The internet radio, (also known as streaming radio, net radio, e-radio, or web radio) has been around for quite some time and it basically is a digital audio service that is transmitted through the internet. Since radio on the internet is not broadly transmitted through wireless means, broadcasting through the internet is usually called webcasting. A lot of companies have delved into this technology, with the most prominent ones being iHeartRadio and Pandora. Live365 is one of the smaller companies but it is not as popular, if not known. That has also been exacerbated by its closure in 2016, though it relaunched a year later. We will discuss more Live365 and show you how to download audio and purchase songs on Live365.

Part 1: What is Live365

According to their website, “Live365 is the easiest way to create an online radio station and discover hundreds of stations from every style of music and talk”. More specifically, it is an internet radio listening, as well as a broadcasting network where users can freely create their own radio stations. Users can also choose between thousands of radio stations to listen to, which have been curated by other users. The most popular stations you can listen to on Live365 are:

◆ That 70’s Channel
◆ deep ellum radio
◆ The Brooklyn Mike Show Radio
◆ Dance 365
◆ Freeze-Frame
◆ Jazznet 247 Radio Europe
◆ 562 Live The Beat of Long Beach
◆ The Eagle
◆ Rock On The Rise Radio

Live365

When you create a radio station through Live365, your audience can listen to it on mobile (through dedicated iOS and android apps), home devices such as smart speakers and even on desktop web browsers. Your licensing, your listeners in the U.K will be covered by PPL and PRS for music. Those in the USA will be covered by SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Those in Canada will be covered through SOCAN and Re: Sound. You can manage your station from anywhere, by uploading tracks, building playlists, and schedule a 24/7 automation. In case you forget to schedule, Live365 also has an automatic DJ to do the job for you. For those well versed with advanced internet radio technologies, this service supports software agnostics which means you can use any Icecast2 compliant encoder.

In terms of this company’s history and profile, they started webcasting around 1999 and around that time, streaming and listening to internet radio was revolutionary. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, and the current CEO is Jon Stephenson. Webcasters quickly became passionate, and their talents and efforts brought explosive growth throughout the world. By offering a shop for all the tools, music licensing and distribution, Live365 soon grew to support tens of thousands of various radio broadcasters. However, the US licensing laws changed in 2016 and something terrible happened at Live365.

  • What happened to Live365?
  • Every five years, the US audio webcast industry makes new music licensing regulations, and unfortunately on December 16, 2015, the changes were not in favor of lower revenue online radio stations like Live365. Prior to these changes, the smaller webcast companies could pay lower royalties as compared to what their bigger counterparts like iHeartRadio and Pandora paid, therefore the December 2015 changes were a big blow to Live365. They laid-off most of their stuff, and a few members started working from home after this event. On January 31, 2016 Live365 officially closed and that was a sad day for the thousands of broadcasters who had dedicated their time to creating their radio stations.

    live365

    There is always light at the end of the tunnel, and for that reason, Live365 started making plans to come back sometime in August 2016. They got a new boss, who was confident that the changes they were proposing would make Live365 compete with iHeartRadio and Pandora. Many doubted it, and companies like Billboard even wrote an article to express a certain level of doubt. But nothing stopped Live365 with its passion for webcasting and internet radio, such that it relaunched on May 1, 2017 with new owners. According to their website, the newer Live365 is now more dedicated and passionate about giving small webcasters the finest place to stream radio on the internet. It now comes with more powerful streaming tools, listening distribution and monetization. They believe Live365 is once again the best ‘one-stop-shop for your internet radio station.’ They have also partnered with Apple iTunes and Amazon to provide its users the opportunity to purchase the music they hear on their radio stations.

    Part 2: How to purchase songs on Live365

    If you listen to music on a streaming service, time will always come when you want to download and save any of the songs you will fall in love with. For most of the audio and music streaming services like Live365, downloading music is not free and a payment is always required. Since Live365 faced a crisis that caused it to shut down, it reopened again and they have since made some changes as to how users can purchase and download music on its website. Live365 partnered with Apple iTunes and Amazon to provide its users the opportunity to purchase the music they hear on their radio stations. While that sounds like it might be difficult, the process is actually easy and the steps to do it are as follows:

    Step 1: Visit the Live365 website and find any of the songs that you are interested in purchasing. This step will also applies if you are already tuned into any of the radio stations.

    Step 2: Below the song you are listening to, there will be a few icons displayed. Click the “Cart” icon if you want to purchase the song.

    Live365-purchase-music

    Step 3: You will be re-directed to a page where you can select to purchase the song either from Apple iTunes or Amazon. The purchasing steps are pretty straightforward, and just make sure you enter the correct details.

    Part 3: How to download audio from Live365 for free

    Although Live365 went through hard times in early 2016 causing it to shut down, it reopened again in early 2018. Live365 is unique in the sense that online radio stations on this service are created and managed by music and talk enthusiasts, including professional broadcasters and also hobbyists. You probably are aware that downloading audio from Live365 is next to impossible, but we believe that should not stop you from grabbing the audio files you want. Therefore, if you want to download audio from Live365, audio recording is the only solution for you we have Music Recorder for you. It is a powerful software program able to record and legally save music from most streaming services (like Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio etc), websites or any audio sources. Leawo Music Recorder has an ability that is almost magical, as it can predict the correct music tags when you are recording, though you could edit the music tags manually via the music tag editor. It also does that by preserving 100% of the original quality. Because of its simple operation and a modern interface, this application is one of the most intuitive recorders on the market that anyone regardless of their computer skills can use. It has a built-in recording task scheduler, the audio recording software helps you schedule music recording by setting the recording start time, recording duration as well as the timing shutdown. There is also more to this application which you can learn by visiting the product page. If you want to know how to download audio from the internet as well as Live365, download and install this software on your computer Windows then follow the three easy steps below.

    Download Windows Version Download Mac Version

    Step 1: Launch the Leawo Music Recorder application

    Set the audio source by clicking the “Add Source” button from the bottom left corner. Proceed to choose “Record Computer Audio” in the Audio Settings panel since you will be recording from the Live365 service on your computer. Click “Record Audio Input” for other input sources.

    audio-source-settings

    Step 2: Customize the audio output settings

    Set the output directory where the recorded audio file(s) will be saved under the “General” tab. On the “Format” tab, you can choose the preferred output format which includes MP3 and WAV audio formats. If you want higher quality audio files, select WAV audio though they take much more space.

    format-settings

    Step 3: Start to download audio from Live365

    When you have finished adjusting your preferred settings, the final step is to start recording the audio. Click the “Record” button which is red, and any audio playing should be recorded immediately. When you have finished recording, click the “Record” icon to stop.

    leawo-music-recorder-recording