What is theacousticstage.net?

It is an internet-only radio station, playing a broad mix of music. People might call it some of it folk, some of it singer-songwriter, with a few nods towards country, blues, and a dozen other labels. There are no real rules, except "Do we like it?"

We are not trying to be like a normal station. We don't expect you to tune in at the same time each week. Instead, think of this as a comfortable place you can call into at any time, to hear some things you know and some things you don't.

Who is running it? And why?

theacousticstage.net is not a big business. In fact it is hardly a small business. It grew out of my habit of taking an mp3 player full of my favourite music on holiday, and pressing the "Random Play" button. Why wasn't there a radio station like this? 

Take this thought, and add the fact that there is so much music out there that deserves to be heard, but never gets played on any radio station, and the idea begins to grow....

Of course, running a 24hr station without a staff of dozens is tricky, so we have a little help from Archibald the Unplugged Robot, who pushes buttons once in a while....

How do I listen to it?

We stream in mp3pro format. Winamp & the mp3pro plug-in will give you the best results, but you can use RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, iTunes, and others - see the Listen page for details. We have a 56K stream for listeners with faster connections, and a 24K stream for slower dial-up listeners

When I attempt to listen using Winamp I see the message "[ICY 400 Server Full]".

This  means that we have reached our maximum listeners limit. Bandwidth costs mean that  we have to limit the number of simultaneous listeners. Please try again in a few minutes. Or, if you have a fast connection, try the slower 24K link - it is not usually as busy, and the winamp/mp3pro combination gives good quality sound even at 24K..

I can't connect to the Tuning In page. What's going on?

The LoudCity service may be having a problem - try again in a while.

How can I get rid of the annoying "click" I hear every time the Playing Now list refreshes?

      The clicking sound is one of the Windows default sounds for Windows Explorer. To disable this sound, go to your Control Panel and double click Sounds or Sounds and Multimedia. This will open the Sounds Properties window. Scroll down to Windows Explorer and highlight the Start Navigation text. Now go to the window below that is titled "Name". Open the drop-down menu and choose None as your default. Now click on Apply. No more clicks!

      In short: Control Panel --> Sounds --> Windows Explorer --> Start Navigation --> change “Name” to “None”

Do I have to pay to listen?

Definitely not. theacousticstage.net is completely free, around the clock, every day.

So who pays for it?

We hope that once in a while you will follow the links from the website to buy a CD which you have heard. Every time you do, we earn some commission. If you really like what we play, and want to help keep us going, you can make a donation. Every little helps. And if you think our listeners might like something you can offer them, then why not advertise on our web page?

Is the music different every day?

Yes. Our music library is big and growing, and each day’s music is picked from there.

I am an artist. How do I get my music played?

If you want to send us a CD, just drop us an email, and we will reply with our postal address. If the music passes theacousticstage test, you will be on.

Why doesn't anybody speak?

A few reasons. First of all, much of the time there is nobody here! And when they are, they are replying to emails, listening to new music, editing the web site, building the next set of schedules....Also, we have listeners all over the globe, so news, weather, time checks, traffic updates, seem a bit pointless. If you want to know more about that last track you heard, you can go to the Playlist CDs page, where you will often find links to the web page of the artists themselves, and the option to buy the CD you heard.

Do you have adverts?

Our aim is to give the listener as close to 60 minutes of music every hour as we can. If finances dictate that we have to have paid advertising, then we will, but at the moment it is not in our plans. In the meantime, you can advertise on our website.

How do I get in touch with you?

We want to hear from our listeners. Do you like what we are doing? What would you change? Where are you? Who are your favourite artists? How did you find out about us? Just drop us an email.