DAR.fm Launches “UberStations”

DAR.fm is currently creating a comprehensive guide of stations known as “UberStations” immediately available to all SHOUTCast licensees. UberStation has now emerged as an alternative to AOL's SHOUTcast closure which resulted in over hundreds of mobile applications left orphaned last Thursday. AOL/Nullsoft had also just recently built a Winamp Android player which supported synchronization for the Web with desktop, a move which failed to take off Mobile apps utilizing SHOUTcast had their station directory stop functioning on December 5 paralyzing their apps.

DAR.fm

UberStations is a global online directory of free radio stations which includes AM/FM stations, Icecast stations, SHOUTcast stations and thousands more. It's the same directory used for the DVR for radio service DAR.fm and RadioSearchEngine.com which means it receives thousands of updates from the community and DAR.fm.

Xiaa Live just switched to UberStations. The UberStations provided an expansion of stations while at the same time delivered powerful artist and song search features. "Hundreds of developers rely on SHOUTCast and popular app developers such as TuneMark on iOS and Xiaa Live on Android told us SHOUTCast was shut down this morning rendering their apps useless." says DAR.fm CEO Michael Robertson "We immediately opened our UberStations directory so developers can switch over and continue to offer their services and not have to do customer refunds."

AOL announced last month its planned December 20th shutdown of Winamp, a media player for Windows PCs and Android devices. Winamp was picked up by AOL through its $80 million acquisition of Nullsoft in 1999. There have been talks of Microsoft looking to Buy  SHOUTcast and Winamp From AOL. It was also rumoured that SHOUTcast, the cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet would be closed last month.

The notice appeared on Winamp’s media page:

Winamp.com and web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release. Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years.

For the majority of stations, UberStations includes a wide range of data offered and several technology advancements to online radio which lacked in first generation providers such as SHOUTCast. Key features include audio format, programming data, genre and location. More than 50,000 tested and reliable stations with genre, logos, broadcast schedule, now playing date and geographic location make up the UberStations guide.

DAR.fm is a new online service for radio lovers. The service offers recorded radio with on demand playback, browse and search stations, popular talk shows, over hundreds of music stations and other great features. Android users can also locate material of interest, click Record and the service will direct DAR's servers to capture the material and store it for future playback allowing users to custom record such as weekly radio shows. DAR  is a similar model to the DVR (digital video recorder) in the way it captures and plays back TV broadcasts. DAR.fm operates via internet. Android users have the ability to schedule via web browser and listen to radio directly from their devices and more.

The growth in digital and growth in live music is expected to grow from US$49.9bn in 2012 to US$53.8bn in 2017, a CAGR of 2% according to a recent report by PWC. EMEA will remain the largest region by revenues, with main contributions by the UK, France and Germany, the three largest music territories in the region. The improvement in the music industry still remains strong despite the prevalence of pirated material and unlicensed service issues.

Documentation is available free to developers for a limited time at UberStations API.