Punta Del Este

Ibiza has for long been engrained on the roadmap for travelling clubbers across the globe. In Privelege it has the largest nightclub on the planet. All the top DJs fare their way on the White Isle every summer and the closing parties have become part of nightlife’s folklore. Goa, on the west coast of India, experienced a massive rise in club tourism during the nineties. Its full moon beach parties with flowing melodic trance earned it the accolade of those slightly more adventurous beatniks. There is a war among the travelling clubber cognoscenti to find the best place on the globe for their holiday partying. Oneupmanship is a a reality… In the chillout room of Ministry of Sound or Spundae, nothing sounds better than casually dropping into the conversation about how you ‘discovered’ the latest craze in the dance music world. In this article I aim to explore one of the more exciting emerging resorts in the world which isn’t particularly familiar to European or North American clubbers. Punta Del Este is ‘the St Tropez of South America.’

On the southern tip of Uruguay this small town of about 10000 inhabitants, has long been the destination of wealthy South American playboys. Whether you are an Argentinian cattle rancher or a Colombian drug baron, the chances are your summer hols involve a nice trip to the Punta Del Este. During the southern hemisphere summer months, from December through to February, the population of this ‘village’ swells to a million holidaymakers…

The population is mainly European in heritage which gives this coast an Ibizan feel. About ninety percent of people proudly trace their European ancestry, mainly to Italy and Spain. However, unlike other resort towns on the continent which cater to predominantly Europeans and North Americans, Punta del Este maintains its Latin American character. Yachts dot the harbour and glitzy bars and restaurants compliment the luxury hotels. The comfortable surroundings all pave the way for the most hedonistic nightlife in the Western hemisphere.

British superclub Cream started doing events in the Punta Del Este a few years ago. Indeed, when their main club in Liverpool closed its doors, Cream still continued in Uruguay, drawing in the crème de la crème of international DJs. It is a regular tour spot and a lot of DJs such as Sasha, Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto, enjoy catching some winter sun while laying down the party beats in some truly fabulous nightclubs…

Maybe, Uruguay, doesn’t automatically feature highly on your to-do list of holiday vacations. Outside of their archaic multiple world cup winning football teams, Uruguayans remain very much an unknown quantity in the eyes of much of the world. Don’t let that dissuade you though. Surely a destination that you don’t read about in the red-top gutter press must have an appeal. Drunken yobbish behaviour symbolises much of Ibiza, Goa is subject to corrupt law enforcement and is full of tales of traveller woe. Try something different. Cheap Spanish carriers can take you across the Atlantic for about a few hundred pounds. Exotic and stylish, with quality music. Punta del Este is the clubbing destination for the distinguished aficionado.

KryKey - What is it?

What is KryKey?

In a world of music that the ipod has turned upside down, the market of computer music products is full to the brim and highly competitive. MP3 sales is now the standard marker for a music artist’s success. Music in the digital age is pegged to tech developments. KryKey is a disruptive technology that has the potential to set the new standard for music listeners and makers alike.
Web radio is the ‘in-thing’ in the tech sector. The recent annual tech show in Las Vegas was full to the brim of internet radio products. A study has predicted the ‘web radio’ sector to draw in $900 million revenue this year. There is an expected compound annual growth rate of 29.7% That web radio is the fastest growing area of the World Wide Web is in no doubt. What the sector has lacked until now is a platform to incorporate potential broadcasters to supply the channels necessary in the radio boom.

KryKey is the perfect platform for the Web Radio Station. It simply allows you to create your own PRS (Personal Radio Station) where you can invite other people to act as DJs. The KryKey software incorporates an easy-to-use MP3 streaming interface, where you create playlists of MP3s you upload. Today in a terrestrial radio studio, it is normally a similar digital interface that is used to play the music. What KryKey does is reverse the traditional radio barriers, of it costing so much money to set a studio up and being incredibly expensive and tightly regulated to conduct a broadcast, which has certain broadcast limits. You can set up and run your KryKey PRS from your own living room or office, with DJs not even having to be present with you but sat in the comfort of their own homes.

How is the station funded? People initially told about KryKey suspect that it is an ‘under-the-counter’ pirate radio broadcast service. Sure there are places on the net where you can set up internet pirate radio, but the quality of the stream is appalling, there are server issues and no guarantee of station stability. KryKey uses incredibly powerful US servers and one of the most important feedbacks received is that customers are very satisfied with the volume and 128 bitrate quality of the KryKey stream. KryKey earns its revenue through advertising on the station. One of the options for PRS owners is to create their own advertisements or promo dittys. If, as a station manager, you are unhappy with having short advertising intervals there is a subscription service available to ensure your broadcasts are advert free. The station needs revenue as according to radio laws it has to pay royalties to artists that are played on the KryKey network.

KryKey is a truly globalised service. Involved in the running of the company are Americans, Australians, Belorussians, Indians, British & Bulgarians. Web radio stations can employ DJs from all over the world. Presently there are over 130 KryKey PRS running on every continent, with growth rates of PRS creation becoming exponential.

The service is still in its Beta test format and new features are becoming available to increase the facilities for broadcasters. Hot new developments include a live broadcast facility where a mixing desk can be linked to the PC. Enhanced studio features and customisable homepages are due and also a chat and phonein facility to enhance audience participation in shows. Unlike other competitors in the computer music world, KryKey is not just a music streaming service. It allows real live radio. There is a microphone option so each track can be introduced and broadcasters will have to ensure that their shows are well-presented if they want to retain listeners. KryKey truly is innovative and has the potential to really bring the world of web radio to the websurfers feet. The hardware for web radio will sweep the market over the next few years and as portable listening devices incorporate web radio streams, it is most certain that the world of radio has never been a more exciting place to be. Get yourself KryKeyed and set up for the revolution!

Internet Car Radio

Radio is a technology that since the advent of television, has had to compete in people’s homes as the medium of choice. The advantages of radio over television is that it requires not as much attention from the listener. That is not to say that radio is a less-engaging medium. Even in today’s world of interactive television phoneins, radio still has a much better audience participation, allowing listeners to directly feed into the broadcasts. Radio is popular when people are multitasking, for example on the factory floor. By far the most popular use of radio today is when people are on the road. Car radio is a massive market and our roads are full of radio listeners. Hop into your car and tuning in to radio is as much a priority as putting the keys in the ignition. New developers have seized the opportunity to take control of the car radio market share and reinvent the way we listen. New technologies are fresh on the market allowing car radio users to tune into the World Wide Web for internet radio broadcasts. The diversity of choice is incredible and there are no broadcast limits to internet radio ranges. The motorways will be full of people tapping into stations from across the world. It is an exciting time for car radio listeners.
The first company to introduce the new technology was Blaupunkt. Driven by Miroamer roaming software, Blaupunkt internet radio sytems allow the permanent installation of a web car radio, eliminating the need for fiddly plug and play systems that may have previously existed. A car user wants to just hop in and drive off, not spend ages configuring his wireless laptop or Bluetooth, in order to tunein to radio. The product showcased at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In addition to allowing the user to tunein to the 10s of 1000s of internet radio stations currently available, the technology presents users with the facility to still also use FM and AM transmissions. The Miroamer technology involved accesses the internet via standing mobile internet connections. It is initially available to consumers on a monthly subscription basis at a price of around $30-$40 a month. Obviously there may be some problems with the access to mobile connections as the signal isn’t constant but as time progresses the growth of mobile internet should ensure a constant signal, in a similar vein to the development of mobile phone signals.
Other companies are clambering aboard and perhaps the most exciting announcement has come from massive American car manufacturer, Chrysler, who say that internet radio facilities will be factory installed as standard in all their 2009 models. Other notable audio companies getting involved include high quality Swedish manufacturers Bang & Olafsen. The price of radios themselves are entering the market in direct competition with standard terrestrial car radios, from $150. In addition to standalone car web radio players, the domestic market is also seeing the emergence of new internet home entertainment systems. As the internet radio breaks free from the PC, there will be a massive rise in listeners of web radio. There will be a need for high quality broadcasts to compete for the new consumers’ attention. We hope that at KryKey we can provide you with the broadcast capability necessary to enter the web radio world. We endeavour to join you on the global highways and country roads as communication routes converge and the information super highway becomes part of the road travel network.
http://www.KryKey.com

Web Radio - The future?

Internet Radio – The future?

Radio was a communication technology that completely changed the world during the twentieth century. Before the age of television, radio was the most popular entertainment medium. Where would the Rock n’ Roll revolution of the Sixties be without the dedicated broadcast channels streaming the new sounds to bedrooms across the globe? The age of television saw a decline in radio’s impact, though the market for radio continued to grow. People listened in cars, on the hop, portable devices emerged too. The advantage of radio over television meant that the same levels of user concentration weren’t required. Radio can be background as well as thoroughly engaging. To many people radio provides the backdrop to their day’s work in factories or offices. One of the most important aspects of radio is the interactivity between programmers and their audiences. Phone in shows and audience feedback is significantly greater for radio than its televised cousin. To me one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century was the clockwork battery-less radio which was cheaply and widely distributed throughout Africa and the developing world, providing maybe the first link to the outside world in many areas.

What has changed today? Satellite TV is rampant and viewers across the world have the widest selection ever available. Radio is still a huge draw though and in the internet communications era, our listening habits are changing yet again. Podcasting is a term that has entered the glossary and these subscription downloads are basically prerecorded radio shows. MP3 players such as the Apple Ipod have increased the use of portable audio devices to levels previously never imagined. Podcasts are easy to distribute and are a growing broadcast medium but the appeal of live radio still seperates podcasts from its transistor sister. Radio services on Real player, Windows Media Player and other media player devices have been available but in general have been still run by corporations with studios and massive finance. There is a gap in the market for proper home broadcasting, done live, and directly competing with traditional radio, just without all the massive startup and maintenance costs. This is where the new KryKey service enters the market. http://www.krykey.com is a convenient easy to use service which sets up the simple home broadcaster with realtime radio potential. The user can create their own radio station and broadcast direct from their own home with little more than a miked up laptop and their internet connection. The next question arises – how can internet radio seize the market of traditional broadcast radio and will it make it obsolete?
The world of radio has recently experienced a massive revolution with the advent of DAB (Digital) services. The new dawn is fast approaching however and portable devices such as ipods and phones, car radios and home entertainment systems are emerging on the market offering internet radio listening capability. FM and AM waves with their limited range and even the new DAB radios are a thing of the past in today’s global internet environment. Soon, people will be able to truly have a global entertainment experience wherever they are in the globe. Eskimos will be tuning into Australian rock stations, and China will be dancing to the beats of the Caribbean. A few years ago the Rolling Stones performed the first live internet concert. Internet radio will completely reshape the entire broadcast landscape. The market will be flooded with new DJs and bands at a scale that the Sixties rockers never had. Web radio is the largest growing internet trend and recent technology shows in Las Vegas and San Francisco were awash with new tech gadgets awaiting the biggest broadcast revolution ever seen. We live in exciting times and web radio is about to explode. If you are a potential broadcaster, now is the time to take a dip in the waters of life...