Future of Pirate Radio

[Woody]

So I have been looking into pirate radio and the culture. My question to anyone involved in it is this, where do you see the future going. With the advent of online radio, and youtube and etc why not go there were you can reach the globe. Where its legal to broadcast? A lot of pirate radio stations already do this.

[thewisepranker]

There's a number of reasons why it just isn't the same. I'm classing YouTube as the same as internet radio here, apart from the fact that your phone screen has to be on to play audio when listening to something on YouTube.

I don't know if this is accurate any more, but when I last looked (a few years ago), the peak listener figure for dnbradio.com was around 600 listeners. With a URL like that, you'd think that it'd be at least in the thousands. The only way to get a listener is to have someone go out of their way to connect to the stream, assuming they can find it, connect to it, successfully play it and stream it at an acceptable noise to buffer ratio (© thewisepranker 2015). With FM, people are infinitely more likely to stumble upon something and stay listening if they like it.

Internet radio is not a direct comparison with pirate radio, nor is it a replacement - just look at what all those tossers in America are doing regarding this endless copyright nonsense. You can't scrub backwards in Mixcloud in America because of copyright laws. It's 2015 and you can't rewind a recording posted online!

It's also a bit of a grey area as to whether it's legal to broadcast online. The PRS and PPL will chase you if you start getting too big, which is unlikely given the saturation level of internet stations.

So, where is it going to go? Well, the Global and Bauer are clearly making a killing from FM radio, and there are plenty of middle-aged women listening to Heart to make it financially viable to keep the mobile phone lot out of Band II for now.
DAB is clearly shit and isn't going to dominate quite yet, however a solution making much more efficient use of bandwidth will eventually be implemented. Whether that is DAB+ or whatever is to be determined.
There are always going to be middle-aged women who want to listen to the same music over and over again, however they want it in a slightly different order with a bit of bollocks about Friends and Corrie every now and then. I also reckon that people will get bored of their own selections on rotation much faster than the same thing from another source, i.e. Heart. Therefore, it will merely shift towards whatever becomes of DAB - where you will also find the pirates.

There does seem to be fewer pirates around these days. This is probably not far from the truth, but I don't think internet radio is to blame. I blame Radio 1 for diluting deep house and reducing the gap between what the pirates play and what the commercials play. After all, if "dance" or even "house" music is available on R1 at lunchtime on a Tuesday, what's the point in putting a station on to play "house"?

[Lengman]

I blame Radio 1 for diluting deep house

I just blame whoever the thick cunt was who came up with the term 'Deep House' to describe some soulless tripe that appeals to 13 year old homosexuals and has no resemblance to a style of music that's been around for over 25 years. They have even got away with vandalising the Deep House Wikipedia entry with shit like Disclosure and Ben Pearce. Fucking cunts.

[thewisepranker]

Beatport?

[Lengman]

Ah, yeah, Beatport. The 'music specialists' who can't tell the fucking difference between Broken Beat/Nu Jazz and Dubstep

[thewisepranker]

I might try starting something here...

Found this amazing indie track last night:

[McDonalds]

Back in the day it was good you never know who listen in.
You just read out a number and people text in to see how your signal getting out.
On line you have none that and just have request you can play for them.
Plus you can get all the music you ever want where as back in 2000 it was harder.
And good just having the FM on.

[Lengman]

I might try starting something here...

Found this amazing indie track last night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5YoEPHYO4s

Worthy of a permant ban.

Admin, where you at G?

[sde-1104]

I might try starting something here...

Found this amazing indie track last night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5YoEPHYO4s

Worthy of a permant ban.

Admin, where you at G?

Nothing wrong with a bit of the hard stuff

[Lengman]

Meh, I know what I prefer... SICK DEEP HOUSE TO SHUFFLE IN MY HUARACHES TO BRUV! Yeah, this is what Deep House actually is. 110 BPM realness.

[bristolpirates]

what's the point in putting a station on to play "house"?

One station to provide underground house all day and all night is fine (Kiss don't do that, let alone Radio 1 etc..), but other than that the pirates need to find something else to bring to the surface the way they did with Jungle and Garage.

The music needs to be controlled by and exclusive to the pirates and one group of DJs. It needs to be something the legals will never touch cause it's too heavy or too weird for them, but still has a following that will grow over time. Gabber may just be the ticket!

[Sparki]

what's the point in putting a station on to play "house"?

One station to provide underground house all day and all night is fine (Kiss don't do that, let alone Radio 1 etc..), but other than that the pirates need to find something else to bring to the surface the way they did with Jungle and Garage.

The music needs to be controlled by and exclusive to the pirates and one group of DJs. It needs to be something the legals will never touch cause it's too heavy or too weird for them, but still has a following that will grow over time. Gabber may just be the ticket!

I don't know why there isn't a station for future jungle and hardcore breaks because at the moment them styles are doing very well underground. Billy Bunter has dabbled with nu skool/future jungle and hardcore breaks/rave breaks when he plays on Kool but it needs a proper station dedicated to them styles. If I had the time, money and know how on how to put the feckin radio on I would do it lol but as I don't I think someone else should give it a go. Go the whole hog and nick my idea lol! call it Future FM or something and hit me up for a graveyard slot while your at it

[Effemm]

Yep Bunter trys but being on Kool these days it aint getin out too far....
Two types have really been overlooked over the past 20 odd years . Acid, ok ok not everyones taste but it bought so many people together, even, like it or not , making the national charts for what its worth.. Does'nt get any airplay anymore, when it does its either d mob or tyree but there was tons of it being aired at the time... But personally, the original Electro from the 80's is a big big call... Many of u will know nuthink from this era... Dig deep n its where mixtapes began... U S radio was very competitive at the time, took a while to get here tbh then it all took off with Streetsounds label i guess. Never ever hear a show playing this type n like the above if i knew how to do it i'd be playing a radio set up with this...

[TekMcr]

Simply put online radio just doesn't have that same buzz feeling as listening to a pirate. Even as a listener you know when you're out in the car or at home you're listening to a pirate, you almost feel rule breaking yourself.

[Skywaver]

Pirate radio will never die, because it doesn't just revolve around the 3Mtr Band!!!

[teckniqs]

you almost feel rule breaking yourself.

Well actually you are. It's also illegal to listen to pirate radio.

....But I've never heard of anyone being done for listening.