Introductions: Internet Radio

Definition: "Internet Radio: (aka e-Radio) is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means but is delivered over the World Wide Web. The term "e-Radio" suggests a streaming media that presents listeners with a continuous stream of audio to which they have no control much like traditional broadcast media." (via Wiki)

Timeline:

• 1994: Internet Talk Radio was introduced
• 1994: the Voice of America became the first broadcast news organization to offer continuously updated programming on the Internet
  
• 1995: Radio HK, broadcasting independent music, became the first full-time, Internet-only radio station
  
• 1995: Netradio (Net.radio, NetRadio, NetRadio Network), founded in 1994, became the first all internet radio network. It was also the first Internet Radio network to receive an experimental license from ASCAP, which later became a standard license for all online radio stations.
  
• 1996: NetRadio offered the first weekly live internet only concert series.
• 1999: Scour.com released the Mycaster software tool and website, allowing users to operate their own internet radio stations.
  
• 2004: SuprNova, one of the most popular torrent sites, partnered with an amateur internet radio group and formed SuprNova Radio.

IR vs. traditional radio:

• Similarities: In many cases, IR provides the exact same programing at the same time as their terrestrial counterparts, simply streamed through the internet rather than broadcast on the airwaves. There can be commercials, annoying DJs, and the same 10 songs played all the time. You can't skip through commercials or pick what you want to hear on IR, just like on terrestrial radio. Like traditional radio, it is free (if you don't consider the cost of internet and computer access).
  

• Differences: Unlike traditional terrestrial radio, IR offers a huge selection of stations because the spectrum is physically unlimited and accessible anywhere, as long as you have access to a computer. The need for a computer (right now--internet radio in the car is supposedly in the works) to hear IR means there is both a financial and logistical barrier to access. You can't listen to IR in the car or on the go, as of now, and you have to be near a computer--not the most convenient or possible for everyone. IR also requires listeners to actively seek out the stations they want to hear on the internet, while traditional radio really only requires you turn it on and maybe press the seek button. There is a different level of agency involved in finding internet radio.
  

Examples: See Sidebar

Pros:

• Free!
  
• Accessible anywhere in the world if you have access to computers
• Can increase listenership of local stations and niche stations through access to broader audiences
  
• Great for expats and people with interests not served by traditional radio
  
• Sound quality: no interference or static
• Diversity of stations and programing
  
• No physical limits to # of stations
  
• No copyright issues because it is a stream rather than a download
  

Cons:

• Currently limited to those people with access to a computer
• Streams of commercial stations will have the same problems as those stations (commercials, annoying DJs, bad and repetitive music selection)
  
• No control over content
  
• You have to seek out the station you want to hear
• Proposed royalty rate hike could mean demise of Internet Radio
  

Next Up: Is Internet Radio About to Die?