There's a new online kid on the radio block.

Our city. Our music. Our stories.

Radio tells stories better than almost any other medium. Take it with you. You don't need to look, just listen. 

It's been that way for close on a century. But now, the rules and the tools have changed. 

It doesn't break the bank to get started. Anyone can get on air. So there's tons of internet stations. Some want to turn the clock back - big mistake. Some are vanity vehicles. Others have specialised agendas; I approve. And all the time, mainstream media shrinks its offer, cuts costs and shuns local. The gap between large and small is now a chasm, a yawning gulf, financially and creatively.  

Can this gap be bridged? I'd like to think it can. And here's one way we might find out. Welcome to Birmingham and the world, Brum Radio. 

Recouping on Spotify? You'll wait a LONG time

More on that level playing field - here's how it works in the Spotify corner

In the last two months Thom Yorke, David Byrne and many others have gone public about Spotify's poor payments. Led Zeppelin and the Beatles are largely absent from the site, arguing there's more to be made from back catalogue sales of their bodies of work than the site's streaming royalties. 

It's hard to disagree when you look at the numbers. But: we're not in 1985 anymore; in 2013 there’s a new, harsher, musicbiz reality. I don't think there's ever been a fair and equitable payment system for musos. But now? Clear winners, clear losers, and way too many barriers between the two...