Radio Free D'ni

Lord Chaos · **Joined:** Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:57 am **Posts:** 1337

Ainia wrote:

D'niJs, I will keep a head count since your channel statistics won't reflect the attendee count in SL.

I will report the test results here.

I've checked this, and found that the Shoutcast server page does report all listeners. Second Life manages the connections, but each person who turns on the land music has their own connection to the stream. So, if you have 8 people on your region and 4 of them turn on music, the server page will report those 4 in addition to anyone else listening through their music player.

I was surprised the first time I noticed this, as I'd been thinking that a connection to SL was just one connection and the number of listeners didn't count. I did a set for Second Life's Medieval Faire. As people came anId went, turning music on and off, I could watch the listener number change after refreshing the server page.

AlanD · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:17 pm

We use Icecast rather than Shoutcast, but I don't know whether that will make a difference...

Stizzleswick · **Joined:** Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:20 am **Posts:** 2

AlanD wrote:

We use Icecast rather than Shoutcast, but I don't know whether that will make a difference...

Since Icecast is a fork of the original Shoutcast stack and uses the same protocols, I'd say it makes no difference whatsoever.

AlanD · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2016 7:46 pm

Radio Free D'ni is 50

This Sunday will see our 50th broadcast on Radio Free D'ni, and so the theme will be Golden. However there will be no dwarves, as their songs are too single-minded for most other species.

Come and join us, we've got some Jazz Crusaders, Gordon Lightfoot, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac - we've tried to find things that have not been part of previous shows.

Come along and help us celebrate. I know we had our second anniversary last time, but why should that stop us?

We will also be available in Second Life, courtesy of our good friend Ainia (Ainia DaFente in SL) who will be relaying the show in TJ's Dance Hall.

Radio Free D'ni can be found at http://radiofreedni.org Check out the new home page for our site.

The old links still work as well
http://aegura.harriman4.com/8000.php
or http://www.urutunes.com and choose Radio Free D'ni...
Or you can plug http://aegura.harriman4.com:8000/stream.mp3 into your audio player

The web site is the best place for fast access to the stream and also more information about past and future shows, as we fill those pages.

MOUL folks can meet us on the plaza and exchange text chat with Ed, Mal and me

Lord Chaos · **Joined:** Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:57 am **Posts:** 1337

Congratulations on reaching 50! You start something, you never quite know how it will proceed. Finding or making a niche is an interesting process. Especially a repeating event, where the challenge is to have continuity while making each instance unique. "All God's critters got a voice in the choir..." (John McCutcheon, from "Howjadoo."

AlanD · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2016 7:51 pm

We had a great 50th show, with a Golden theme that produced a lot of favourites, both ours and yours

Our thanks to Ainia who rebroadcast the show for us in real time in TJ's Dance Hall in Second Life. I have plans afoot to include Ainia in our commentary team, and she is also hoping to widen the scope of our advertising in SL. Never a dull moment here on RFD.

The playlist is here, and you can add your comments below to let us know how we can make things even better.

The next show will be Electric Folk, but not the headliners, which we have already played quite a lot.

AlanD · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:28 pm

To embark on our second half-century we will visit the world of Electric Folk, but eschew the usual suspects - such as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and so on. There will be some tracks from lesser-known British bands, a bit of Celtic rock including Galician, Breton, Irish and Gaelic, and Malaclypse will bring along some of his favourites from Germany. I do believe I have some tracks from Sweden too. Oh, and one or two from bands you'd not normally connect with the folk world at all.

Come and join us on the plaza on Sunday 4th September at 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European time), or in Second Life visit TJ's Dance Hall where Ainia DaFente will host the rebroadcast into SL. Or just use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat if you do

AlanD · **Posted:** Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:25 pm

Sorry to be so late to confirm this, but the Radio Free D'ni show tomorrow (Sunday 18th September) will be On The Road Again, a second set of Road Songs. There will be several versions of the eponymous track, and also some Deep Purple, Blodwyn Pig, Little Feat (a rare affliction which they can do wonders with these days) and other firm favourites.

Come and join us on the plaza on Sunday 4th September at 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European time), or in Second Life visit TJ's Dance Hall where Ainia DaFente will host the rebroadcast into SL. Or just use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat if you do

AlanD · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:21 pm

A late update, I'm afraid - lots going on and I've been away from home a bit.

On The Road Again started with fewer listeners than usual (probably because I'd not let you know soon enough) but picked up very well as we went on and we ended up with a peak of more than 20, I think - which was, as always, very pleasing. Ainia had very few visitors in SL though, and I would like to find a way to reach out to them a little more, just to let folks know that we're on. Same for the general public, really. Any ideas?

The playlist is up on the Radio Free D'ni website.

We've settled on another Rarities and What-If's show for this coming Sunday at 13 KI - as usual, it will be a grab-bag of interesting stuff, mostly picked by Malaclypse (thank goodness - inspiration has deserted me this time) but with input from all of us.

Use the Radio Free D'ni website to find a suitable stream for your player or browser - there is a list of links just under the banner.

The old links still work as well
http://aegura.harriman4.com/8000.php
or http://www.urutunes.com and choose Radio Free D'ni...
Or you can plug http://aegura.harriman4.com:8000/stream.mp3 into your audio player

The web site is the best place for fast access to the stream and also more information about past and future shows, as we fill those pages.

MOUL folks can meet us on the plaza and exchange text chat with Ed, Mal and me

Lord Chaos · **Joined:** Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:57 am **Posts:** 1337

Quote:

Ainia had very few visitors in SL though, and I would like to find a way to reach out to them a little more, just to let folks know that we're on. Same for the general public, really. Any ideas?

Events in Uru have always been scheduled with a kind of "gentlemen's agreement" of one event per time slot. Second Life is a very crowded place, and no matter how much one might want to avoid stepping on another event there's no way to do so. A new event goes up against established events. My experience is that it's very hard to draw people from their regular events to something new.

If you want to compete in SL you have to push. Constantly. Many of the busy DJs have hosts and promoters. It works; I've seen such DJs at events and they bring their own crowd. At Medieval Faire, DJs who had hosts had lots of people. When the next DJ took over, the crowd disappeared. The whole idea is very distasteful to me, so I do special events such as Burn2, where people come for the event. Getting a host means having to have enough income to pay them, which puts a lot of pressure on the DJ. I prefer the Uru model.

I have, however, learned to get along with using a tip jar. I had to be talked into this. It has turned out to be a good thing, because it allows me to buy dances and dance machines to enhance any event I'm doing. I'll be at Burn2 this year, with Renaissance dances paid for with tips.

Ainia · **Posted:** Tue Sep 27, 2016 9:18 pm

Shorah b'shem Lord Chaos,

I agree, SL is a very different venue. The marketing sub-culture there leaves me cold. Happily, it is by no means the only sub-culture.

The goal here is not to develop a following or make $L so much as to make RFD available outside the Cyan cavern to Myst/Cyan fans, D'ni refugees, music lovers, passers by and anyone else who actually reads my spam notices.

My personal goal is simply to provide a welcoming space to listen in, dance, chat with others and enjoy the show in good company.

So it's fine if there are days when it's only me and it's fine when we have a handful of guests. For me, SL is all about having fun and streaming the RFD show is part of the fun.

New fans would be a nice feather in our D'niJs' collective cap, of course.

AlanD · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2016 12:52 am

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about SL's use of Monopoly money and a pseudo-economy. The sort of thing people go into fantasy RPG's to get away from. I agree with Ainia on that front.

I was really looking for a way to contact more folks in SL, but I'm hampered by not having a presence there, so I don't really understand the way it works. I think we'll carry on with the way we're doing it now, as it does expand our potential audience, and Ainia's efforts are very much appreciated. One of these days we might even succeed in persuading her to present a show.

Thanks for your comments though, Lord Chaos. For some reason I imagine your SL avatar as an eight-pointed arrow symbol surrounded by a black Mandelbrot cloud. I know, I read too much SF.

Lord Chaos · **Joined:** Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:57 am **Posts:** 1337

[quote}Thanks for your comments though, Lord Chaos. For some reason I imagine your SL avatar as an eight-pointed arrow symbol surrounded by a black Mandelbrot cloud. I know, I read too much SF.[/quote]

Oh, that made me laugh. In truth, though, I have an ordinary avatar. I used to have one of the stock avatars everyone gets, but a couple of years ago a friend gave me a new avatar. This was also rather funny because I didn't know what to do with it; I grew up in Uru, where avatars are pretty much cast in concrete after they're made. Before too long I learned that an avatar is like another set of clothes, and can be changed at any time.

Off-topic:
The avatar change came about because of another unusual occurrence. I'd met some people from the Mieville group through their Silk Road Hunt, and one evening some friends and I were sharing music when Perryn, the Mayor of Mieville, sent me an instant message asking if I could provide music for their Theme Dance. Their regular DJ's Internet connection had quit. I asked those at Music Night, they said yes, so we moved to Mieville. A month or so later I was asked again, and at that Theme Dance I met the friend who gave me the avatar. After that I needed to learn how to use it.

I'm comfortable doing fill-in gigs like that. The people may not like my, um, "atypical" choice of music, but it's better than leaving the venue dark. Last year, when Perryn asked me to fill in for a longer period, I figured that would be a stretch but all right for the expected two-month period.

The relationship between audience and DJ, especially over a longer period, interests me. We all need to compromise, and we teach each other. One night I told Perryn that I was willing to let go of the Theme Dance if he found another DJ who was more in tune with their desires. The audience numbers had been declining. He said there was no need. After another month or so we started having more people attend, and we've continued exploring musical ideas.

The "themes" for this dance relate to consumes. People dress to suit the theme, and there's a low-key contest. if I can I'll set up a playlist that relates to the theme. One night was "Alien invasion night," so I played Jeff Wayne's musical version of "War of the Worlds." The theme this Saturday is "International Coffee Day." There really is such a thing. Should I confess to everyone that I don't drink coffee?

We now return you to the regularly scheduled thread.

AlanD · **Posted:** Tue Oct 04, 2016 7:16 pm

We had a lot of fun with our sixth set of Rarities and What-if's and I think you shared it - we had a peak of 25 listeners, which is a goodly number.

Playlist and some extra commentary are on the Radio Free D'ni site here

Next show will be October 16th, and may have literary connections, but we're not quite sure yet.

AlanD · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2016 2:14 pm

I'm terribly sorry, but I have not managed to put a show together, and time has caught up on me while I wasn't looking. I have an idea I'm working on, and there will be something together for the next scheduled appearance, in two weeks time.

I think this is the first time that Radio Free D'ni has made a non-appearance, which is not a record I would like to repeat.

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