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Interesting article but it fails to note that many people listen to their favourite stations/genres while outside a car or without a connected environment.
A major issue with the apps mentioned is that generally only commercial radio and the major national ABC/SBS stations are available. So those wanting to listen locally to community based radio stations are not being connected.
Perhaps that is why some stations are now making their own apps so that they can "keep" their audience but only when listening to their dedicated apps.
There is certainly a need for aggregator apps when the above is taken into consideration.
What makes RadioPlayer an 'official' app for it's territory? Which is the body authorized to grant such a status?
RadioPlayer is a fine app, but so is TuneIn. For me both as a licensed radio streamer provider and a listener, TuneIn provides an excellent service. It is also very responsive to the needs and limitations of small radio stations.
Not to say that RadioPlayer isn't also excellent, but I wasn't aware it checks for the presence of necessary streaming licenses either - I don't recall being asked to provide any evidence, and it doesn't apply any limits to the number of listeners even though the copyright licence does.
So, I don't think it would be fair to single out TuneIn for its part as a facilitator of finding possibly unlicensed streams, and certainly when I search for stations on it it seems to promote fully licensed broadcasters well above anything else. If you have to know the name of a minority unlicensed stream to find it on the service, then I would say it is doing little more than Google or other search facilities. As no doubt its legal representatives will argue if it does come to court.