BBC-led RadioPlayer arrives at last
The RadioPlayer console went live this morning, uniting British radio stations under a simple, open easy-to-use web interface. It's quite a political achievement, given the nature of the squabbling radio business – and all the more so since the entire project required just one full-time employee – and had a budget lower than the …
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I for one welcome our big radio overlords
There's about as much chance of access for small internet stations as there is of a snowball fight in hell.
What will actually happen is that the big stations will do their damndest to convince everyone that RadioPlayer==Internet radio to stop the drip, drip of listeners to genuinely small stations.
The bad part is that it'll probably work too.
small internet stations ...
The £200 doesn't seem like much to me - how much is it to belong to OfCom?
Or they could always get together and do one for internet radio - this should do well as it needn't just be limited to the UK. I'd definitely be interested in finding foreign stations easily.
"The bad part is that it'll probably work too."
I doubt it. People who listen to internet radio are generally rather clued up about the internet. The arrival of this service isn't going to trick them into not listening to all those niche stations they enjoy now.
Project name
If the iPlayer is for stuff you watch, then for stuff you listen to it should be called earPlayer.
Good idea
Could call it rPlayer - 'r' for Radio obviously, but r also sounds like 'ear' - if you're from Dorset. And if you're deaf.
Not sure about the 'user-friendly' aspect...
though it seems to work otherwise. Hitting 'r' in the browse choice doesn't provide 'Radio 4' - that's under 'b'... and the generic front page search has fallen over.
"Sorry, we can't bring you any Radioplayer search results at the moment. We're aware of the problem, and we're working to fix it. Please click 'Close', and try again later."
It'll be interesting to see how this gets used.
That explains the problems earlier
I listen to radio 1 online about 3 or 4 times a week. I did think something looked different today. I guess this explains it.
I guess that also explains the annoying echo and screwed up audio that kept coming in for a few minutes every now and then.
@XMAN
"I guess that also explains the annoying echo and screwed up audio that kept coming in for a few minutes every now and then."
..possibly some modern jazz tracks that somehow snuck in ?...
Screwed up audio
"I guess that also explains the annoying echo and screwed up audio that kept coming in for a few minutes every now and then."
No, that's just Radio 1.
Metadata?
So if it can tell me which DJ is on right now, what's on next, and show a flashy animated logo, why can't I see something telling me what song is playing on 6Music? My DAB tells me (most of the time), so the info is available. Surely this is a good reason for listening on a device with a screen?
Apart from that it's ok I guess.
THIS
One of my biggest gripes about bbc's radio / listen again feeds is that they don't show what's playing; freeview does, dab does and they put track-lists up on the web pages (which, without timestamps are about as much use as a handbrake on a canoe), so why on earth they can't display it in the radio player i do not know.
I'm pretty sure i saw that iplayer carries subtitles, and it's essentially the same principle (text + timestamp).
Also requires a spaghetti plateful of JavaScript from dozens of domains
And like a lot of sites the search function doesn't work without me giving Google permission to run code on my machines.
On the plus side there I haven't found any geoblocking.
Anyone know of Adblock for radio? :)
Yea, whatever
More of the same it seems. Only FM, AM and DAB stations allowed - musnt have any of those awful internet stations!
The establishment lead by the tax funded BBC protecting the establishment by trying to corner the market.
The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.
Great more Flash lock-in. Still no BBC radio on Android. Of course it's OK for the smaller installed base of the iOS devices to use direct streams, but we couldn't allow that for Android oh no.
err
The Android iPlayer App has been out for about two months now, and I'm fairly certain I've streamed via the Flash Player on the Mobile Version of the site.
Ofcom License?
"Currently you need an Ofcom licence and a £200 one-off access fee. "
Why do I need to pay Ofcom £200 and get their permission to run an internet facing audio streaming server? (Have I misunderstood this?)
Besides which, leaving aside questions of quality, there are many hundreds of internet 'radio' stations out there and I've been able to use Winamp (etc) to listen to them for years.
I believe the license referred to
is a standard broadcasting license, as in radio broadcasting using actual radio waves.
'Small station' meaning 'Turd FM 102.912' with it's groundbreaking 'guess the year' competitions and hours of 'high-quality' automated output, not the small internet stations you're thinking of.
I hear that there's some good internet radio around on friday nights, but that's another story entirely..
Iots of other internet radio stations...
I usually use http://www.listenlive.eu/uk.html
which launches into whatever player is relevant.
Re: Iots of other internet radio stations...
Thanks for the url!
Another new standard
Sigh, so BBC Radio is now available by another method, but I STILL CANNOT GET IT ON MY INTERNET RADIO Grrrr!!!!
Why is it I can get thousands of stations, but the only BBC one is the bloody world service?
And when you ask BBC Radio about internet radio, they just say "Download the new version of internet explorer..."
It's interesting to see that the new web based internet radio is also flash based, so no use on web tablets, TVs, phones, etc. either...
Works on Android and Windows tablets
You must mean the iShitpad.
@Bug R Us
The iPad has it's own native iPlayer app, which will play both live and recorded TV and radio from all of the BBC national stations, but you knew that and were just trying to be annoying weren't you.
The problem that the owners of dedicated internet radio devices have is that the BBC don't provide their streams in standard formats, which is a different issue.
Re: Another new standard →
You need a UK based proxy.
I think the BBC should sell an optional license for people outside the UK - and I should get one free!! (With my TC license).
BBC is available on my internet radio
I've got a Roberts 83i. All the BBC stations were there in its internet mode ootb. So is all the Listen Again stuff, as it happens. So not sure what the problem with your internet radio is, but seemingly not insurmountable.
Flash
Requires Flash. Feck that.
I think I'll stick with TuneRadio on my iDevices...
I like
I like it, but it's been crashing fairly regularly all day.
Almost works...
...on Android.
Whilst I can view the site using Dolphin web browser and listen. The individual search buttons don't work.
Looks like they don't bother testing their site with the leading browser for Android and Flash 10.2
But it really needs to be an App as I'd like to turn off my screen whilst listening to a programme and save my battery!
Seems OK now....
.... on my Squeezebox Touch after a firmware update. Its still called iPlayer too.
I notice that Radio Feeds UK & Ireland has just appeared and also seems to work.
Much better services already exist
It has taken the BBC ages to get this off the ground.
A much better service (for those with an Android mobile phone) is the app Tunein. Although I think it is also available on the JesusPhone and blackberry. You'll get 30,000 radio stations from all around the world, including the BBC and a lot of local stations as well.
Hmm...
Where to start. radioplayer.co.uk doesn't resolve to a web site while www.radioplayer.co.uk does. That's just sloppy. Then once you get in well yes it's OK - but I've read the FAQ and ironically for something that is supposed to be 'open' it actually feels very proprietary and closed.
I don't want a player foisted on me, especially one that doesn't officially support anything other than a desktop computer. I want open standards so that I can choose from a range of players that can all use the same data, and, oh I don't known, a .org site that provides the metadata for each station that provides a stream in the standard format.
I guess that's Tunein then. OK so a load of companies have spent a six figure sum of money to develop a web site/player that is eclipsed, on day one, by a number of other services. Way to go...
Failure points
1. Only UK stations
2. Only 'major' stations
3. Only 15 presets (what!!)
4. Sound quality is piss poor
5. No 'record to disk' facility
Of course you can record it by recording 'what you hear' on your soundcard but it would be better to have it inbuilt.
unremarkable, and aimed at desktops and tablets in the faq rather than mobiles
As the title says. Choice fm and jazz fm already embrace mobile. Jazz fm says "and everywhere on your mobile device" every hour. It might work on some mobiles but this radioplayer.co.uk service is not aimed at mobiles but desktops laptops and tablets.
Missing link again:-(
I didn't take me long to find http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/ but why oh why does 'The Register' have this obsession with not including THE important link in many stories?
Delay
Just tried it out, first impressions seems OK.
I compared the feed to SKY (which has a short delay on it) and found that the delay on this is about 15 seconds.
Radioplayer - online programs vs previously-broadcast programs
With Radioplayer, I can listen to currently broadcasting radio programs - no problems.
But I can't get it to player previously-broadcast programs. I can the right panel displayed, but clicking on the right-pointing arrow has no effect.
Yet I can listen to previously-broadcast programs okay if I go via the Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, etc, websites.
Why the difference? What do I need to do to get Radioplayer working properly?
I'm using IE 7.0.6000.16982 - do I need to upgrade that? Or download any other s/ware?
Feel free to respond via The Register site or email me privately at darryl.francis@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks!
Help!! - My Radioplayer only works for online programs
With Radioplayer, I can listen to online radio programs - no problems.
But I can't get it to play previously-broadcast programs. I can see the correct panel displayed, but clicking on the right-pointing arrow has no effect - nothing starts!
Yet I can listen to previously-broadcast programs okay if I go via the Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, etc, websites.
Why the difference? What do I need to do to get Radioplayer working properly?
I'm using IE 7.0.6000.16982 - do I need to upgrade that? Or download any other s/ware?
Feel free to respond via The Register site or email me privately at darryl.francis@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks!
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