In 2001, British station manager Richard Cowell crossed the digital divide to launch Music One, a top-40 Internet station. He gradually shifted the programming to dance music and saw the audience grow in support of that format. These days, Music One plays a foot-bouncing mix of EDM and dance pop. In our listening we heard Katy B, Sam Sparro, Dusky, Fish go Deep, Bananarama, Bondax, Groove Armada, and many others.
Over the years the station has confronted change, moving to New York in 2004, and temporarily shutting down in 2007 when online music licensing law in the U.S. changed unfavorably for small indie stations.
Today, Music One is on the StreamLicensing platform, but the more complete experience is at the station website (www.musicone.fm). There, in addition to the live stream, podcasts of the Dance Evolution program, hosted by Chris Lewis and featuring about 30 tracks per program, are available on-demand … and for downloading. (Note: click the full-screen icon at the bottom right of the podcast player for some waveform eye candy.)