Online Radio

Of all of the current forms of online music, online radio has surprisingly been around the longest, despite the fact that it is the most technologically advanced. Once faster internet speeds started to pop up in big cities, many people who had them wanted to know what else they could do other than surf the web. Gradually, multimedia which we now think is standard started to find its way into the internet. The first form of this was streaming audio. In 1997, I was up late surfing the web for hints on the game Diablo, when all of the sudden loud, ominous music started blasting out of my speakers. I rushed to turn down the volume. I was very surprised to hear music coming straight from the internet. This was the first time I had ever heard audio come from a website.

In Summer 1998, low-quality online talk-radio started to become common, with many sites featuring free access to increase listenership. Later that year, some radio stations began broadcasting online. But it wasn't until Summer 1999 that true online radio stations began to be created. These stations were not normal radio stations that also broadcasted online. They only played their music online. At first, the stations were run by individuals or groups of people, but soon after, a few startup companies joined in like Live365 and NetRadio. From there, online radio began to grow.

To put it simply, online radio is like another computer playing music into your computer's speakers or headphones. When you ask the server to listen to the broadcast, the server sends you a continuous stream of music, which your computer plays as it comes in.

The greatest benefit of online radio as opposed to traditional radio is that most online radio is commercial free. No commercials at all. When online radio becomes more popular this may change, but for now, it's straight music 24/7.

Another advantage online radio has is that it does not need DJ's if only music is being played. The webmaster can program a playlist, and just hit play. There is no need to hire people to monitor the station or to play songs.

Currently, there are about fifteen large radio websites, each one with at least twenty stations. There is also a large portal, Kerbango, which gives users access to thousands of stations by accessing other sites. This service is what iTunes uses. There are also a number of online radio clients which directly access radio servers. These include Spinner and AMPcaster. WinAMP and iTunes also can access radio servers inside their Mp3 players, while Audion can only access streams which you know the address of. I prefer using these clients because it is faster, more efficient, and advertisement free.

In my opinion, online radio offers the most potential out of the three current types of online music. Record labels are constantly begging radio DJ's for airtime, and providing thousands of radio stations will give them lots more airtime. Also, there is no geographic limitation to what you can listen to. There are over a thousand online rap stations alone.

The most important reason online radio offers the most potential is that it does not threaten to hurt any group. The record labels and artists get airtime for their music, online companies get to make money through investors and advertising, and listeners get thousands of stations to listen to. It's a good deal for everyone. There are two challenges online music will have to overcome. The first is that it is hard for 56k modem users to use online radio without having speed problems. This can be frustrating and turns off many potential listeners. That problem can only be fixed overtime, and eventually it will be a non-issue.

While it is a good thing for consumers to have more choices in radio stations, having thousands to choose from may overwhelm some listeners. With broadcast radio, one can only access about forty to fifty stations. This simplifies the choosing process, because there are no more that two stations that are alike in each area. If you like rap music, you can choose from one of two rap stations. With online music, if you like rap music you have about 1,000 stations to choose from, some good, some bad. Choosing a favorite is much harder. The only real way for a station to increase listenership is to advertise, and nobody likes advertising on every website you visit.

Overall, online radio is the most promising form of online music, and it could very well be the first to succeed in taking over its predecessor, traditional radio. But nothing is certain in the online world.

To download an online radio client, visit the software folder.

To visit sites about online radio, visit the links page.