Clickradio was an

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

startup whose flagship product was a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

program that sought to deliver uninterrupted and high quality

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

. Clickradio downloaded

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

to the

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

, because high-quality audio streaming was not available at the time. Since the songs were downloaded to disk, users could listen while not connected to the Internet.

Service Offerings

Clickradio allowed users to rate songs and essentially create their own personalized

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

. Users had the ability to vote on the songs they heard. Choosing a "thumbs-up" would indicate they would hear the song more, and choosing "thumbs-down" meant they heard it less. Users also had the option to "skip it" in case they didn't want to listen to a particular song. Since it was free, five minutes of advertisements were set to occur for every hour of play time. Users also could get information about the songs and artists that were currently playing, and even had the ability to purchase the album. The music was encoded with the ePAC encoder from

Lucent Technologies Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business u ...

. Since it was directly

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

ed to the user's PC, the music was encrypted to help protect it against

Internet piracy Online piracy or software piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted works digitally without permission, such as music or software. The principle behind piracy has predated the creation of the Internet, but its online popul ...

Company history

In April 2000, the company received special attention from its deals made with

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, as well as BMG Entertainment. In August 2000 they also signed with

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

. All of the (at the time) "big 5" music companies signed licensing deals with ClickRadio. The goal of Clickradio was to avoid any legal issues by signing with popular labels for their music. The service launched in May 2000. The New York City company ceased operations in October 2001, having survived the Internet "bubble," but succumbing to the investment downturn in NYC that followed the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. Clickradio was planning to switch to a

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...

format instead of their previous free offering, and was planning a large relaunch of their site. That never happened, and the domain clickradio.com no longer exists.

References

External links

ClickRadio launch partyStreamingmedia.com: More Options Ahead for Web Radio Fans
{Dead link, date=July 2020 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060818200028/http://www.blackenterprise.com/pages/ibm/ibmOpen.asp?Source=%2Farchive2000%2F09%2F0900-32.htm&p=2 Blackenterprise.com- A description of Clickradio's services and company
Lucent Technologies Licenses ePAC Music Coder to ClickRadio for Internet-Enhanced Digital Radio Service Atnewyork.com: Clickradio Sidesteps CompetitionInternetnews.com: Lucent Technologies Licenses Music Coder to ClickRadio
American music websites Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct companies based in New York City Internet properties established in 2000