Digitally Imported (DI) is a multi-channel Internet radio service specializing in electronic dance music genres. Filling a global niche for this type of music has made it among the most popular radio outlets on the Internet. The station offers fifteen channels in MP3, Windows Media Audio, and (the most recent addition) aacPlus formats.

Currently available channels are trance, vocal trance , hard dance , progressive, eurodance, dj mixes , chillout , goa/psy, deep house, drum and bass, hardcore, classic techno , replay, classical, New Age, Best of the 80s, smooth jazz, Top Hits, Hits of the 70s, modern jazz and salsa. Listeners have a choice of bitrates, allowing access for users with dial-up access or intermittent broadband connections. The addition of the aacPlus format, which has a very low bitrate but still retains high quality, has allowed many users to get a better experience while on dial-up.

The station and concept was started by Ari Shohat on December 6, 1999 with just the initial trance channel. Since then, Digitally Imported has grown into something much larger and far more popular than anyone had conceived. The team behind the station has increased to about a dozen people since then, while the number of concurrent listeners now peaks at well over 10,000. The first trance channel is still the most popular, often accounting for roughly half of all listeners.

In 2003 the company behind the service became a for-profit corporation, opening up for subscriptions that give users higher quality and access to some extra services. However, Digitally Imported continues to rely heavily on listener donations due to the lack of constant advertising on the radio channels.

Since Digitally Imported is a community, listeners are free to sign up in order to participate in discussions ranging from electronic dance music to just about any topic under the sun. Listeners will also find some of their favourite DJs posting alongside them in forum threads. Not only does Digitally Imported have forums, but they also have an IRC channel where listeners may participate in real-time discussions.

External links

• Digitally Imported