AOL Radio

AOL Radio
Company type	Streaming service
Industry	Internet radio
Predecessor	Spinner.com, TheDJ.com
Founded	2000; 26 years ago
Founder	AOL
Defunct	December 1, 2017
Fate	Merged into Slacker (later LiveXLive/LiveOne)
Headquarters	San Francisco, United States
Area served	United States
Products	Online radio streaming service
Owner	AOL
Parent	AOL

AOL Radio was a streaming service for online radio available exclusively within the United States. Originally powered by XM Satellite Radio and subsequently supported by CBS Radio and Slacker, it provided listeners with access to more than 200 complimentary digital channels.

Origins

The foundation of AOL Radio traces back to AOL’s acquisition on June 1, 1999, of Spinner.com (previously known as TheDJ.com) along with Nullsoft, the developers behind Winamp and SHOUTcast, in a deal valued at $400 million. Both companies operated out of a shared office located in San Francisco. The Spinner.com brand was discontinued in July 2003.

Debuting as Radio@AOL on October 16, 2001, this service was essentially a rebranded version of Spinner.com utilizing RealNetworks technology and integrated into the AOL 7.0 software suite. Within its inaugural month, Radio@AOL attracted 2.2 million users, quickly becoming one of AOL's most popular features.

Initially accessible only to AOL subscribers, Radio@AOL expanded its reach on May 22, 2002, by launching the free Radio@Netscape service for non-subscribers through the Netscape 7.0 browser. This was followed by Radio@Netscape Plus in August 2002. Starting in 2004, usage was capped at two hours daily to manage royalty expenses and promote subscription sign-ups.

On November 28, 2007, faced with a 38% surge in music royalty fees enforced by SoundExchange—the organization responsible for collecting payments for non-interactive digital broadcasts—AOL considered terminating its web radio services. Subsequently, both AOL and Yahoo! ceased promoting their respective radio platforms as royalty costs escalated.

Collaboration with CBS Radio

On April 30, 2008, the partnership between XM and AOL Radio concluded due to new Internet royalty rate adjustments. Following this change, AOL formed a new collaboration with CBS Radio. On June 10, 2008, AOL introduced an updated radio player that combined AOL’s lineup of 150 curated stations with CBS’s live and local offerings spanning music, news/talk, and sports formats. This player featured limited song skipping (six skips per hour), unlimited preset options, and access to users’ personal listening history. An application for the iPhone was released shortly thereafter.

While originally designed for broadband users, AOL modified the player to accommodate dial-up or narrowband connections as well.

On February 4, 2010, streaming through AOL Radio was restricted exclusively to U.S.-based listeners. Later on, AOL Radio’s content was incorporated into CBS Radio's Radio.com platform upon its launch.

Collaboration with Slacker

In October 2011, AOL ended its association with CBS Radio and entered into a new partnership with Slacker. This transition involved migrating AOL’s collection of 250 pre-programmed stations onto Slacker’s platform. Listeners gained access to news updates from ABC News Radio and sports coverage from ESPN Radio. iPhone users were required to update or install a new AOL Radio app; an Android version became available subsequently. To customize stations and rate songs, users needed to register with Slacker.

AOL introduced two subscription options: Radio Plus and Premium Radio. Both plans provided ad-free listening experiences and unlimited song skipping; the Premium tier additionally offered on-demand playback and offline listening capabilities. In July 2013, AOL Radio’s user interface was refreshed to match the aesthetic of Slacker Radio’s design.

Following LiveXLive’s acquisition of Slacker in September 2017, AOL Radio merged into Slacker and ceased operations on December 1, 2017. Subsequently, Slacker underwent rebranding first as "LiveXLive" and later renamed LiveOne as of October 6, 2021.

Marketing

On November 18, 2002, AOL introduced Broadband Radio@AOL, which was integrated into AOL 8.0 and utilized its proprietary Ultravox streaming technology. By 2003, the majority of AOL Radio services had transitioned to Ultravox, with a launch in the United Kingdom occurring in October of the same year.

On April 11, 2005, AOL collaborated with XM Satellite Radio to develop Radio@AOL featuring XM, merging the Radio@AOL and Radio@Netscape brands under this unified name. This platform provided twenty XM channels at no cost to all users, while subscribers gained access to an additional fifty channels. Later that year, the service was renamed AOL Radio to better align with AOL Music’s branding. In July 2005, a web-based version was introduced, allowing unlimited listening for users without memberships. By the end of that year, Radio@Netscape was discontinued, establishing AOL Radio as the main brand.

On April 30, 2008, AOL ended its collaboration with XM Satellite Radio and entered into a new partnership with CBS Radio, offering access to more than 150 CBS terrestrial radio stations. Subsequently, in June 2008, AOL and CBS launched an updated player accessible via AIM and online.

Technology

The AOL Radio powered by CBS Radio platform operated using Adobe Flash Player 9 and was compatible with browsers supporting Flash on Windows versions from 2000 through Vista, as well as Mac OS X.

Users could access AOL Radio through various means including the web interface, the AOL Client software, a Mac application, as well as through AIM and Winamp integrations. On July 10, 2008, AOL released an application for iPhone and iPod Touch through the App Store, enabling streaming over WiFi, EDGE, and 3G networks.

Limits with basic account

Video advertisements displayed when launching the player and switching stations
Absence of rewind, fast-forward, or other playback controls
No song rating feature; users could only ban or favorite tracks
Up to six skips allowed per station each hour; switching stations or refreshing the page also counted as skips
No preview available for upcoming songs (as of February 2012)
Display of lyrics limited to only the first verse
Periodic commercial interruptions
Restricted listening history; banned songs are permanently removed from that station’s playlist once cleared from history

Notable DJs, mixers, personalities

External links