Live365, the one-stop shop for internet radio stations, launched broadcasting and listening services in Mexico, rounding out its North American offering. The company announced the news at the 2025 NAB show in Las Vegas. Because the expansion includes comprehensive bundled licensing, broadcasters can now reach listeners in Mexico via the Live365 website, apps, Alexa Skill, TV apps, and more.

Live365 has secured licensing agreements with Mexican rights organization SOMEXFON and EMMAC/SACM (Editores Mexicanos de Música and Sociedad de Autores y Compistores de México), allowing broadcasters to legally stream into Mexico without having to secure those rights themselves. 

Live365 welcomes all existing and future Mexico broadcasters to the platform, which includes built-in licensing coverage and distribution, reliable stream hosting, station management tools and detailed analytics, world-class customer service, and more. This makes Live365 an ideal solution for terrestrial radio stations, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, and individual creators looking to effectively broadcast and monetize their content online. 

“Launching in Mexico is a milestone for Live365 – not just expanding broadcaster reach but also embracing the dynamic culture of Mexico on our platform,” said Jason Stoddard, President of Live365. “Thanks to strategic licensing partners with EMMAC/SACM and SOMEXFON, we’re providing streamlined, bundled licensing coverage that empowers radio stations and creators to innovate and connect like never before.”

To further support broadcasters in Mexico, Live365 has secured distribution via iHeartRadio Mexico through a strategic partnership with Grupo ACIR. This complements the iHeartRadio U.S. distribution also bundled in the Premium packages — broadening the audience base to millions more listeners across both territories.

IT Director for Grupo ACIR and iHeartRadio México Project Leader Manuel Pérez del Castillo added, “We’re excited to welcome Live365 to iHeartRadio in Mexico and confident that our listeners will enjoy the variety and quality of the new stations that will be available for all our users.”

In coordination with the launch, Live365 has also partnered with radio imaging and programming provider Radio Express to offer an exclusive discount on Live365 packages to existing and new Radio Express customers. This partnership opens new doors for traditional radio stations looking to expand their reach beyond terrestrial signals and into the digital space.

“Radio Express has been a trusted partner to Mexican radio for over 40 years, so we understand the challenges broadcasters face in staying competitive,” said Paul Hollins, CEO of Radio Express. “With digital listening growing worldwide, it’s more important than ever for stations to go beyond FM and AM and become truly multi-platform. This collaboration with Live365 makes that shift more accessible and cost-effective than ever, helping broadcasters reach new audiences without all the user complexity.”

Current Live365 broadcasters now have additional Mexico listening bundled in their existing Broadcast packages at no additional cost. Broadcasters in Mexico can now sign up at live365.com/broadcaster/es and start streaming on Live365. Listeners in Mexico can browse thousands of stations streaming live right now and tune in at live365.com/es/.

Live365 officially shut down about a year ago. Now, it appears they have returned, under new ownership. Live365 is going to focus on microcasters.

In January of 2016, Live365 was forced to do a massive layoff of employees after running into problems with new regulations that went into affect that month. The Copyright Royalty Board, which establishes the sound recording royalty rates that are paid to copyright holders, raised their rates for 2016. This change took place not long after Live365 lost the support of its investors. The result was that Live365 officially shut down in January of 2016.

Now, about a year later, Live365 has returned. The new owner is Jon Stephenson, who, according to the SharonHerald.com is an entrepreneur who acquired Live365 with plans to re-launch it in 2017.

Jon Stephenson’s Live365 will focus on “microcasters” (or very small radio stations). He told SharonHerald.com: “There’s over 80,000 independent online radio stations and Live365 had about 5,000 of them before they went dark.”

At the time I am writing this blog, Live365 has a waitlist for those who want to reserve their spot. Their pricing plans have been posted:

• Broadcast 1 – from $59 / month, 25GB Storage, 1500 US TLH
• Broadcast 2 – from $99 /month, 50 GB Storage, 3500 US TLH
• Broadcast 3 – from $199 / month, 100 GB Storage, 7000 US TLH

All pricing plans come with unlimited listeners, unlimited bandwidth, and the ability to go live. Music licensing is included. There is a way to monetize your audience and earn revenue. The Live365 website says the following about music licensing: “We cover ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange royalties for US-based listeners. In addition, intuitive reporting and geo-filtering available for International listeners.”

Paul Riismandel, from RadioSurvivor compared Live365’s pricing plan before it closed, to it’s new pricing plan:

By comparison, as recently as July, 2015, the old Live365 charged $39 a month for a similar tier of service that covered music licensing fees, but with 500 fewer listening hours. The new Live365’s $99 a month plan is actually more generous than the old company’s $109 plan, offering 500 more listening hours for $10 less.

Paul Riismandel also has good details about how Live365’s new plan compares with other, similar, services. The big question, of course, is will the new version of Live365 do better than it’s previous incarnation did? We will have to wait and see what happens.

NOTE: This post was edited on January 26, 2017, to correct a typo.  The original post stated there were over 800,000 independent online radio stations.  That was incorrect.  The correct number is 80,000.

We noted earlier this month that things weren’t looking good for long-running online radio service Live365. The problems the company is facing have turned out to be more than it could handle and Live365 will be shutting down completely on January 31, 2016. Last week, Live365 issued this statement to all of its registered users:

Dear Live365 Broadcasters,

You should have already received our notification and link to the press release regarding two issues that have affected Live365 in the last few weeks.

1. The CRB ruling handed down in December, 2015 did NOT renew or address the expiration of the small webcaster percentage of revenue plans. At this time there is no small webcaster options except for full CRB rates.

2. Live365’s long time investors have stopped funding us.  As a result, we are no longer able to sustain our service.

We are sad that we are closing our doors at the end of this month. There are always possibilities that we can come back in one form or another, but at this point in time, January 31, 2016 is the last day that Live365’s streaming servers and website will be maintained and supported.

This is a surprise to us as it is to all of you.   We are proud that Live365 was a pioneer in the streaming music business and have provided a platform to hundreds of thousands of broadcasters to have a voice over the years.

Unfortunately, we have to say good bye.

Along with this announcement, Live365 has recommended StreamLicensing.com and StreamGuys to users who’d like to continue running their online stations. Live365 is suggesting that users who migrate to either of these service let the new services know that they’re coming from Live365.