RadioVeRVe
Encyclopedia
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
station operating out of Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It differentiates itself from other FM and internet radio stations by focusing exclusively on independent music from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
It addresses the common problem that independent artistes face all over the world - mainstream radio doesn't play their music, so reach is limited. The RadioVeRVe team decided to pool their talents together and create a one-of-its-kind venture, India's first Internet radio station dedicated wholly to independent Indian music.
First launched on June 1, 2006, RadioVeRVe originally launched as a platform to showcase rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
performed by unpublished bands in India, and to feature music performed by these bands, as well as interviews and news about them. It has since widened its musical scope to rock, heavy metal, easy listening, regional language and Indian classical music.
The station has received interest from both the press as well as the music industry in India, and caters to thousands of listeners across the world 24 hours a day. Artistes featured on the station credit it with being responsible for their reaching audiences that they had not hoped to reach earlier, and getting record label offers, shows and even international tours..
Station Content
To be featured on RadioVeRVe, artistes or bands need to be independent (or indie) Indian bands or musicians creating original music and with no formal affiliation to record labels as yet. The artistes have to be located in India -- to avoid commercial conflicts, the station does not currently play music performed by Indian artistes not located in India.Shows are RJ
RJ
RJ or Rj may stand for:* Radio jockey, a person who hosts a radio talk show* Registered jack * Regional jet, a 35- to 100-passenger short-haul airliner* Reproductive Justice...
'd, with some hours reserved for the "Randomizer", where music is played at random from the huge database of songs available. As songs are played, information is displayed about the performer on the website, including links to their websites and other contact information, allowing listeners to take up contact with the artists for the purchase of their CDs, booking them for shows, recording contracts, etc.
History
The station, which currently runs in non-commercial mode, is run by Gaurav Vaz, a well known musician in Bangalore and Shreyas Srinivasan, an active FOSSFoss
Foss may refer toPeople*Foss , people with the last name Foss*Foss Shanahan , New Zealand diplomat*Foss Westcott , English bishop...
developer, with financial support from employers and well wishers, and operational and content (RJ) inputs from friends and volunteers. The infrastructure for the station has been completely based on open source software.
Along with Kaustubh Srikanth, the station actually started as an experiment called "Infinity Radio" in late 2005, with a broadcast of about two hours of content every weekday night, RJ'd live over the net. This was found to be a limiting factor, as the station could be heard by only few people, and technological problems threw up roadblocks. They turned to their friend Atul Chitnis
Atul Chitnis
Atul Chitnis is an Indian consulting technologist. He is also the founder of FOSS.IN , one of Asia's largest FOSS conferences.-Biography:...
, who showed them how to record and ‘can’ shows, setting them up for a bigger presence online, recording in his basement studio.
In June 2006, the site launched as a 24x7 channel, adopting the name "RadioVeRVe". (The strange capitalization of the name is intentional and part of the station's "branding"). From 10 listeners, Radio Verve’s audience went up to hundreds overnight as the operation eventually moved to a round-the-clock mode.
In early 2007, the project received a big boost by securing sponsorship from Indian IT firm Geodesic Information Systems.
The channel took a conscious decision not to offer music downloads, and in early 2007 began establishing partnerships with existing retail outlets that offer independent music, such as Music Yogi, to allow listeners to buy the music they were hearing.
In June 2007, RadioVeRVe expanded to seven channels, showcasing both rock as well as regional language and non-rock music.
- RadioVeRVe - the main channel, featuring mixed content
- Rock - Rock musicRock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
- Metal - Heavy metal musicHeavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
- Gospel - Gospel MusicGospel musicGospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
- Konkani - Konkani Language MusicKonkani languageKonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...
- Easy - Easy Listening MusicEasy listeningEasy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
- Classical - Indian Classical MusicIndian classical musicThe origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
The station has announced that they will be adding more regional language channels, as well as a folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
channel.
Tuning in
The station's channels can be listened to both on the web (via the RadioVeRVe website) as well as through traditional streaming using internet radio client applications and devices. Streams are available in low-bandwidth (suitable for use on mobile GPRS connections) as well as high-bandwidth (suitable for Wi-FiWi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
or broadband connections) versions. Currently, streams only are in the MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format. Information about the streams is available on the website..