Samstag, 3. Juni 2017
Donnerstag, 25. November 2010
Sonntag, 6. Dezember 2009
SwissGroove 2010?
It's been 8 months since I left the SwissGroove team.
In fact, my knowledge, be it of technical or musical nature, was no longer appreciated by the two current makers. In their heads, SwissGroove should mutate into THE music promotion platform within the jazz, funk, soul & latin music sector. Moreover, I was told that my taste and knowledge of music was not compatible with the future project and how and what SwissGroove should reflect in near future.
This was pretty amazing stuff to me due to the fact that number of listeners at the time I left was the highest SwissGroove ever achieved. Since then, and with all the adjustments made by the current team, the numbers of listeners have steadily but surely been decreasing.
While having around 1300 listeners a day during peak hours totalling in around 43'000 listeners per 24 hours in 2008 , SwissGroove today averages 1000 listeners during peak hour and a mere 35'000 listeners during 24 hours. That's a loss of listeners of about 20%! (update March 2010: loss of listeners has continued. Daily listeners now down to 32'000. Shoutcast ranks them now at #157.)
The current makers did also quite an adjustment to the musical content reducing the number of tracks within the Nu Groove genres (Lounge, Chillout, Nu Jazz, Trip Hop, jazzy house) and increasing the number of tracks within the Jazz, Soul and World genres.
Already one year before my departure did they plan and talk of a new web site that so far has not surfaced. All the content, scripts, text found on the current web site dates back to when I was admin and is the result of my efforts and work.
The only new thing on their site are some pictures of people that work for SwissGroove in various fields.
The Swiss press has highly praised their project and they pride themselves with their work accomplished. The articles also suggests that they were the creators of the project giving the readers the impression that they actually built the whole thing from scratch themselves.
Their efforts and change of direction don't seem to have paid out yet.
SwissGroove is, after all, still a webradio and this always was the creator's intention.
However, SwissGroove still is a good webradio. I once called it "The ear-opener for new sounds". Now it's become something different - more a place where jazzy tunes of the old days are being rediscovered.
In fact, my knowledge, be it of technical or musical nature, was no longer appreciated by the two current makers. In their heads, SwissGroove should mutate into THE music promotion platform within the jazz, funk, soul & latin music sector. Moreover, I was told that my taste and knowledge of music was not compatible with the future project and how and what SwissGroove should reflect in near future.
This was pretty amazing stuff to me due to the fact that number of listeners at the time I left was the highest SwissGroove ever achieved. Since then, and with all the adjustments made by the current team, the numbers of listeners have steadily but surely been decreasing.
While having around 1300 listeners a day during peak hours totalling in around 43'000 listeners per 24 hours in 2008 , SwissGroove today averages 1000 listeners during peak hour and a mere 35'000 listeners during 24 hours. That's a loss of listeners of about 20%! (update March 2010: loss of listeners has continued. Daily listeners now down to 32'000. Shoutcast ranks them now at #157.)
The current makers did also quite an adjustment to the musical content reducing the number of tracks within the Nu Groove genres (Lounge, Chillout, Nu Jazz, Trip Hop, jazzy house) and increasing the number of tracks within the Jazz, Soul and World genres.
Already one year before my departure did they plan and talk of a new web site that so far has not surfaced. All the content, scripts, text found on the current web site dates back to when I was admin and is the result of my efforts and work.
The only new thing on their site are some pictures of people that work for SwissGroove in various fields.
The Swiss press has highly praised their project and they pride themselves with their work accomplished. The articles also suggests that they were the creators of the project giving the readers the impression that they actually built the whole thing from scratch themselves.
Their efforts and change of direction don't seem to have paid out yet.
SwissGroove is, after all, still a webradio and this always was the creator's intention.
However, SwissGroove still is a good webradio. I once called it "The ear-opener for new sounds". Now it's become something different - more a place where jazzy tunes of the old days are being rediscovered.
Dienstag, 7. April 2009
New Sound Improvement
i just implemented a new sound-enhancer on our 128 kbps stream to make SwissGroove even sound better & phatter than ever.
check it out...
http://www.swissgroove.ch/listen.m3u
check it out...
http://www.swissgroove.ch/listen.m3u
Donnerstag, 4. Dezember 2008
What webradios can('t) do...
Most webradios function pretty different to regular (terrestrial) radio stations.
Many radio stations on the web are music only stations with little or no talk at all. It isn't necessary to talk on radio at all since the music has in many ways more to say than one can put into words.
Webradios are mostly listened to at work and/or while studying. The webradio's seamless mix serves as ideal background music and most notably, there is hardly any advertisement played that could cause distraction.
Playing ads on terrestrial stations every now and then is essential since it presents one of the most important source of revenue. So, how come webradios can exist without playing ads?
Well, there are some other possible sources of revenue. First, a well structured website and a high number of listeners is essential so that placing advertisment on a station's website is really paying. However, the more listeners a webradio has the more it costs to run it since bandwidth doensn't come for free.
Many webradio couldn't exist without the generous help of their listeners who donate money to them. Good examples are SomaFM and Radio Paradise who proud themselves as being 100% listener supported. Their number of listeners are quite high and so are their costs. SomaFM needs about USD 250'000.- per year to keep their many music channels going and Radio Paradise is also constantly begging their listeners for financial support.
Isn't there another way?
Webradios broadcast internationally and their listeners are spread all over the planet. This makes it somehow difficult for a "local" company to invest into a webradio or to put ads on their website. Most of the listeners wouldn't be reached by such action and/or would ignore the ad completely.
Maybe a big company of wide-world reputation launching a new product could possibly announce it on a website visited by music lovers from all around the world. However, such companies promote their products mainly using TV-campaigns, magazines or the press since they can afford it.
Why don't music-labels & artists played on webradios contribute to the costs a webradio has to cover? Isn't it actually the webradio playing music of artists that wouldn't get air-time on (commercial) terrestrial radio doing all the promotional work and not getting any money for it?
So, how the heck are webradios supposed to make ends meet? Who is paying for all the work webradios are doing? How come people/companies involved in this business are able to make money except for webradios? What's happening here?
Many radio stations on the web are music only stations with little or no talk at all. It isn't necessary to talk on radio at all since the music has in many ways more to say than one can put into words.
Webradios are mostly listened to at work and/or while studying. The webradio's seamless mix serves as ideal background music and most notably, there is hardly any advertisement played that could cause distraction.
Playing ads on terrestrial stations every now and then is essential since it presents one of the most important source of revenue. So, how come webradios can exist without playing ads?
Well, there are some other possible sources of revenue. First, a well structured website and a high number of listeners is essential so that placing advertisment on a station's website is really paying. However, the more listeners a webradio has the more it costs to run it since bandwidth doensn't come for free.
Many webradio couldn't exist without the generous help of their listeners who donate money to them. Good examples are SomaFM and Radio Paradise who proud themselves as being 100% listener supported. Their number of listeners are quite high and so are their costs. SomaFM needs about USD 250'000.- per year to keep their many music channels going and Radio Paradise is also constantly begging their listeners for financial support.
Isn't there another way?
Webradios broadcast internationally and their listeners are spread all over the planet. This makes it somehow difficult for a "local" company to invest into a webradio or to put ads on their website. Most of the listeners wouldn't be reached by such action and/or would ignore the ad completely.
Maybe a big company of wide-world reputation launching a new product could possibly announce it on a website visited by music lovers from all around the world. However, such companies promote their products mainly using TV-campaigns, magazines or the press since they can afford it.
Why don't music-labels & artists played on webradios contribute to the costs a webradio has to cover? Isn't it actually the webradio playing music of artists that wouldn't get air-time on (commercial) terrestrial radio doing all the promotional work and not getting any money for it?
So, how the heck are webradios supposed to make ends meet? Who is paying for all the work webradios are doing? How come people/companies involved in this business are able to make money except for webradios? What's happening here?
Donnerstag, 11. September 2008
Montag, 19. Mai 2008
Why write about the past...when it's the present that matters...
SwissGroove has lately become inforced by Philippe Perreaux, Melanie Bosshard, & Susanne Oeschger. Welcome to the team! (or should I say "Club"?;)
When I started SwissGroove in May 2003 I never imagined that it would last so long. But here we are, going stronger every day, thru ups and downs, celebrating our 5th anniversary.
Though we're short of our budgeted needs for 2008, we're positive that we'll somehow manage to make ends meet. Imagine: none of us gets yet paid for all the hours invested. We're doing it all for free because we believe that someday our efforts put into this project will pay out. SwissGroove no longer is a small webradio, it's most probably Switzerland most listened to webradio station.
There is still much work ahead of us - we want to improve our web-site making it more informative and interactive. We want to expand our partnerships and network within the music-business offering you more exclusive content. We want to make SwissGroove the online promotion-plattform for Jazz, Funk, World, Soul and NuGrooves.
Already now, we can proudly present many great artists & bands in co-operation with concert agencies in Switzerland & Germany. Many webradios have come and gone but SwissGroove stands strong ranked as one of the top100 webradio stations world-wide.
The costs to keep SwissGroove going are pretty small in comparison to other radio stations. Our financial needs to be online are only about 55 Swiss Francs per day - yes, you read correctly.
If you're one of the regular SwissGroove listeners you must most probably know what we are worth and what we mean to you. If you haven't donated yet, then do it now, please.
Thanks so much to all of you out there listening and supporting SwissGroove!
When I started SwissGroove in May 2003 I never imagined that it would last so long. But here we are, going stronger every day, thru ups and downs, celebrating our 5th anniversary.
Though we're short of our budgeted needs for 2008, we're positive that we'll somehow manage to make ends meet. Imagine: none of us gets yet paid for all the hours invested. We're doing it all for free because we believe that someday our efforts put into this project will pay out. SwissGroove no longer is a small webradio, it's most probably Switzerland most listened to webradio station.
There is still much work ahead of us - we want to improve our web-site making it more informative and interactive. We want to expand our partnerships and network within the music-business offering you more exclusive content. We want to make SwissGroove the online promotion-plattform for Jazz, Funk, World, Soul and NuGrooves.
Already now, we can proudly present many great artists & bands in co-operation with concert agencies in Switzerland & Germany. Many webradios have come and gone but SwissGroove stands strong ranked as one of the top100 webradio stations world-wide.
The costs to keep SwissGroove going are pretty small in comparison to other radio stations. Our financial needs to be online are only about 55 Swiss Francs per day - yes, you read correctly.
If you're one of the regular SwissGroove listeners you must most probably know what we are worth and what we mean to you. If you haven't donated yet, then do it now, please.
Thanks so much to all of you out there listening and supporting SwissGroove!
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