending on your size it may be in your best interest to just simply purchasing streaming redirectors.

See ICQ in sig if you need more help / info

The important factor here is not even about royalties or total control ... it is about how many concurrent listeners do you plan on / hope can tune in, and at how many kbps do you plan to operate at?

If you are only offering 24-40K voice, with only needing to have 10-20 listeners at once, then yes you prolly can run it off your own server in your home or office (just clear it with your ISP they allow servers), but if you want 64-128+ kbps and more than a handful of listeners, then you are best off to leave it to the pros ... go with streaming services.

If I recall correctly, www.Quik-host.net had some decent streaming packages that were not too pricey.

I may be in touch... do you have any experience with broadcasting, or are you offering Server/Bandwidth advice?

Thanks... I have made a deal with Verizon for a Business Line with a nice upstream to get me off the ground. Same applies as with liquidmoe; do you have any experience with broadcasting? If so perhaps we can chat.

I plan on serving 50 Listeners to start... then eventually as many as 300 or more. I will be broadcasting MUCH music/artists (over 25,000 tracks) 24/7 with multiple DJ's and unique shows/scheduling. At 128kbps stereo. I have been researching, planning, and setting everything up for 6 months now. I have several contacts and deals already setup and ready to roll. Sweeps, promos, station ID's, etc. are already in production.

I checked out your link and emailed them in regards to a few of their packages. Thanks for the link.

PS: I am accepting bids for both banner and voiceover advertising. Contact me if interested. [email protected]