Streaming at different bitrates.. good?

[James]

ive heard streaming at different bitrates gets you a wider audience! i think thats quite true with alot of the world is still stuck with dialup and having a lower bitrate available makes a wider audience listen to your station. but.. is it worth it? i mean you may get 3 or 4 using that lower stream.. and thats a waste of money and streaming... is it?

 

whats your thoughts? ;)

[James]

I find it a pain!!! I helped DJ at a station in London and it was a pain starting up both streams.. well the software i was using :thumbdwn:

 

Its a waste of bandwidth in my opinion

[CyberSlash69]

I stream and multiple Bitrates, and Multiple stations.. I don't think its that tough to setup. Shoutcast plugin for winamp makes it easy.

[dj.plazma]

I stream at 3 different bitrates using SAM3. It's very easy to set up.

[bigloo]

I stream at two different bitrates... not difficult for me. I also find that the lower bitrates are more "corporate friendly". Lots of companies are watching their bandwidth usage, so for me, streaming at the lower rate helps keep those listeners while letting their IT folks breathe a little easier. For me... it's worth it.

[bigloo]

I stream at two different bitrates... not difficult for me. I also find that the lower bitrates are more "corporate friendly". Lots of companies are watching their bandwidth usage, so for me, streaming at the lower rate helps keep those listeners while letting their IT folks breathe a little easier. For me... it's worth it.

[NickolasM.]

From what I believe... the lager or bigger the bit rate yes the more users. This is because it would cause less connection lack (buffering time, connection loss) and what not.

[jonkev14]

I just think its a matter of preference and If you want to have more that one bitrate thats good; if you dont then yes you will lose some audience members but it all depands on how you are marketing yourself as well.

[dj.plazma]

I find that having multiple bit rates helps, more than anyone, dial-up users if you have a lower-end 32k stream available. Of course, as a dial-up user streaming audio is about all you'd be able to manage without clipping and buffering.

 

I used to stream at 160k and then then moved to a host that allowed 128k max. I had a larger audience with 160 because of the quality of the stream (my source files are 192k).

[THFS]

I would find it better, for the bandwidth impaired

[dj.plazma]

I would find it better, for the bandwidth impaired

 

That's why I always maintain a 32k stream as well. I don't want to exclude anyone, but the sound quality does suffer at that bit rate. As long as they can listen, though, it's all that matters.