What’s this all about?

SinVox is a unique internet radio station that is sure to enhance your listening pleasure. It’s a unique fusion of music and nothing else. We take the best sounds of jazz, easy listening, and lite classical music and blend them together into a listening experience that will leave you wondering why nobody had thought of it before. It’s the “SinVox Sound”. You’ve never heard it anywhere else. And you’ll want to come back to it again and again.

So just what is this “SinVox Sound”?
It’s easier to say what it is not. No voices. None. No lyrics to get in the way. Nobody singing to you. No words, no rhymes, no thoughts. Just music. Pure music. You can make it whatever you want it to be. Because there’s nobody there to tell you what it means. It doesn’t “mean” anything. It just “is”.

Wow. Hey, don’t they call that “instrumental”?
Maybe. But isn’t most music, in fact, “instrumental”? Except for purely a cappella music, most other music is a blend of instruments and voices. But not SinVox. You’ll hear no voices. Just a celebration of music. Maybe it’s a matter of perspective. We just like to differentiate ourselves based on what you won’t hear, not what you will hear.

Does this have its origins in “Muzak”?
Okay, you caught us. Yep. The original inspiration came from the ubiquitous Muzak that we all hear in department stores, office buildings, and elevators from the 1960s through the 1980s. We’ll admit it. We miss that. When stores started playing first-run music straight from pop radio — complete with lyrics and (horrors!) commercials — we felt a bit of culture was lost. So we decided to mix some contemporary jazz, with some classical and come up with our own style. We think it works quite well.

So what about that goofy name? SinVox?
Well, the unique name came about partly on purpose and partly by accident.

First we created the “sound”. After sitting back and listening to some trial mixes of the music for several days, we got what we liked. And we decided that the name should reflect the most startling aspect of the genre: the complete absence of voices.

We looked through some foreign languages, looking for something that was clever, memorable, and relevant. We settled on “SinVox” — literally, “without a voice”. Short, sweet. It felt perfect. In our tagline, we paraphrase the translation to “No voice”, to make it even more succinct.

Only later did we realize that we had mixed up some Spanish with some Latin. In Spanish, it would be “sin voce” (pronounced “seen vo-chay”). In Latin, it should be “sine vox” (pronounced “see-nay vohks”). Yikes — a linguistic faux pas!

We decided to leave it alone. We had already grown accustomed to the name. We liked the CamelCase spelling. We didn’t think anybody would get the Latin pronunciation right. And besides, we had already registered the domain. And it’s really, really hard to find a six letter domain that’s memorable and pronounceable that isn’t already taken!

So that’s the story of the name. It’s our story and we’re sticking with it.

No voices, eh? Well, I’m hearing commercials and they have voices!
Hey, somebody’s got to pay the bills around here. And you — being the consumer — have also been chosen to be the designated bill-payer. You can pay for the web sites and the CDs and the bandwidth by either listening to the commercials or by becoming a VIP member. It’s your choice.

A VIP member? What’s that?
For just pennies a day, you can sign up to be a VIP member and hear all the same wonderful programming on SinVox — but with no voices and no commercials. It’s your choice. Support us by listening for free to a few commercials, or support us by becoming a VIP member. You’ll find all the details on how to become a VIP at http://www.live365.com/vip. (There’s even a free trial period to get you started. What a deal!)

Sounds great! How do I listen?
Just click here and then click on the yellow “play” button. It’s your first step to becoming hooked on the “SinVox” sound.

Why I Do It

In the Live365 braodcasters discussion forum, a recent topic opened up about why we do what we do.

This is what I wrote...

All my life, I wanted to work in radio. When I was a little kid, I would play my dad's Pat Boone and Lawrence Welk records on our record player in the living room and "announce" each track into a broom-handle microphone. My loyal audience was my GI Joe and my sister's Barbie doll.

In high school, I would go to sleep each night listening to the static-filled broadcast of a top-40 station a hundred miles away -- the closest thing I could get to cultural enlightenment in our little out-of-the-way town.

My career took a different -- probably more lucrative -- path. But I never really got radio out of my blood.

I grew up on Beautiful Music (aka Easy Listening) and when that genre disappeared from the air, I got sophisticated with Jazz and Classical. I envisioned a radio station where the instrumental incarnations of the best of these genres would meet with a smattering of New Age, World, and whatever else tickled my ears.

Such a unique sound didn't exist anywhere. So I determined I would have to make it for myself.

After I discovered Live 365, SinVox was born from that dream.

It's fun. It gives me an excuse to shop for new music. It gives exposure to unsigned artists that would otherwise never receive real "air" time.

And it provides enjoyment to, uhm, a dozen or so people around the globe -- usually two or three at a time.

But even if GI Joe, Barbie, and I were the only listeners, it'd still be worth it. The irony is that the genre I created actually prohibits my voice from being on radio. But my "soul" is there. And that's why I do it.