The Basement website (live Internet radio, jazz/blues concerts etc), beamed out of Sydney’s longstanding Basement venue at Reiby Place, Circular Quay, is about to close, according to this story on News Online. It was one of the few Internet music sites that I actually used to visit frequently, back when I had a home Internet connection. It seems that Telstra Bigpond is withdrawing its support for The Basement. Bastards!! It’s yet another reason why I’m going to sign up with anyone but Telstra when I shortly re-institute my home broadband service now that my domestic living arrangements are a bit more stable.
I don’t think you can blame Telstra alone here. Hardly anyone tuned into the thing (MOR shite for the most part) and Mulray & Co. paid themselves a small fortune. (A boomer scalp for Paul Watson.)
Having said that, streaming audio and even video is where it’s at. See how the BBC are doing it, brilliantly, esp. with their 1xtra digital music channel.
But Telstra, government understanding of network delivery channels and the bandwidth/traffic charges in this country are f-ed.
One suggestion: a licence fee (like the BBC) to support digital content delivery : ) But let SBS take over the ABC and spend the money, they got more smarts. Cmon yobbo, have a spray son…