James Delahunty
8 Feb 2005 2:06
Digitally Imported Radio founded by Ari Shohat grew from operating in a dorm room in Binghamton U to an office in Manhattan. At any time, anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 listeners would be tuned in to the station. The network is run mostly by part time staff and dozens of music fanatics and DJ's program the site's channels voluntarily. di.fm was ranked the top independent web-radio site by Webcast Metrics. Ari is a European Native and saw the need to share electronic news with Americans.
"Listeners write in, wanting to be a part of uniting this large, fragmented culture of electronic-crazed listeners," Ari says. "There are also companies and people that donate bandwidth to Digitally Imported Radio so that the music can reach more listeners. You’d be surprised at how many young CEOs and Executives are addicted to trance and house music". U.S. cities usually have about two designated electronic radio stations.
These one or two designated electronic radio stations, are limited to mainstream electronic favourites. The DJ's that make up the industry are often independent DJ's who perform at clubs and venues around the country. "As we expose different sub-genres of electronic music DJs are being discovered by labels and other industry giants." Ari says. "Listeners look forward to the live shows on our different channels each day. This leads to people writing in with ideas and requests to help, which fuels our growth and popularity."
Ari believes a major factor of its success is that its a free service. Most online radio stations either charge a monthly subscription or are funded by loads of advertisements. Digital Imported Radio plans to launch five more channels this year using the aacPlus format which delivers high quality music at lower birates, which is good for people with limited bandwidth.
Source:
di.fm
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