Two years ago, it was barely on the radar of radio stations that someday soon a lot of their audience would want to listen on their cell phones.<\/p>\n
About half of the folks wanting to stream on their cell phones were using iPhones (or iPod Touch with no phone).\u00a0 This created a problem because Apple decided not to support Adobe’s Flash and most streaming radio stations used Flash and offered no “cell phone friendly” streaming options for iPhones.<\/p>\n
Then the iPad really upped the ante.\u00a0\u00a0 In a year, the desktop PC is becoming an endangered species except for the diehard computer user.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Radio can’t ignore the iDevices if they want to offer streaming.<\/p>\n
The “Big Guys” came out with apps that only worked with their station which wasn’t a great solution.\u00a0\u00a0 ooTunes offered an app for $5 that pretty much lets you stream any station (except a few station owners who don’t allow it), and I integrated ooTunes links into the directory, partly for the selfish reason that it makes testing much faster.<\/p>\n
Tunein<\/a> (formerly known as RadioTime) started offering a free app for the iDevices AND the android.\u00a0\u00a0 Tunein has deep pockets and a signficant staff and different goals.\u00a0\u00a0 They also have their own version of “What’s on now”, but haven’t contacted me (or vice versa).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In streaming apps, I’m an app and OS agostic.\u00a0\u00a0 ooTunes<\/a> is\u00a0 “supported” because I bought an iPhone and the developer of ooTunes offered to provide the method to launch his app.\u00a0\u00a0 If iHeartRadio<\/a> or Tunein made a similar offer (as long as there are no legal constraints), I would provide the same integration.<\/p>\n But HTML5 is on the horizon – I experienced it the first time the other day.\u00a0\u00a0 With HTML5 and no Flash, the iPhone will still play the stream – making it possible to stream without any app.<\/p>\n However, you still probably want an app \ud83d\ude42\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 SR Guide is limited to only stations in the United States, and doesn’t list streaming not owned by radio stations or radio syndicators.<\/p>\n I’ve made changes to reflect this new reality – in part because of an email today.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m more fully implementing the idea of iPhone app selection for iDevices, including the option of “None”.<\/p>\n Important note to ooTunes Users<\/strong> – ooTunes is no longer the default app for the iPhone\/Pad\/Pod. If you haven’t done so before now, you’ll need to go to Preferences (on this web site) and select your App of Choice.<\/p>\n If your app choice is ooTunes, the streams you will see are limited to those that are supported inside ooTunes. If you choose “none”, then you’ll see every stream, whether or not the iDevice is capable of playing that stream. Even if you choose ooTunes, you will be offered the standard “listen” button (which won’t work in many cases if the station still requires Flash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two years ago, it was barely on the radar of radio stations that someday soon a lot of their audience would want to listen on their cell phones. About half of the folks wanting to stream on their cell phones … Continue reading