If Air America is supposed to represent a vibrant alternative to media politics-as-usual, why are they web-casting via the second most locked-in, proprietary, user-hostile platform on the net? (After Windows Media, I mean.)
Wouldn’t this be a perfect opportunity to webcast with a truly open audio stream?
I know, they’d probably say, “We want to reach all the people whose CPUs have already been colonize by RealAudio”; but that suggests to me that they may not be working for fundamental change as much as for a reshuffling of the same old suspects.
Posted by AKMA at April 2, 2004 10:26 AM | TrackBackI would also prefer that there were more than one choice, or if they had a reasonable proprietary program embedded so that no download was necessary.
It may prevent me from listening at work -- we've got a "no downloads" policy after a recent upgrade, and I'd rather not cross that line.
I agree. I totally hate Real Audio. Personally I prefer Windows Media; the tools to create content are freely available and the player is installed on most PCs.
Posted by: A Blogger at April 2, 2004 03:35 PMI think you're reading way too much into this. I suspect the real (npi) answer is that they had an incredibly high demand for their stream, and Real offered to let them use their large mirror network for free or cheap if they used RealAudio. (Notice that the broadcasting servers are all Real servers.)
Posted by: Aaron Swartz at April 2, 2004 04:53 PMI'm afraid the reasons may be more annoyingly corporate, and also makes me feel it may be unlikely they'll listen to the well-intentioned who favor open standards:
“Right now, they have $60m in backing from the likes of RealNetworks Rob Glaser and other well-heeled liberals.”
This BBC article
Yeah, I hate Real too. I accidentally invoked it the other day on my machine at work & felt like I was swatting flies trying to close all the damn windows that appeared. Our local NPR station give you three choices for the live stream, so it can't be that hard to set up.
Posted by: joseph duemer at April 4, 2004 08:21 AMI collected lots of links for the "real audio hatin' people". You will find links to alternatives to the real audio player, realaudio to mp3 converter, winamp plugins and real audio stream recorder:
englisch version:
http://swen.antville.org/stories/735413/
german version:
http://www.phlow.net/nu_archives/000537.html
Swen
Posted by: Swen at April 5, 2004 04:01 AMYeah, I agree. This is some wild insane shizznit my bizzles.
Posted by: Gary Busey at May 5, 2004 06:19 PM