Internet radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, online radio, webcasting) is an audio service transmitted via the Internet. Music streaming on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means.
web radio involves streaming media, presenting listeners with a continuous stream of audio that cannot be paused or replayed, much like traditional broadcast media; in this respect, it is distinct from on-demand file serving. Internet radio is also distinct from podcasting, which involves downloading rather than streaming. Many Internet radio services are associated with a corresponding traditional (terrestrial) radio station or radio network. Internet-only radio stations are independent of such associations.
Internet radio services are usually accessible from anywhere in the world. Internet radio remains popular among expatriates and listeners with interests that are often not adequately served by local radio stations (such as euro dance, progressive rock, ambient music, music, classical, and stand-up comedy). Internet radio services offer news, sports, talk, and various genres of music—every format that is available on traditional radio stations
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| Carl Malamud founded the Internet Multicast Service |
In 1993
technologist Carl Malamud founded the Internet Multicast Service and at the
same time he became the founder of the first internet radio station – Internet
Talk Radio. Each week the show interviewed a new computer expert. Considering
the audience the first online radio show would have had back in 1993, this was
probably an excellent topic for the demographic.
Later the
same year the first Internet concert was broadcast featuring a band called
Severe Tire Damage. But the next year a slightly more recognizable act, the
Rolling Stones, were the first to send a concert out into cyberspace, calling
it “the first major cyberspace multicast concert.” According to Wikipedia Mick Jagger
opened the concert by saying “I want to say a special welcome to everyone
that’s, uh, climbed into the Internet tonight and, uh, has got into the M-bone.
And I hope it doesn't all collapse.” No matter what that means, internet radio
was clearly here to stay.
The same
year 1993 US radio station WXYC became the first to start broadcasting on the
internet. But the technology was still slow and the radio stations who ventured
out into cyberspace were pioneers often having to build their own tools and
software for the broadcast.
In 1995
slightly more mainstream audio players started becoming available, some
developed
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| Internet Radio Receiver in early time |
by companies like Null soft and Microsoft. More and more web based
radio stations started appearing in cyberspace. In 1996,
Edward Lyman created Sonicwave.com, the first US internet radio station,
legally licensed by both ASCAP and BMI, to broadcast live, 24 hours a day on
the internet. And in March 1996, Virgin Radio – London, became the first
European radio station to broadcast its full program live on the internet. It
broadcast its FM signal, live from the source, simultaneously on the Internet 24 hrs a day.
RealAudio
also made streaming more accessible to a number of radio shows and internet radio
started attracting both media and investor attention. In 1998 Broadcast.com had
it’s initial public stock offering and became the Facebook of the day. It set a
record at the time for the largest jump in price in stock offerings in the
United States. The offering price was $18 and the company’s shares opened at
$68 on the first day of trading. What the investors didn’t know was that the
company was losing money at the time. Yahoo! purchased Broadcast.com in 1999
for $5.7 billion.
In the early
2000s internet radio stations were able to increase their stream quality as
bandwidth speeds started rising in most households. At the same time streaming
sites like Pandora and Last.fm started popping up around the web.
HOW They get ROYALTIES
But when it
seemed like internet radio had conquered some of the technological challenges,
a different kind of hurdle showed up. In October 1998 the US Congress passed
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which meant that performance royalties
had to be paid for satellite radio and internet radio in addition to publishing
royalties. Traditional radio broadcasters only have to pay publishing
royalties. The war between internet radio and legislators had begun.
SoundExchange,
the performance rights organisation, representing supporters of the increase in
royalty rates, pointed out that the rates were flat from 1998 through 2005,
without even being increased to reflect cost-of-living increases.
However
online radio services were struggling to pay performance royalties, even those
with a large and growing audience. In 2008 newspaper Washington Post warned
that popular radio service Pandora was on the verge of collapse, stating web
radio might be doomed because of the high royalties they were forced to pay.
Later the
same year, after a 19-month battle over Internet radio royalties, a truce
between record labels and webcasters was finally in sight. The US Congress
passed a bill that would put into effect any changes to the royalty rate to
which record labels and web casters agree to while lawmakers are out of
session. And in January 2009, the US Copyright Royalty Board announced that “it
will apply royalties to streaming net services based on revenue.”
Since it’s
humble beginnings the term
internet radio has grown to mean several things, writes Alex Cosper
in an article about the history of internet radio.
It can be as
radio-like as a program streamed live on the internet or it can be an archive
site with on-demand music files. It can simply be a terrestrial radio station’s
broadcast to a bigger market, or an internet-only operator starting from
scratch. It can also be a music store that allows listeners to sample music
before they buy it. Many internet stations feature independent music you cannot
hear on regular radio as a way of cornering new markets.
