Have you ever thought you had the internet pretty much figured out, only to stumble upon one of its many recesses so awesome that it just dashes away all that jaded cynicism? A site or community so specifically suited to your interests that you swear it was founded solely for you? That’s what happened to me when I stumbled across Radio Rivendell, a streaming internet radio station that specializes in fantasy music. I was at work, where I often listen to music through Spotify, and found myself frustrated by the lack of fantasy music on the program. Fair enough—medieval scores aren’t exactly going to make their way onto mainstream waves anytime soon. So I opened my browser, typed in “fantasy music” on a whim, and found this.
I was so taken by the project that I immediately wanted to share it with all of you. I also had a lot of questions, so I thought I’d get in touch with the webmaster himself, Lord Elrond! Here’s what he has to say on the beginnings, present, and future of Radio Rivendell:
C: When did Radio Rivendell start?
LE: Radio Rivendell saw the first light of day sometime in 2001. The exact date is unclear; I was dabbling about with a SHOUTcast server as a little test to see how hard it would be to broadcast some music. Then a friend of mine suggested that we should play music for our roleplaying sessions directly on the server instead of using CDs. Said and done, I moved our MP3s to the server and renamed my test stream to “Radio Rivendell,” and it was born!
C: Were you the main founder?
LE: Yes! A friend suggested the name, but I’ve been working on it myself ever since.
C: What gave you the inspiration to start this project? How did you make it a success?
LE: The inspiration actually came from the community itself. And in the beginning there wasn’t even a community. The station was listed on SHOUTcast.com and after some time I had a little radio button on the web/radio server I had running. After a while the button developed into a page and I registered the domain name in 2003. So there wasn’t really a proper website until then.
The first page was pretty basic, with a simple news feed that updated when I added music. Then the community started to make itself heard and our forum was born. More features were added during the years and Radio Rivendell became what it is today. Many of the things you see on the site are suggestions from the community, and that’s what’s driving me: If there were no people using the site, coming in with new and better ideas, I wouldn’t spend so much time on it. So I give much credit to the listeners and the members for inspiring me. 
C: What is the community like?
LE: Our community is very friendly and open. I’ve heard from our forum discussions that we’re the friendliest place they’ve been to. And that’s something I’ve heard from a couple different people, so I think we have something good going there.
The core is rather small, but strong. I love participation and have handed out tasks to some of our members, such as interviews and such. This is something I want to build further on. There is great potential in the power of the masses, and I only have so much time to spare, myself. That’s where our guilds will come into focus.
C: Guilds?
LE: It’s still a bit too early for our guilds, but that’s something we plan to build on. We’re in discussions on how guilds should work and what they should do. When all is in place, even selected members will be able to post news, add and edit content, etc. Today artists (and the community) can update artist pages with biographies, links, etc. too. Rivendell might be twelve years old, but we’re nowhere near the full potential!
C: So how do you find the music?
LE: I started playing things I found on the old version of MP3.com, and then added albums from known composers. But now that we only play what we have the rights to, I let the music find its way to me. Now all our music is sent to me either in the form of physical CDs or through downloads from the artists themselves.
I take the time to go through all music that’s sent and pick what fits our genre. Not everything is suitable for our radio—sometimes we get “fantasy metal” and stuff like that. I love the music, but it could be hard to fit in a roleplaying session or for fantasy authors for example.
C: Last question: what’s the future look like for Radio Rivendell?
LE: The future holds full guild functionality, content participation from the community (with news, page updates, etc.), more competitions, and more roleplaying elements such as XP, achievements, rewards, levelling, etc. I want the site to look and feel like sort of a game where participation is key. The more you log in and contribute, the more you’ll grow and the more awe and respect (as well as “power”) you’ll earn from your fellow members. I’m just one guy programming this whole thing, so this will take some time to do. I have a more-than-full-time job, so I’ll work on Radio Rivendell in my spare time together with my other personal projects. But it would really be great to be able to work on the site full-time one day!
Do you have any questions of your own for Lord Elrond or your fellow fantasy music listeners? Ask away in the comments!
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