For generations, people have wanted to bypass the controllers, the stations dictating what to listen to, and sure, we’ve bypassed the controllers, but we’ve somehow lost something by moving to Spotify and other streaming platforms.
What if I told you, dear readers, there was a new era of MV Mi Amigo that gave us Radio Caroline International, now all but forgotten?
In the late 1990s and 2000s, when I was a young techie, I discovered the golden era of internet radio before it got crushed out and controlled under the heel of Content ID and centralised platforms. I would often listen to internet radio on my Slackware desktop, but my first real memory of this era was pre-teen me lying in bed with a PSP, and it was there I got to hear Dave Rodgers for the first time in my life.
If you have lived this long and have yet to discover Dave Rodgers, I found him not via anime, not via the memes people know him from now, but rather through a 24/7 Eurobeat stream.
I’ve talked with some people during my time in actual FM/AM radio, and they’ve told me how terrestrial pirate radio in the ’80s and ’90s showed them kinds of music they would never have heard otherwise. For me, Shoutcast and Icecast streams weren’t just music; they were how I discovered whole new worlds: Eurobeat, Eurodance, and metal, even some J-pop via Shoutcast streams.
Other than Dave Rodgers, other music I’d never have discovered without these less-than-legit broadcasters includes things like the Marquis of Vaudeville, which to this day I still listen to. Growing up with this strange and wonderful alternative is what made me the music lover I am today. But I know what some readers are asking: if it was so amazing, where did it all go so wrong?
The mid-2010s. Things like Spotify expanding internationally, the slow exodus of people from Second Life, where Shoutcast streams were part of the nightclub culture, and the launch of Apple Music all played a part.
Now, before someone jumps in to claim “but artists get paid for real radio” or “Spotify pays,” well, yes and no. A radio play does not mean the artist personally receives the same kind of direct per-play payment a listener might intuitively assume. Royalties can flow through collective societies, publishers, labels, and other rights holders.
It often reminds me of the classic Hunter S. Thompson quote:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
Most artists only ever make money if they’re touring or if they have some kind of direct pipeline like a Bandcamp account, but even then the issue of real, honest discovery becomes a problem.
Sure, AI and algorithms can give you what they think you might like, but having someone actively picking songs and trying to find tracks that flow together is something far different.
Some might feel sad realising we truly lost something, but guess what? We have options.
There are still Shoutcast stations out there that operate legally, and I listen to them. But the high seas are still out there too, and perhaps someday we will see people starting new stations. Bulgaria, Vietnam, and Romania are places I’ve seen new stations popping up in public directories.
Perhaps we are seeing a new revival. People tried the algorithmic slop on Spotify and broken recommendation systems, and found them wanting.
Now, I am not actively promoting piracy, but at the same time, piracy is often a service problem, not a case of people being unwilling to pay.
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