Hey everybody,

I apologize in advance if you think this is just a promotion...

We're currently beta testing a web client for our Radio MX subscription service, and I'd love to have anybody here take a look at it and give me feedback.

Here's a quick rundown of what it is:
For those that don't use MusicMatch, we have a radio subscription service (and free service) called Radio MX. It's got pre-programmed stations as well as the ability to create custom stations based on artists or years. It's free to listen at low-quality bandwidth and most stations. Other features such as CD-quality require you to subscribe.

Anyways, we've built a web client that runs as an IE toolbar. It requires IE 5.5 and up. It's very lightweight (about 800KB, I think) and doesn't require you to have MusicMatch Jukebox installed.

So, I'd love for people to take a look at it and let me know what you think. If you see any bugs or enhancements you want, submit them to radio@musicmatch.com, with the subject "Radio User Feedback"

Here's the link to install the ActiveX component:
http://www.musicmatch.com/download/free/?os=mmradio

And here's a little secret...you can listen to MX-only stations all you want if you create a station mix with just that station. We'll probably change this soon, but it works for now.

Interesting... But I need to ask the obligatory spyware question... Does the toolbar phone home to provide usage information, personal info, or anything like that?

Okay, here's my first complaint... I set up a custom radio station and started playing around with the skip track feature and an X10 advertisement comes on the "radio".. Not only that, but it also fired up an X10 POPUP. ACK! I think I could stomach radio advertisements (since they're on the real radio) but browser popups? No thank you. Aren't they making enough on the radio ads?

The ActiveX control for the toolbar is a dog, too. Very sluggish.

I was impressed that it recognized both Angry Salad and The Gathering, for my "favorite artists" channel... Wasn't expecting those to actually work. Didn't happen to see any tracks pop up from those artists though.

So how do I uninstall it from my browser now? I won't be using it if it's going to be feeding me popup ads.

Hey yn0t,

Thanks for the feedback...I'll send that on.

There's no "spyware" stuff in it whatsoever. The only requests it'll make to the server is to retrieve a sequence of tracks.

As for uninstalling it, there is an entry in the Add/Remove Programs dialog. That should uninstall almost everything. To be absolutely sure everything is gone, remove the directory "C:\Program Files\MUSICMATCH\MUSICMATCH Radio" and the MMBarCtrl Class from the "Downloaded Program Files" directory inside the Windows directory.

Oh, and regarding ads...I hate pop-up ads as much as the next guy. I'm not particularly happy with our overuse of them. But, how else are we to pay for the bandwidth a free user takes up than with ads. The pay service doesn't have any ads.

Well, like I said, they're already doing ads in between songs in typical radio fashion. The pop-ups seem to be synchronized with those ads. I say keep the radio ads but jettison the popups. I have learned to tolerate radio ads, but popups are unacceptable. They disturb me while I'm trying to do other things, and then I have to go close them, etc.

Yeah, the popups are annoying enough that they'd encourage some people to pay for the premium service, but they're also annoying enough to make me say "screw it" when testing the thing out.

I've been passing your comments on to the Web Radio team, and they like everything you've said. Thanks.

BTW, we are looking at changing our ad policy. One option would be cutting back on or removing pop-ups completely. No final decision has been made yet, though.

Okay, got a "marketing" question for you. The head of the Web Radio project wants to know:

What would convince you to subscribe to Radio MX - CD-quality, removing all ads, artist specific stations, etc?

I'd actually like to throw this out to anybody here on the board. What would you like to see in a radio subscription service? What features are most important to you and would most likely get you to pay for a service? And what do you think is a fair price?

Like I said, I hope nobody minds me milking you for your opinion, but we really want to improve Radio MX and any feedback is GREATLY welcomed.

Most important : choice! This will also be the hardest to comply to since so many people have so many tastes.
Almost equally important : sound quality! It should sound at least as good as a normal radio or else I could just turn that thing on and I would have no need for Radio MX.
I can live with commercials, but not with pop-up ads. As Ynot has already stated : they bother me in my work and annoy the hell out of me.
I guess a fair price would be about $3/month. Keep in mind that this service is not really needed ; anyone with a radio can substitute for it, so it should really get itself noticed or be 'different than the others'

Then again, you're askin this to people who probably listen to their Mp3 collection for probably 99% of their listening time.

Then again, you're askin this to people who probably listen to their Mp3 collection for probably 99% of their listening time.

If you do this, how will you ever discover new music? I end up listening to Radio MX almost 8 hours a day (since I have to test it). I've actually found quite a few new artists that I like and have even gone out and bought their CDs. Since I listen to my empeg in my car, this has ended up being the only way I discover new music.

I wonder how much empeg users listen to the radio vs. the empeg?

I listen to 15 minutes of radio a day on my shower radio. There was actualy an april fool day ask-slashdot about shower mp3 players that I took half-seriously even knowing it was april first. My tastes are fairly "mainstream alternative" as I like to call it, and I find that fifteen minutes a day is more than enough to hear new stuff, and don't ever really feel out of the loop when I read a trashy music magazine like Rolling Stone or Spin... I've tried internet radio occasionally before, and never really gotten hooked. I used to know one of the main creators of Icecast, so I played around with it right in the beginning, so perhaps it's gotten better.

Matthew

I wonder how much empeg users listen to the radio vs. the empeg?

I listen to the empeg all the time in the car and listen to internet radio most of the time at home. I've bought a few CDs now listening to random techno stations, since there are no radio stations here that play techno.

I noticed MusicMatch does exist with RadioMX on the Mac. I'll give it a try and see how it compairs to the free iTunes stations. (My PC is only for games now, the Mac does everything else).

The latest Mac version does support Radio MX pretty nicely. There are a few minor bugs in the current version, I think, but they're probably not noticeable. There should be a new version up in a few weeks, once they get it to me to test.

I wonder how much empeg users listen to the radio vs. the empeg?

I hear the radio all day long at work. Even if it is only background noise, it's usually enough to keep me up to date on the new artists/tunes.
That and the fact that the tv at home is usually playing one of the three available music channels in the background. (in "wallpaper-mode" )

If you do this, how will you ever discover new music?

Amazon recommendations, dude...

True, and I've "discovered" half a dozen new bands in the last couple of years 'cause they were playing support to people I already liked. Then, in the UK at least, there's Jools Holland's "Later" - I must have bought a lot of CDs purely off the back of that one show (and long may it continue)!

I almost never listen to the radio - long enough to wake me in the morning, when I need traffic information, and Radio 4 from 6:30pm to 7pm would be about it - but somehow I still find new music...

Bryan.

I didn't know Amazon recommendations were so accurate. I don't buy much from them. I get almost all my CDs from a used CD store near me, where I pay at most $8.99, and sometimes as low as $6.99 or $5.99. There's another store near me that'll even have CDs as low as $1.99, and they're ones you've actually heard of.

90% of what i listen to isn't on the radio anyhow. I hear new stuff by checking the labels that the artists i like are on, and listening to their new signups. Most of the new music i get is recommended from friends who are way more into the "scene" than i am though. Live shows turn me on to new bands quite often as well.

I listen to the radio for KPFA and "Democracy Now" and that's it.