Issues with Accessing Live Radio Streams

Live Radio Station Doesn’t Play

Q:  I clicked the button to “Listen Live on BlackPlanet Radio” from my favorite radio station website, and it opened the station page on BlackPlanet Radio, but the radio station won’t play.  Why, and what can I do so it will work?

A:  There are a variety of reasons why streams sometime will not play.  These include:

  1. If you are outside of the USA (or your internet address is outside of the USA), the product will not work due to legal “geo-restriction” requirements.
  2. Some corporations (office networks) employ “firewalls” which block off access from their employees to some kinds of content such as social networks (e.g. Facebook) and some streaming services such as Netflix and, in this case, BlackPlanet Radio.   If you find that other streaming radio services are also blocked, you should ask your IT department to unblock them, or if you can, download and listen to our mobile app(s).
  3. The stream may actually be temporarily out of service.

No matter what the reason, though, if you submit a report of your issue, we’ll be better equipped to solve it.  (see next question on how to report issues)

Q:  How can I report my issue so BlackPlanet Radio can help me get my listening back?

A:  Submit a Feedback Report via the forms on this page.   Please be sure to include:

  1. Your computer operating system (PC, Windows 7, or Mac, OSX, etc). and browser (chrome, firefox, internet explorer) and version number, or, if you are on a mobile device, your mobile device and carrier.
  2. Your location
  3. The steps you took before you got to the place where the station wouldn’t play
  4. A picture (screen-capture) of the failure, if possible
  5. Any error messages you see, please copy and paste them also into the form.

No Sound
Q: When I play a playlist, I don’t hear any sound.
A: Please make sure you have flash installed, then confirm the volume slider is all the way to the right, then confirm your computer speakers are on by playing a video or other media file on a service like YouTube.com

Georestrictions (access restrictions outside of the USA)
Q: Why can’t I use BlackPlanet Radio outside of the US?
A: BlackPlanet Radio only has licenses to stream music in the United States – we’re working on licenses to stream elsewhere, but don’t have a certain timeline yet.

Creating / Listening to Playlists

Playlists: Adding and Removing Songs
Q: How do I add / remove songs from my playlist or delete my playlist?
A: Click the “Edit” button on your playlist page next to the playlist title. Make sure you are logged in first.
Can’t See Playlists
Q: Why don’t I see my playlists anymore?
A: Please confirm that you are logged in — do you see your username to the right of Contribute A Playlist?

Song Skipping Rules
Q: What are the rules with skips?
A: Due to licensing requirements, users can only skip 6 times per 60 minutes.

Georestrictions (access restrictions outside of the USA)
Q: Why can’t I use BlackPlanet Radio outside of the US?
A: BlackPlanet Radio only has licenses to stream music in the United States – we’re working on licenses to stream elsewhere, but don’t have a certain timeline yet.

Listening to Your Own Playlists
Q: Why can’t I listen to my own playlist without BlackPlanet Radio recommendations?
A: Our licenses prevent us from allowing DJs to listen to their own playlist without recommendations added in. However, that feature on BlackPlanet Radio is meant to allow DJs to create playlists for the community and their friends. When OTHER people listen to your playlist, they’ll only hear the songs you added in – no recommendations at all.

Can’t Find Song for my Playlist
Q: Why can’t I find {song x} to add to my playlist?
A: While BlackPlanet Radio has a huge library of songs (over 14 million) with new ones added every week, there are some songs we just don’t have yet – sorry for the delay!

Can’t Listen to One Artist
Q: Why can’t I just hear {artist x}?
A: Our licenses prevent us from playing more than 4 songs by a certain artist within a 3 hour period, so we need our playlists to have many artists included. If we didn’t follow this rule, we couldn’t offer BlackPlanet Radio for free.

Can’t Listen to Song on Demand
Q: Why can’t I just hear a certain song when I want to?
A: Our licenses prevent us from playing a particular song ‘on demand.’ If we didn’t follow this rule, we couldn’t offer BlackPlanetRadio for free.

Thumbs Up
Q: What does Thumbs up do?
A: We use Thumbs-ups to make recommendations for users about other playlists they will likely enjoy (in the Just For You section of our mobile apps)

Thumbs Down
Q: What does Thumbs down do?
A: If a certain song on a certain playlist gets too many thumbs-downs, we remove it from that playlist. We also skip any song you are listening to if you give it a thumbs-down, as long as you have skips remaining.

No Sound
Q: When I play a playlist, I don’t hear any sound.
A: Please make sure you have flash installed, then confirm the volume slider is all the way to the right, then confirm your computer speakers are on by playing a video or other media file on a service like YouTube.com

Georestrictions (access restrictions outside of the USA)
Q: Why can’t I use BlackPlanet Radio outside of the US?
A: BlackPlanet Radio only has licenses to stream music in the United States – we’re working on licenses to stream elsewhere, but don’t have a certain timeline yet.

How do I submit music to be played?
Q: How do I submit my original music to be played on BlackPlanet Radio?
A: The best way is to use Tunecore and make sure you opt in to ‘MediaNet’

AirPlay
Q: Why doesn’t AirPlay work?
A: We’re working on a permanent fix for this, but in the mean time, get AirPlay working on your device using another app (like the iPod app), then load a BlackPlanet Radio playlist and you will see the AirPlay icon in the usual place.

No Quit Button on Android
Q: Why isn’t there a ‘quit’ button on the android app?
A: Android/Google ask that apps don’t add a quit button, since pausing your song and going back to your device’s home-screen accomplishes the same thing

Account Questions

Forgot Password Problems
Q: I used the ‘Forgot password” tool, but didn’t get an email.
A: First check your spam folder. If there is nothing there, make sure you entered the email address that you used when you registered for BlackPlanet Radio – that’s the only one that will work there.

Facebook Connect
Q: If I sign up using Facebook, will my music listens automatically get shared on Facebook or added to the Facebook real-time feed or my timeline?
A: No. Signing up with Facebook just makes it easier for you to share items on Facebook – but only when you want to share and do so by hitting the Share on Facebook buttons on station pages or on the playback bar. In the future, we may offer the ability for you to automatically share on Facebook, but you would have to specifically ask for and approve for that to happen.

Account Profile Images
Q: I signed up for BlackPlanet Radio using an email address, not Facebook.  Now I don’t have a profile image, just a placeholder.  Can I get a profile image / avatar?
A: Currently we only support passing through Facebook profile images as avatars for BP Radio accounts.   However, if you are an online personality that really really needs to have a profile image and really really dislikes Facebook, we might make an exception and upload one manually for you.

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