Mercora upgrades online radio platform

Mercora rolled out an upgrade to its online radio service on Tuesday with new features to promote social interaction among its users.

Founded in 2004, the company hosts tens of thousands of user-created radio stations and hopes users will build social networks around their music tastes. In this sense it shares the philosophy of Web 2.0 companies of making users more involved in services and giving them the chance to create and share content.

To use the service users need to download Mercora’s application to their PC or mobile device, from https://www.mercora.com/download.asp. It runs on Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Mobile 2003.

There’s also a browser-based version for searching for and listening to music at https://radio2-0.com/index_search.htm. When users create a Mercora radio station, they can Webcast songs stored in their PCs.

The upgraded version unveiled Tuesday, which Mercora calls Radio 2.0, lets station operators have their own Mercora-sponsored Web page. Until now, the only way to access a station was via the Mercora application. Mercora also has  improved the search function of its application, and it now lets users contribute reviews and tag content.

“We’re letting people create their own radio stations and music Web sites so others can listen to their music, leave messages and build a social relationship from then on around music,” said Srivats Sampath, Mercora’s CEO.

Mercora’s services are free. The company, based in Santa Clara, makes money by selling advertising. It has more than 1 million users, according to Sampath.

Sharing music stored on PCs has been at the center of the years-long anti-piracy crusade by the music industry, but Mercora says its terms of use and its software guarantee that its service stays legal. For example, Mercora states that it has a statutory license for non-interactive Webcasting of digital audio, and that it has secured musical composition performance rights through licensing agreements. More information about Mercora’s legal position and its terms of use can be found at https://www.mercora.com/legal.asp.