info Frequently Asked Questions

CBC Music is about choice and lots of it. It’s designed to help you have the music experience that is right for YOU.

Here are some of the ways you can connect with the music you love:

• Listen to over 40 channels of music, 24/7, all for free. From classical to rock, from jazz to hip-hop, and from blues to electronic, we’ve got the musical spectrum covered. Discover new songs and artists, and rediscover all your existing favourites.
• Watch & listen to hundreds of concerts across a wide variety of genres in our Concerts On Demand area.
• Explore 14 music communities including Classical, Jazz, Singer-Songwriter, World, Rock, Pop, Blues, R&B/Soul, Hip-Hop, Aboriginal, Country, and Electronic. Together, they’ll keep you up to speed on the latest in music culture, news, commentary, and other features.
• Listen to over 125,000 songs. Over 25,000 artists have made their own artist pages and uploaded music that you can listen to whenever you want.
• Create your own personal playlists from the music that artists have uploaded to CBC Music. You can listen to them whenever you want.
• Share the stations, songs, artists, concerts, and features that you love with your friends. CBC Music gives you one-click sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and email.
• Join the conversation on the blogs in each of the 14 music communities. Meet other fans who love the same music you do, chat about music news, and interact with CBC personalities and musicians.

2.1 Getting started
When you visit the CBC Music site for the very first time, the first thing you should do is... start listening to music! In the big box on the right of the screen that says “Web Radio”, just click on the genre of music you like, and then click on the station you want to listen to. Voila! You should have music streaming through the audio player near the top of the page.

If you’re wondering where the player is on the page, look for the play button and you're in the right place.

If you don't hear music, you'll need Flash 10, free browser software that lets you do all sorts of good things like listen to music and watch videos. (You can download and install Flash 10 here).

2.2 How the player works
Once the stream starts playing, look at the Audio Player at the top of the page and you'll see the name of the track, the artist, and the station to which you are listening. Just like a regular radio stream, you cannot skip forward or reverse back through tracks.

2.2 JavaScript Requirements
You will also need to ensure your Javascript is turned on. http://support.google.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=23852

2.3 Have Flash installed but can't hear the web radio stations?

Streaming audio and video quality can be affected by connection rate and Internet congestion.

Many types of interruptions between your computer, your player, your computer's OS, your local network, your ISP and a streaming server can exist and cause trouble.

I can't hear web radio stations, but I can play songs from artist pages

If you are using a firewall, anti-malware, anti-spyware, ad-blocking or pop-up blocking software, you may experience problems with streaming audio/video. We suggest you to disable the software and try accessing the stream again.

If you're trying to listen at work, some companies block streaming traffic to cut bandwidth costs. Please check with the administrator to see if this is the case in your office. Ask them if they would allow audio streams to come through the firewall.

2.4 When I listen to a web radio station, the sound skips, cuts out or buffers

If the player doesn't have enough network bandwidth, it will buffer.

Our stations stream at 128kbps; on top of the stream, factor in additional bandwidth requirements to maintain the currently playing song names, and the likely rate of consumption increases to roughly 170kbps. We would recommend a connection of at least 256kbps to have a seamless listening and browsing experience at CBC Music.

You may also see bandwidth, RAM, and CPU usage increase if you have other websites open in additional tabs (particularly Facebook and other JavaScript heavy sites).

If you notice stream interruptions, try closing other browser tabs to websites that may be using additional load on your computer and internet connection. All of these factors can negatively affect your listening experience.

Several other factors can hamper performance; here are some items to check:

1. Make sure NOT to download applications or files while watching/listening to media streams. Your Internet connection is shared between all open applications including your web-browser, your download manager and your streaming player. Closing applications that use your Internet connection simultaneously with your streaming player may reduce buffering.
2. Close other unnecessary applications that may be open on your computer. Reboot your computer. If you have lots of other programs open, they may be using too much processor time and/or RAM for the player to work properly.
3. Make sure your Internet connection is fast enough to reliably listen to streaming audio and/or watch streaming video online. High speed Internet connection is recommended (minimum 256kbps).
4. Make sure your computer is fast enough. If your computer is old, it might not have enough power to play an audio/video stream regardless of what else it's doing.
5. Update your media players and streaming audio/video recorders regularly.

Internet congestion can slow down the delivery of the stream, make it difficult for you to connect or cause buffering. Often the interruption is temporary. Please try to connect a few times at different times of the day, if possible.

If you repeatedly have problems connecting, please notify your ISP - there are often quick fixes they can make when they learn about your issue.

• Firefox 2.0 and above
  
• Internet Explorer 7.0 and above
  
• Google Chrome 1.0 and above
  
• Safari 2.0 and above
  

• a minimum 16 bit soundcard and speakers to listen to the music
  
• Minimum 1024 X 768 screen resolution set on your monitor
  

Signing up is free and it opens up many ways that you can personalize your experience with CBC Music. When you sign up for CBC Music, you get access to the full range of site features, including:

• Saving favourite tracks to your personal playlists, so you can enjoy them whenever you want.
• Following your favourite CBC Music artists, so you can stay up to date on their latest news, upcoming concerts, new tracks, and more.
• Commenting on the blogs in each of the many music communities.
• Creating your own personal CBC Music member page. It lets you share your music tastes with others, and acts as a home base for all your personal playlists and favourite artists.

When you’re logged in, click on your name near the top right of the screen to select “Settings”. Here, you can change your password, fill out your bio, coordinates, and web address, add photos, and most importantly, set up CBC Music’s automated features. They are:

• Set the Radio/Music Player to either play automatically when you visit CBC Music, or remain on standby until you activate it.
• Receive email notifications when artists you follow upload new tracks.

CBC Music consists of 12 music communities catering to specific genres as well as a community for each CBC Radio 2 and CBC Radio 3. You can navigate to all the communities via the CBC Music navigation bar.

Each community has its own active blog, featuring news, opinions, videos, concerts, photo galleries, top playlists, and more. Most important, on each blog you’ll find a community of music lovers just like you.