Quick Tip for station Owners with mobile pages>>>

[TM101Radio]

Ok so now its my turn to contribute to this forum after learning so much from it..I hope this topic hasn't been covered if so I do apologize.

 

If you have a Mobile tune in page for your station a great way to market it is with a QR CODE.

 

if you don't know what a qr code is google will set you straight on them.

 

a great thing about QR CODES is you can get them for free -->http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ and many smartphones either can read them directly or you can download an app to scan them.

 

I use my code in several different ways and I will go over a couple of them.

 

-One way I use the QR code is on my Marketing material..on all my flyers, biz cards and even on compilation albums I release featuring the Independent Artists I have in rotation on my station. I even add it to my email signature!!!

 

-another way is on Twitter via Twitpic..Ive noticed that Twitpic links get clicked rather easily because everyone is curious to see what the picture is..

 

here is a link to my Twitpic of my QR code http://twitpic.com/3j778v

 

as you can see its been up a couple of months and has roughly 1500 views and I tweet it about once a week..If I tweet it more I will have alot more views and that link is only shared on Twitter.

 

-Lastly I put the QR code smack dab in the middle of my website..(link is my sig) so if a user is at there comp they can easily scan it with there smartphone and tune in..or bookmark it to check it out later..

 

From the analytics on my mobile page.. i get roughly 20 page views a day (mostly returning users) but on days I tweet the twitpic its spikes and at one point i had over 100 page views in one day...just from a simple tweet..I also check the stats on the stream and alot of people actually tune in and stay tuned in for over 30 mins..

 

OK I know what your thinking.... BUT WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A MOBILE WEBSITE??..easy.., thanks to a link that indiecore_radio shared in a post you can easily make one that will look very professional..http://snippetspace.com/ has a nice framework you can use to make yours

 

I haven't officially launched the one I built but if you are interested you can check it out here http://bit.ly/TESTapp from any Smartphone... For the Iphone, Ipad and Itouch Users of the webapp it even has on demand content and a now playing widget that a listener can actually rate the music I have in rotation and a couple of other features that really makes it 100 times better then my current Mobile page...

 

HOPE THIS HELPS YOU GUYS OUT...GOOD LUCK and I would love to here feedback and other ways this could be used..(Sorry for all the grammatical errors...Im fresh of work and tired..lol)

[TM101Radio]

Wow no replies so I guess not many have mobile pages.. Here is a link to a quick easy way to get a mobile for the Iphone and blackberry.. Just being able to have a mobile tune in page for the Iphone should get you at least a couple more listeners.. Anyway here is the link

 

http://radiotuner.mobi

 

Feedback is welcomed!

[DirtySouthRadio]

sounds nice im going have look in to doing that

[GKIye]

I'm sure many BW members have visited your topic

... but didn't left any reply

sorry for that ... I was one of them ;)

and yes I used and tested your details (QR code)

so ... Thanks a lot for your contribution !

(Y)

[TM101Radio]

HAHA no problem and I hope it works out for you guys

[ATHR]

What is wrong with the quality of mobile tuners, They sound like your stream is being played through a hoover!

[shoutcaststreaming]

I don't think the audio quality of mobile phones are up to the normal audiophile's standards.

[cr08]

I think the biggest thing is a lot of internet radio stations, at least from my experience, are still in the old and tired mindset that internet radio is only really accessible from the PC. I have seen very few that actually promote being able to access their station anywhere let alone having a mobile site. Would be nice to see this change, but there are still some legitimate hurdles to make it foolproof.

 

As for audio quality, this could be one of many solvable things:

1) Listening from the speakerphone rather than through a set of headphones. Obvious here. I haven't heard a real good 'speakerphone' on a phone outside of Motorola devices and especially my old Q9c which had a legitimate stereo set. Use a good set of headphones/earbuds. Audio quality will easily rival a good PC unless you are an anal audiophile that has to eek every last bit of quality out.

2) Bandwidth/player compatiblity/codecs: Stations that do offer a mobile experience likely have bitrates limited to conserve 3G data and avoid buffering issues from the often unreliable bandwidth 3G connections have. Combine that with codec and player compatibility, best bet for most devices is a strict mp3 stream. At low bitrates, that is obviously going to be an issue. AAC+ still seems to be hit and miss for compatibility. And even 3rd party apps still often rely on internal playback code in the phone's OS.

 

I've been actively testing and experimenting with smartphone support with internet radio streaming. What I have started to see is Icecast seems to play nice with mobile players more often than not compared to Shoutcast and if you can afford running multiple streams, do so based on mobile device OS. Android supports OGG out of the box even for streaming which is better quality than MP3 at lower rates. AAC+ does not stream on Android's built in player yet (Have not investigated 3rd party players. Just built in for now). iOS, BB, and others I do not own so unfortunately can't test firsthand.