Ok, for one, yes, these guys are technically competition, but hey, I run a business so I follow the competition and back them when it will help us too

I read on twitter this morning, with great sorrow, that anotehr great station has been lost in the DAB market in the UK, due to the crazy licencing hoops we have to jump through here in the UK that are not only hurting the radio biz, but also the artists of bands

 

 

 

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Amazing Radio ceased broadcasting nationally on Digital 1 at midnight on Monday. This letter explains what happened, and why we think it is important for all of us who love radio and care about music.

 

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Let’s be honest.  Some of you will have said ‘Amazing Who?’  Others will go ‘serves them right, their model was crazy’.  Others will be sad to see something new disappear from the airwaves, but assume it was never viable as a concept.

The truth is more complicated. Amazing Radio did not go off the air because our model failed. We have been growing very rapidly for two years and broke even in January. We have very supportive shareholders who understand that we have a long term, very audacious plan to reinvent the music industry. We are about to raise $30m in Silicon Valley to expand internationally and in the UK. Transmissions ceased because we were unable to secure acceptable terms for an extension of our contract.  We could not close a US funding round with uncertainty about our UK broadcasting licence. We remain grateful to Digital 1 for taking a risk with us when we launched in 2009, and we hope to resolve the dispute and get back on the air. Certainly the astonishing reaction from listeners and musicians, erupting spontaneously within an hour of our announcement, confirms that people want us back on DAB.

 

Why should you care about this?  Several reasons: –

 

The music industry is broken.  The old model doesn’t work any more. Major labels have withdrawn from A&R. The industry needs help finding the new talent. That’s what we do.

 

Musicians need an outlet.  The UK has an incredible live music scene, and technology allows bands to record to a higher standard and lower cost than at any time. But there’s no point having an MP3 nobody hears.  We have given thousands of bands their first radio play and first revenues.

 

DAB has to work. It’s important for the whole radio ecosystem and the Government needs the cash from analogue switch-off. The incredible reaction to our departure shows people want to use DAB to find new things. (Not just simulcasts of FM).

 

It’s good for GDP.  Creative industries are the fastest-growing part of the UK economy. The industry needs to work together to find the next Adele, the next Radiohead. We are (now) an important player at the start of that process. And our expansion will create even more jobs.

 

It’s good for young people. Music provides a creative outlet and focus for anyone. It’s democratic and (because of digital technology) accessible – if there’s a route map for talent to develop.

 

It’s good for radio.  We don’t compete for your audiences – we only ever expect to be a niche, and we’ll never take advertising. But we will find the music you’ll be playing next year.

 

We hope you see merit in these arguments and will wish us well, as we continue to expand. When we get back on the air, we hope you’ll find some new music you love. (Thousands have).

Source: Amazing Blog

Amazing Radio are still up and going online, however they were a big player on the DAB radio network and an example I planned to follow with The Saniarium.FM too

Good luck to them

– The story continues in Kingsmouth with all new characters, storylines and missions, Funcom teams up with major websites all over Europe for massive key giveaway –
 

Durham, USA – May 15^th, 2012 – Funcom is excited to announce that the next Beta Weekend for its upcoming modern-day massively multiplayer online game  ‘The Secret World’  will start on May 18^th at 9am PDT / 6pm CET and run until Sunday May 20^th at 11.59pm PDT / May 21^st 8.59am CET. During this Beta Weekend players get to pick up where they left off with the same character they played during the first Beta Weekend, as they get to meet all-new characters in Kingsmouth each with their own unique missions and storylines.

The best way to gain access to the Beta Weekend is to pre-order  ‘The Secret World’. This grants access to all Beta Weekends leading up to launch. Funcom is also teaming up with major websites all over Europe this week to conduct a massive giveaway of keys for this weekend only, and this is a great way for gamers to have a look at the game before pre-ordering.

Sites running this exclusive giveaway include  Buffed (DE),  JeuxVideo (FR),  PC Gamer (UK),  Gamer (NO),  Daily Rush (DK),  Fragzone (SE) and  Peliplaneetta(FI). Gamers in North America can get a key from the major MMO gaming site  Curse. Visit  the game’s official website for a complete list of partners.

Funcom executed a successful first Beta Weekend from May 11^th to May 13^th, both in terms of player numbers, feedback and technical stability on both client and server side. The company is also encouraged by the fact that this Beta weekend saw higher player numbers, longer play-times and higher return visits than for beta week-ends conducted for its previous MMO,  “Age of Conan”. Funcom also teamed up with the world’s largest gaming site GameSpot to bring thousands of keys for the first Beta Weekend to its readers. During the Beta Weekend  ‘The Secret World’ featured as the most popular game overall on the site, and as of today the game has a higher number of active followers on GameSpot than any other massively multiplayer online game in development.

“The results from the first Beta Weekend are very encouraging,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “The majority of the feedback we have received from players is very positive, and also looking at it from a development perspective the Beta Weekend was undoubtedly a major success for the company.”

The international gaming press has also been playing  ‘The Secret World’ for the past week, and many of them have provided their impressions. Leading gaming site GamesRadar says in their preview that they have  “…just started to scratch the surface of  ‘The Secret World’, and already, we’re awfully impressed.” Leading MMO site ZAM says in their preview that  “…  ‘The Secret World’ is a tremendously immersive experience that will invite you in to stay.”

You can find a list of coverage  on the official site.

Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

Now THIS, you have to see

If you liked films like Cloverfield, you will love ths film

This is all about teenage angst, family problems and lack of money and the corruption power can manifest (lots of metiphors in this film)

Hell if this was a Marvel film, I would expect Spidey to come swinging in reminding kids that, "With great power comes great responsibility" and its true

Three teenage guys find an alien artifact (which is convieniently left out there in the plot and never cleaned up and I am actually happy about it) in a sink hole in the ground.  The object makes a strange noise and gives them all a nose bleed and then throws them out of the hole and collapses the sink hole.  The three then start manifesting telekenysis and other cool superhero powers, however, things go bad when one of the three, played by the very cool Dane DeHaan starts considering himself an apex predator and basically shit hits the fan

Considering this is 90% filmed from one of the main characters handycam (which he floats round him like a worker bee) it gives an extra dimension to his power AND I'm sure made the cinematography a LOT easier to film 😀  BUT, it gives you a good look into not only his life (including his abuse from his drunk dad and also the anguish of his mother dying from cancer or similar), but also the small time where life is good, he's enjoying not only his power and the confidence it gives him, but also the fun of being accepted (although it is short lived)

This is a great film and will definitely be gracing my dvd/bluray collection

a cool 7.5 outta 10! Buy it, we want a sequel!

Blizzard has unwrapped Diablo III’s auction system, revealing both in-game gold and real-money auction houses.

Players will be able to switch between the two houses as they wish, which are separated into three regions independent of one another: The Americas, Europe, and Asia. The full corresponding countries for these regions (and what features and functionality they’re limited to at launch) are listed in the official Diablo III auction house FAQ.

Those who utilize the real-money auction house will take on certain transaction fees when selling items.

For equipment, Blizzard will take a $1.00 transaction fee for each item. Commodities such as gems, dyes, and recipes have a 15 per cent fee on them. Players can transfer real-money earnings to their Battle.net account, or transferred out to Paypal for a 15 per cent transfer fee as well.

Diablo III arrives May 15th for PC and OS X.

Source: MCV

This week on the Sunday Night Showcase –

We will be joined in IRC and live on air by

"Dreamkiller, the 2011 Independent Artist Music Awards ROCK BAND OF THE YEAR, is a melodic rock band that fuses rock and the idea of a rock musical and targets this towards a commercial audience."

Jim will be joining us live on air this evening, answering you questions from IRC, Facebook and twitter

Make sure to join us aswell to get some requests in! The Live request system both on the website and in IRC @ irc.sanitarium.fm port:6667 #sanitarium.fm for live show discussion

Also, keep an eye on this thread for future youtube videos and info about the band and for any ramblings from the band themselves

Yes indeed, Sunday Night Showcase LIVE!!! with your host, LoneSamurai!

Sunday 29th April, 9pm til Midnight GMT, 4pm til 7pm EST.

See you there
~Lonesamurai