In the wake of the Fanburst closure, the threads which have cropped up as a response, and the quick reactions by the dev team to push the new "Beats" functionality live, here is my suggestion: Allow broadcasting of music via Roll20 from the DM's machine. Similar to options to enable voice/video chat, this would be a setting that would allow music to be routed into the DM's currently active Roll20 game. I'm pretty sure this can already be half-accomplished with a third party piece of software (a virtual audio router/device along with native Windows 10 audio routing capabilities) by sacrificing your own ability to use voice chat, but it would be nice to see a more official implementation as a sidelong-system to the native Roll20 voicechat. This would solve two issues currently on the table from the public-facing discussion on the new "Beats" function: 1) This would allow free users to stream their own audio via Roll20 without requiring account upgrades. This means the accessibility to functions for free users remains consistent regardless of Fanburst. 2) It forestalls the pushback that is likely to be experienced from at least some Pro users as their upload caps are now very meager when requiring the addition of music. I personally have my own workaround, as I expect quite a few other Pro members will as well - but for those who are using the platform on a budget, they may feel as though they must increase their upload caps to provide the same quality of game via dynamic soundtracks. Regardless of the public-facing issues, it also may help remedy what I'm guessing are a few legal/business dilemmas happening behind closed doors: 1) By streaming, you are hosting nothing. You are simply providing access to audio much like Twitch or Discord. I would imagine that this builds some protections into the service provided. It also locks down the overall music sharing worry, as only those in the current game would hear the broadcasted audio. 2) This is future-proofing much like the "Beats" functionality. Instead of relying on a third-party, it's all internally built. 3) This is perfectly compatible with the "Beats" functionality. The "Beats" system allows for use of the Roll20 jukebox and the scripts which work with it, which is a great selling point. This just provides a viable alternative for free users and for those of us who would prefer to use our upload caps on handouts/maps. 4) The limiting factor becomes quality, rather than quantity. To handle the increased bandwidth demand, you could implement a staggered pricing structure to increase audio quality from "standard Roll20 kbps" to higher quality for audiophiles. Of course, I would prefer if this wasn't required, but I'm trying to be realistic in the sense of the probable increased demands that would be placed on the server. Anyways, kind of lengthy post, but this is my first suggestion to the platform so I wanted to try to cover a lot of bases on both the public side as well as the possible business/developer side.
