I thought I'd let everyone know about a new web site.  In the words of
their press release today:

   Fast-growing and already the largest global legal digital
   music network, Mercora today announced the availability of
   Mercora Live Music Search.  Consumers can now directly from the
   Web search, find and immediately listen, unrestricted, to music
   free of charge, streamed to them in high-fidelity audio.

The idea here is that Mercora runs a realtime search engine that allows
them to monitor the availability of live music feeds on the Internet and
then allow users to link to a specific channel of streaming audio.  So,
for instance, if you want to hear some Beethoven right now, and want to
see all that's available, then simply enter Beethoven in the search box
and you'll be presented with a list of all channels currently playing
Beethoven.  The list automatically updates every two minutes.  I've put
a search box on the Classical Net home page (upper left) for you to try
out.

This is mighty convenient for listeners, especially as the audio quality
is so much better than typical Internet radio.  But the system also has
the capability to allow anyone, for no cost at all, to become a classical
DJ and set up any number of channels of programming.  So, for all you
collectors out there who would like to share your treasures, or anyone
who is sick and tired of what commercial classical sources have to offer,
you might want to look into this.  Mercora takes care of all the rights
management and royalties for the copyright owners.  The only investment
is time.

The system uses software that you can download from the web site.
You can search for music without the software, but to listen (or become
a DJ) you have to install their program.  For right now, this is a
Windows-only application.

I have no direct financial stake in this, but I am one of the only
classical music sites working with them (if not the only).  Consequently,
I'd like to get them as much feedback as possible on their network and
software as it is used by classical music lovers.  I can promise that I
will pass along any observations, etc.  to Mercora.  Given the newness
of the system and the software, I'm sure there will be many opportunities
for improvement.

The full press release is here:

    http://www.mercora.com/release_06072005.asp

And their home page is:

    http://www.mercora.com/

Dave
http://www.classical.net/