EDIT: I just realized how terribly misleading the title is. It should read "Should RR go commercial?" - sorry for the clickbait. Hello everyone! Recently there was some discussion in regards to the future of Radio Rivendell and the shape of the new version of the website. Some ideas emerged, and I think the most real scenario to achieve the goals in these ideas is for Radio Rivendell to go (more) commercial. Recently the place has become pretty silent, and I mean here the forums and a chat, while I imagine a lot of people still listen to the radio outside of the website. I think that I'm hanging around for long enough to not be a newcomer anymore, and I am entitled as such to notice that Radio Rivendell recently moved forward slow enough to go backwards relative to the world. Can't say it's a bad thing and even if we made a far-fetched interpretation of what's happening as RR slowly dieing, it would still be hard to say if it's a bad thing, as some things go away and new things emerge... ...Except Radio Rivendell has so much potential, it seems. It's not a typical 'potential' we hear all the time, but RR has acquired a lot of licenses from music authors over the years. It's actually amazing that a website which, by the traffic on it's forum-chat hinterland seems to be just some small amateur project, is actually full of high quality content. Recently the world went nuts in regards to copyright again, this time e.g. removing sound from Youtube clips. Twitch and Youtube creators started to think what music they could use, and started to use websites like http://ocremix.org . Not to insult these guys, but music found on Radio Rivendell seems to be of a higher quality. So it got me thinking - what if Radio Rivendell supported creators by allowing them to play the music, but it wouldn't have to stop there. Small, indie developers, which struggle to add quality music on top of quality graphics and (obviously) code, could just insert a Radio Rivendell plugin to play the music in their games. But let's go back to the streamers - why don't they already use the Radio Rivendell (well, perhaps some do, but not a whole lot) - it's because they have no control on what is being played. There is one channel, you can't ban a song that is annoying you (there once was a track with a crying woman), you can't favorite a song to hear it more often, you can't resign from music with vocals - and maybe when you talk, singing in background make you less intelligible? I could go on and on mentioning reasons why some control over the radio stream would be great. An important issue here is a license. The music on Radio Rivendell is usually not a free music. It is a music that is being sold somewhere, but it's authors decided to give it to Radio Rivendell for free as a promotion - I think it's a great idea, because if someone likes a track he hears on Radio Rivendell, he might buy it, because he has no ability to play a specific track on demand. This is also why giving such option (e.g. replay a current track) could violate the license of the song. But is there no workaround? I believe there is more than one. First, an old idea that there could be multiply channels: anything goes, vocal, no vocal, fast paced, slow paced, with commentary etc. Second, a new, revolutionary idea of a personalized radio: you vote on songs, authors, genres, tags and even your friends, so that a complex algorithm can randomize you more personalized songs based on your preferences. You still can't force the radio to play a specific song or album, or playlist, but you can ban specific songs, genres, tags (you don't like male voices or choirs? Just click on an 'x' near a related tag), and you can boost a probability of songs, albums etc. by rating them highly or adding to favorites or by your highly rated friends rating them highly or adding to favorites. Either way, to popularize Radio Rivendell, some special plugins and programs should be created. For example a streaming overlay, displaying RR logo and current track information in a neat way, or a flash component that flash game developers can easily incorporate to play music in their game and even change the music type on the fly - e.g. a pawn moves from a forest to mountains: change the tag from 'forest' to 'mountains'. Or a strategical exploring view changes to tactical combat view - change the channel from slow paced to fast paced. The thing is, Elrond has done so much work already and it's hard to expect of him to keep spending HUGE amounts of time working on all of it. That's why I propose that RR goes commercial. And I don't even mean that RR should make money, as maybe that would also violate some song licenses, but it could turn into a non-profit organization, where there simply is some outsourced maintenance and development that is covered from donations and other fair methods. I'm low on time, but I could help Elrond to get the wheel moving, and I wouldn't expect any payment up to some point where he would decide to hire me or hire someone else, as I believe this could be a great, big service, but it would really need some full time care of multiple people. So I'll leave it here and wait to see what other community members think. I wouldn't be surprised if some people would rather want to keep the website small and cosy, but recently (I mean for last year or two, lol) it seems to not work anymore.

Updated 23 July 2016 (10:27)

You know I'm all for it! I think a more tailored experience is what a site like this needs...especially for those who want ideas for their RP sessions, music while they play their computer games, or for building a playlist of music they buy after listening to RR. As for tags, I love the idea. However, it will be interesting to see how tag usage can be kept under control for the user, especially if he or she has hundreds of tags to choose from and very little way of "grouping" a choice number of them into a theme. For example, one day I may wish to have an "enchanted forest" theme for some relaxing music, but then would like to switch the next day to an "epic adventure" theme to get music ideas for my RP sessions. And I could switch back and forth without having to memorize all the tag choices I had made for a particular theme (it would also cut down on all the searching and clicking). I really like your visual idea of changing the music type on the fly...it would give RR that unique flavor that I think would many RR listeners would love. After all, most of us probably play games as hobbies (and may be what drove some to fantasy in the first place). I agree that such a project could not (nor should not) be up to one person alone. It'll be a few years before I'm finished with school, but I will never tire of throwing out ideas until I can actually participate in their implementation. Until then, I truly hope the community brings some life back into the forums and into RR alongside its streaming service.

Excellent thoughts and ideas here! I'd love to spend more time on Rivendell developing things, but I must realise that I don't have all that time. It's a little sad to see visitors dropping, member signups wane and listeners slowly leaving. But, there's hope! I love the ideas of better control over the music. I'm not 100% sure on how the ideas of user-controlled music would work, are you thinking of something like Pandora? I wonder if it's possible to do with Icecast and the current relay servers, not so sure. However.. by utilising Soundcloud I think this might be more possible, where we keep track of the tagged music connected to Radio Rivendell and then we have a radio player where you can pick and choose styles and we play music from Soundcloud or other services. That could work, but I haven't delved deep into that yet. It's definitely something I will want to look at. I also have thoughts on how to kick life back into things again. The most active people "on the outside" are the composers who want listeners to their music, and this is something we need to work on. Making the process of showcasing new fantasy music quicker, easier and more fun for our audience. Here again I think the easiest will be if the composers pick and show their tracks on Radio Rivendell before the music gets on the air. Then the community will be able to listen to, vote, comment and screen the music before I do it. That way it will save some time for me as I am currently the one that needs to listen to all new music, pick and choose and then upload it. It's a fun process, but it takes time. So it would be quicker and better if it was possible for you guys to see what's coming to Radio Rivendell, listen to it and do thumbs-up or down before we add it. What do you think? It's pretty amazing that we have been living for 15 years now! And we'll go on for more than that, rest assured!