WebRadio boasts tools for Web music seekers

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs has noted, we’re in the age of the “digital lifestyle.” And a revamped Internet radio site wants to digitize your life even more by offering a variety of tools and features that help Web surfers find the specific music they want to hear.

A “Listen” section offers speedy access to WebRadio.com affiliate radio stations by grouping the stations together by format. Visitors can link directly to format-specific home pages (adult contemporary, country, rock, jazz, talk, etc.) that feature pertinent artist news and features, headlines, and highlighted radio stations. Plus, the folks at WebRadio claim that new technology running behind the site allows pages to load faster while the user-customized WebRadio EMBLAZE player can deliver broadcast programming 30 percent faster than before.

The “Broadcaster” area provides WebRadio station affiliates with the tools they’ll need to access listener feedback by viewing real-time statistics of daily and weekly listening habits and site usage. Each affiliate can log-in to a private page that lets them update station profiles, post special event and programming notes, and customize their station’s WebRadio EMBLAZE player. And WebRadio — touted as ” the world’s first plug-in-free Internet broadcasting site — offers three different ways to stream an audio broadcast:

Basic 28K streams lets Mac and PC users with any browser to listen to content, even, according to the folks at WebRadio, 14.4 modems (basic 28K uses the company’s unique Java player);

Pro 28K provides improved quality for … grit your teeth … PC users on Internet Explorer and uses Microsoft’s Active-X as an alternative to Java;

Pro 56K purportedly plays back at CD quality and can play over any 56K modem.

WebRadio.com, Webcasts video and audio content to audiences globally via the Internet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.