Levels of Access

There are two levels of Echoes On-Line subscriptions, and each has its own password-protected files. Echoes "Program of the Week" subscribers can access programs from this page:

www.echoes.org/onlinepow.html

"Standard Service" subscribers have access to our complete archive, but can NOT access the files from the "Program of the Week" page. Those same programs are duplicated in the Standard Service area, accessed at:

www.echoes.org/online2.html

Access Problems

If you can't get to the appropriate level of access, first, do the basics. Look at your log-in and password. We all scramble letters, use incorrect cases, and have those Homer Simpson moments. Your log-in and password need to be exactly the same as when you signed up for Echoes On-Line.

Forgotten/Lost Password

If you forget your Log-in or Password, please do not contact Echoes. Instead, please contact our transaction service provider, Paycom.net.

You can retrieve the information on-line from Paycom here.

Or, if you need personal assistance, you can call them 24-hours-a-day:

800-893-8871 (if you are in the U.S. or Canada)
310-827-9939 (if you are anywhere else)

E-mail Paycom

The wrong program, feature or concert is playing instead of the one I selected

If you find a show that does not seem to be playing correctly, please let us know and we'll fix it as soon as possible. E-Mail Echoes On-Line

Downloading Echoes to an MP3 player, computer or device to be named later

That would be illegal. At least, for now. Even before the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, copyright law did not allow us to offer programs, music, etc. on-line in a downloadable format. The reason for this is the legal difference between broadcasting music, and selling copies of music. Downloads are considered copies, just like a CD. The Echoes On-Line service only provides for streaming, not downloading.

Identifying Music

There are playlist links next to all the "listen" links, and all the recent playlists have start times for each track. While they may not be exact to the second, they should give a good idea of which song you are hearing. For most recent Echoes programs, the "Clip Info" window of your Real Player will display "Artist - Track Name - Recording" for the piece that is playing. For more information and purchasing options, go to the playlist and click the "buy it" button.

The scrolling track-name feature is accessed by selecting "Clip Info" in Real Player's "view" menu. Some older programs from the archive do not have track titles embedded in the files, or times on the playlists, but there are divisions by half-hour, and John Diliberto usually gives some clues when announcing the tracks.

Accessing specific shows

Most continuous streams (the six hour weekly programs, or "listen all" feature collections) allow skipping ahead to the next hour, or the next feature, or back, by clicking the arrows in the transport controls of your Real Player.

Individual shows are arranged by week, by hours, searching the playlists may help locate specific features, or try the navigate page.

With sixteen years (over 5,000 original hours!) of Echoes programs, interview features and Living Room Concerts in our tape archive, we can't have it all available on-line all the time, the bandwidth storage costs would be astronomical. So we've designed the Echoes Online service to offer an ever-changing array of programs, features and concerts from our archive. You can check the schedule to see what's coming up at echoes.org.

We certainly want to provide the programs and features our members want, so if there's a particular program, feature, concert, artist or topic you'd like to hear, please make a suggestion at online@echoes.org. We'll be sure to consider your suggestions.

The cost of on-line streaming

Providing on-demand audio is expensive, and Echoes On-Line does not have any advertisements or pleas for donations. The majority of your subscription fee goes to the costs of storage and streaming, music rights and royalties, processing and customer-service fees. In return for your subscription, you can listen to the shows you want, when you want, and don't forget: no annoying ads!

Our "Program of the Week" subscription costs only about $2.52 a week and provides a high-quality audio stream. For an additional 48 cents each week, you can subscribe to the full service and archive.

The cost of preparing, storing and delivering content to you on-demand is still quite high, so in exchange for your subscription, we think we've put together a unique, growing and ever-changing service of the best music, features and concerts anywhere. And it's available whenever you want to listen, and without those pesky pop-ups or banner ads. We hope you'll appreciate the quality of our service. Access to hours of Echoes and extended features still work out to less than the cost of one new CD every month.

We'll continue to pass on cost savings to you as the price of bandwidth goes down. And when you subscribe quarterly instead of monthly, we pass the savings from credit card transactions directly to you.

Vacations, leaves of absence, military service, planetary departures

Are you going where Echoes On-Line doesn't? Don't worry. Monthly subscribers can cancel their subscription and then re-up upon return. But remember, the Internet is everywhere and so is Echoes. If you're traveling in Europe or the Caribbean, Asia or Africa, as long as you have a laptop computer and an Internet connection, you can hear Echoes anywhere, anytime. In fact, you can be an ambassador of Echoes around the world.

Changing subscriptions

To make changes to your Echoes On-Line Subscription, such as upgrading, canceling, or using a different credit card, contact our billing service provider, Paycom.net by e-mail at: support@billingsupport.com or by phone, 24 hours a day, at 800-893-8871, or 310-827-9939. If you need to cancel your subscription you can do that here.

If changes to your subscription are made mid-month, charges will be prorated.

Renewal is automatic, until you tell Paycom to stop, so you don't need to worry that you'll be cut-off because you forgot to pay the Echoes bill!

E-Mail Paycom

RealAudio vs. Other File-Types

This area of the technology is changing every day, and we will be keeping an eye on future developments. Right now, Real Audio offers a good combination of features and compatibility. Be sure to visit Real.com for updates on their free player, and upgrades if you are interested.

There is always a free Real Player, sometime buried under many offers for the more elaborate players you can purchase, or slightly confusing offers for free trials of the paid players, but keep looking, they move them around a bit, but there's always a free player for whatever platform you are on.

Recent versions of the RealOne player will sometimes ask for your login and password twice when you first play a clip. We're not sure why this happens, it's a quirk of the Real software. But if you check the "remember my password" box in the log-in dialog, you shouldn't have to do it more than once until the next time you connect.