Available in free and fee-based versions, LAUNCHcast provides a personalized music stream based on music that you rate. Upon signing up, you are asked to enter the names of favorite artists and select music genres that interest you. As each song plays you have the option of rating it, which in turn influences what songs will be served to you subsequently. Other options include pausing a song or skipping it. For each song it is possible to rate the song, the album the song is on, and/or the artist on a scale from four stars (can’t get enough) to zero stars (never play again). This last option—to ban music from your station—is beloved by legions of devoted LAUNCHcast users. For many, it signifies freedom from the tyranny of force fed, Top-40 music programming. The more songs you rate, the better your profile becomes, and the more likely you are to enjoy what gets played on your station.
LAUNCHcast also provides approximately 120 pre-programmed stations, sliced by genre, theme, and era. Also provided are fan stations that play music from a particular artist and related artists. Music on all these stations can be rated, and these ratings are incorporated into your personal station profile.
LAUNCHcast is part of the Yahoo Music service, which provides access to music videos, news, reviews, charts, free downloads, and other promotional information. In January 2005, LAUNCHcast reached an average of 2.1 million listeners per week according to the Arbitron ratings.Yahoo also owns Musicmatch.
Music Discovery with LAUNCHcast
While you are listening to LAUNCHcast, you can access music information by clicking on the linked names of artists, songs, and albums within the player window. This information can include biographies, reviews, discographies, and in some cases news, photos, interviews, lyrics, and links to other artist related Web sites. Artist pages also provide links to fan stations, in case you want to listen to more of their music, as well as links to the personal stations of fans of that artist.
Listening to the stations of other listeners lets you try their favorite music. This feature also makes you into a disc jockey of sorts, with your “program” available to others. A SHARE THIS STATION option makes it easy to tell friends about your station.
Communication with other fans is possible using Yahoo Instant Messenger, artist-focused message boards, and a LAUNCHcast user group, also available on Yahoo. The user group is a place for users to discuss new features, make suggestions, air complaints, and discuss issues with LAUNCHcast product management. Being a subscriber to this list, I have seen lots of user enthusiasm as well as frank and open exchanges between users and LAUNCHcast product management.
Effort Is Required and Rewarded
LAUNCHcast is not for idle listeners, at least when it comes to developing the truly rich profile that LAUNCHcast is capable of providing. The music rating system, though rich, is complex and the implications of certain rating decisions are not immediately clear to new users. It takes time to develop a personal station, but watching it take shape and grow can be very satisfying. The process is highly involving and, for some, addictive.
Premium Option - LAUNCHcast Plus
As of this writing $3.99 per month, paid monthly, or $2.99 per month, paid yearly, will get you:
Ad-free listening
Unlimited use of your personal station
The free version of LAUNCHcast restricts you to playing 600 songs on your personal station per month.
Higher quality music streams and unlimited skipping
The free version of LAUNCHcast streams at “medium” quality, and after the first 600 songs per month, downgrades the stream to “low” quality and disables the song skipping feature. Premium subscribers get unlimited access to “high quality” streams and song skipping.
More pre-programmed music stations
The free service offers less than 50 stations, LAUNCHcast Plus offers 120.
Moods
These are filtered versions of your personal station which restrict the playlist to specific genres of your choosing. A “mood” also lets you determine the proportion of unrated music that gets played (versus music that you have already rated).
Influencers
Here you can “subscribe” to other people’s LAUNCHcast stations, letting their ratings influence your playlist. These stations are called “influencers.”
LAUNCHcast Plus is available in the U.S. and in Canada under an arrangement with Rogers Cable Company, a Canadian ISP. The free LAUNCHcast service is available worldwide.
Getting Started
To use LAUNCHcast, you will need a Yahoo id, which can be freely obtained by signing up via the LAUNCHcast Web site (http://radio.yahoo.com). The LAUNCHcast player relies on Windows Media Player, Macromedia Flash, and a Web browser to work, so these must be installed. If you have a Windows PC, it’s more than likely your system will meet these requirements. Support for the Macintosh, while available, is more limited.
One drawback is the lack of a stand alone desktop player application. The main player for Windows users, relies on Internet Explorer, which has been plagued with an onslaught of spyware. Another option for listening to LAUNCHcast is to use the player built into Yahoo’s Messenger intant messenging application.
Once you are signed in, it is simply a matter of making some initial music preference choices, after which music will start playing and you can begin rating music and building your station. There is a setting for blocking songs with explicit lyrics, if that is your wish. See Chapter 29, LAUNCHcast Discovery Plan, for a detailed seven-day plan showing you how to get up-to-speed with LAUNCHcast and get the most out of its features.
LAUNCHcast Summary
Pros
Allows users to create a finely tuned personal radio station
Provides the richest personalization of any Internet radio service
Provides strong community features that encourage sharing of music
Provides a “near on-demand” alternative to more expensive, on-demand music services
Cons
Requires more effort to use than other Internet radio services
Relies on the spyware-prone Internet Explorer Web browser to play the music; no stand alone desktop player application is available
Free version of personal station will only play 600 songs per month
No support for Macintosh OS X users
Best for
People wanting maximum control over what they hear via Internet radio
People interested in creating and sharing a personal radio station
Budget-conscious listeners
Internet Explorer Users
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