And Then There's Nothing

Well, folks - looks like this is the end of the line for Live365.com. If you haven't seen it, here's the bad news:

We are sad that we are closing our doors at the end of the month. There are always possibilities that we can come back in one form or another, but at this point in time, January 16, 2016 is the last day that Live365's streaming servers and website will be maintained and supported.

I don't know what that implies for Technical Difficulties Radio just yet. Will streams continue to stream forth automatically until the servers crash? Will I be able to send a live feed from my server, or just be restricted to my backup rotation? Or, as seems most likely, will it all just go away?

Compounding this is one of the reasons Live365 folded in the first place: the elimination of the small broadcaster licensing category. Again, I have no idea what this implies for Technical Difficulties Radio. There's a lot of pessimism about the future of independent broadcasting, and concerns that the more successful stations will abruptly find themselves put out of business by spiking royalty payments. But my listenership is not that large (and I like it that way, thank you very much), and so having to pay royalties on each individual stream doesn't sound like it will be that expensive for me, but I just don't know yet.

So. Lots of things up in the air. I am exploring alternatives to Live365 right now, and I will let you all know what happens. It won't necessarily be easy or straightforward, but right now, I think I can manage to keep Technical Difficulties alive. Fingers crossed...