An introduction to Internet radio

Simply-put, Internet radio, net-radio, or e-Radio as it is also known as is audio broadcasting over the Internet. The actual operation of this is referred to as webcasting (although the term does refer to both broadcasting of audio or video over the net) since content in this scenario is transmitted via the world wide web instead of the more traditional wireless technologies such as Frequency Modulation (FM). Today, the term ‘Internet Radio’ has developed into several meanings, and many people associate it with services as diverse as on-demand audio streaming from on-line music retailers to ‘blog radio’ – services such as The Hype Machine that aggregates and streams many mp3 audio files automatically and randomly from the music blogosphere…more about blog radio later.

Many major terrestrial radio stations stream via the Internet in real-time along with their regular AM or FM over-the-air broadcasts in order to reach a wider audience. This type of broadcasting is called simulcasting (a simultaneous broadcast of a program over more than one medium). However, a lot of net-radio content comes from broadcasters who only broadcast over the Internet. Today, it is estimated that the number of Internet radio stations is in five figures. Below is a video found on YouTube.com of a DJ called Brian Aneurysm broadcasting on a well known net radio station called Play.FM

Many stations also stream recordings of previous broadcasts that are stored in their archives. In this case they will be providing an “On-Demand” service, a service that is used to request and stream audio from an archive to the client computer. Play.FM features such a service on their website. Other industries that utilize audio-on-demand services are on-line music retailers. Many outlets offer a “listen before you buy” service, whereby the potential customer can stream a short sample of a track to his/her computer for listening purposes. One example of such a site is chemical-records.co.uk.

Audio streaming and net-radio

Most Net-radio broadcasters utilizes a streaming media and streaming technology, which presents listeners with a continuous stream of audio. If the stream is broadcast live (in realtime) the listeners have no or very little control over the stream. In other words they can open the stream in a software media player such as iTunes and terminate its playback, but apart from this they cannot control what is listened to or the sequence of how it is played back. In this sense it is very similar to traditional radio broadcasting. However, if the stream is a recording of a past broadcast then it can be streamed anytime from the beginning and played-back in a non-linear fashion.

Streaming audio is a one-way audio transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web to deliver audio broadcasts as well as audio on demand. Many private intranets also make use of streaming technology to deliver audio and video content. Unlike audio files such as WAV and MP3 that are played-back after they are downloaded from a server, audio that is streamed is played almost instantaneously after requesting it from a server, and the data that is pumped through to the client’s computer is not stored permanently on that client computer’s storage device. If you open a stream in a media player such as iTunes the player will only playback that stream if you are connected to the Internet…well apparently, so I’m told.

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