Radioplayer Canada is Finally Here! Download It Now!
It’s here. Finally.
Radioplayer Canada–a new high-powered aggregator of more than 400 stations across Canada–was officially launched today. Virtually every radio company in the country is part of this (Bell isn’t; they have iHeartRadio), allowing users to listen to any participation anywhere. You can listen live and to past radio shows (I particularly like that feature.)
What’s the point? Don’t we already have apps that do this? Yes, but Radioplayer is far more more robust that what we’ve had up until now. And the utility of Radioplayer will become even more apparent when it starts appearing on the dashboard of connected cars. There’s a huge push to make this a standard part of the infotainment stack of vehicles sold in Canada.
They’ve been using a version of Radioplayer in Europe for a while now and it’s been very popular and very successful. And once you start using it, you’ll understand why.
The app is a free download for iOS and Android–and it’ll be part of Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Chromecast and even smart watches.
This is a seriously big deal for the Canadian radio industry because we want to make it as easy as possible to listen to radio anywhere. Give it a whirl and tell me what you think, okay?
Read the official press release here.
Is it better than Tunein? Better than the individual station apps? Better than ClearChannel’s iHeart CanCon-ized thing? Slacker? Stingray? Because even those i just mentioned are a stretch for most people that will do with Spotify/Deezer/iTunes/Google (in offline mode, worst case scenario).
And the people like you and me that actually dig broadcast radio, do we prefer local stations? Because unless i am forced to use FM (and that in turn means i’m tuning into CBC’s frequencies or the jazz station) i’d rather listen to actual human programmers (say KCRW) that the “podcasts on shuffle” that are available in TO.
-G.
Are stations required to register or opt in to be listed? Example, a search for a campus station comes up empty, but the station is a member of the National Campus and Community Radio Association (listed on the NCRA website).
What is the default streaming bitrate setting (if High Quality is not enabled)?
Past shows you say? Will we be able to listen to The Ongoing History of New Music archives?
That’s the plan. It’s a long-term plan, but it’s a plan.