BlackLight Radio is proud to announce that we have begun distributing BlackLight Radio’s stream through the resources of the legendary internet radio network, Live365.

Live365 has music licensing agreements with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, AllTrack, and SoundExchange in the United States. In Canada they have agreements with SOCAN and Re:Sound. They also have agreements with PPL and PRS in the United Kingdom.

With Live365 tracking the songs we play and the listeners we have, and reporting this to the above agencies and paying the required copyright royalty payments, we are able to legally stream to all three nations.

For our listeners, being on Live365 will provide multiple benefits. We’re streaming in mp3 instead of AAC+, which is a much more common, universally playable format. If you’ve ever had problems on a device or in a player getting BlackLight Radio to play, you’ll want to try again!

Not only that, but now you can play BlackLight Radio right from our webpage. No longer do you have to go to another site; just go to BlackLightRadio.com and click the play button… and sit back and enjoy the 80s music.

• You can listen to BlackLight Radio at Live365.com.
• You can listen to BlackLight Radio on the free Live365 Android app or iPhone app.
• You can listen to BlackLight Radio on your Amazon Alexa device through the Live365 Alexa skill.
• You can listen to BlackLight Radio through the Live365 Roku channel.
• You can listen to BlackLight Radio through the Live365 app on your Grace Digital internet radio.

Another nice benefit if you’re looking at our website, Live365’s website, or Live365’s mobile apps, you’ll begin to see the original 7″ single picture sleeve for the song you’re hearing displayed. We’ll also display recently played tracks and picture sleeves, and you can click a link on the player to buy the song you’re hearing from Apple.

Finally, Live365 also provides us a cloud automation system that will take over if our live feed goes down, so that you should never get disconnected or not hear any music stream. BlackLight is backed up… we should basically never go down.

We’d love to hear what you think. BlackLight Radio is honored to join the Live365 community of broadcasters!

The “Thriller” album from Michael Jackson is 40 years old this November and to celebrate, a new 2-disc set is being released November 18th of this year.

Thriller was MJ’s 6th solo album, and his first to be released in the 80s. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 1983, and became the best-selling album of all time in the US and the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 70 million copies. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top-10 singles:

The Girl Is Mine (duet with Paul McCartney) (went to #2)

Billie Jean (went to #1)

Beat It (solo by Eddie Van Halen) (went to #1)

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (went to #5)

Human Nature (went to #7)

P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (went to #10)

Thriller (narration by Vincent Price) (went to #4)

The first CD of the new release will be the original Thriller album, the first album to be certified triple-diamond by the RIAA, going on to sell over 100 million copies. This collection of ten tracks would go on to win eight Grammys. This CD is remastered from the original analog tapes.

The second CD will be a collection of songs recorded at the time, but at last check the list of those unreleased Thriller-era songs has not been announced.

Thriller 40 will be released on digital compact disc, Mobile Fidelity will produce a limited edition One-Step 180 gram vinyl record of the original album, and there will also be a hybrid super audio CD (SACD) of the project. An UltraDisc two-LP set of Thriller 40 will be released at a later date.

Walmart will sell an exclusive version of the original Thriller album featuring an alternate 40th anniversary cover. Target, meanwhile, will have an exclusive version of the original album with a commemorative “Thriller 40” vinyl slip mat.

Pre-orders of the various editions of Thriller 40 are being taken right now at ShopMichaelJackson.com. The limited edition vinyl is priced at $100, the SACD is going for $30, and the 2-CD set is priced at a very reasonable $13.98. They’re also selling hoodies, t-shirts, and hats with the Thriller 40 logo (they’re available for shipping right now).

Thriller, Michael Jackson’s follow-up to Off The Wall, was originally released on November 30th, 1982 by Epic Records. It hit #1 on February 26, 1983 and did not from drop from the top position until April 14, 1984, 37 weeks later. At its peak, it was selling a million copies a week worldwide. It continues in 2022 to sell 130,000 copies a year in the United States.

You can hear all seven hits from Thriller, alongside hits from Off The Wall and Bad, on BlackLight Radio every day.

With so many people working at home now because of the coronavirus, it’s easy to get out of routine. Perhaps you listened to BlackLight Radio every day at the office, but now that you’re home it’s easy to forget to put on the tunes. This article is designed to help you get you back into the 80s groove, wherever you may be working from right now.

Working from home usually means working from a computer, so often this is the easiest want to listen. Just make sure your employer is OK with you using the computer they sent home with you to stream music!

Depending on your home environment, you may want to plug headphones into your computer to listen (the stereo separation is fantastic!), but I find an advantage of working at home is being able to put it on speakers. Although you may have a built in speaker on your computer that will work fine to listen, I like to hook up bigger speakers for better sound. I’m running from the output of my sound-card to the input of a stereo receiver and then cranking it up on a pair of bookshelf speakers and we sound great!

Another easy option for most people is using their smartphone to listen to BlackLight Radio. I would recommend if you’re going to listen all day using your phone, use a USB cable to keep your phone charged. Again, if you’re thinking about plugging into your company’s computer for the charge, make sure to run this by HR first! Many companies don’t want you plugging anything in that could access data or upload information.

Just like the computer speaker, the speaker on your smartphone may be fine, but I prefer to hook up a better speaker for better sound quality. With the right Y-cable you could hook up from the headphone jack (if you phone has a headphone jack) to your stereo, but for most people the easiest solution will be a bluetooth speaker. This can allow you to move your phone away from your desk (and perhaps closer to a wall charger) and put the speaker where you like it for the best sound.

Another option you may not have considered is your smart speaker. If you have a Google Home speaker or an Alexa Echo or something similar you are likely able to play BlackLight Radio. If just asking to play BlackLight Radio doesn’t do the trick, you may need to activate a skill such as Simple Radio or TuneIn. I like to sync up the Echo Dots I have around the house through the Amazon Alexa app!

Perhaps you can think of other ways to listen to BlackLight Radio while you work from home. I’d love to hear your suggestions, and I know our listeners would benefit, too! You can post your ideas below.

We’ve all had to make many adjustments since the pandemic started; one adjustment you shouldn’t have to make is doing without the 80s greatest hits on BlackLight Radio!