Internet radio really could not be more simply stated as being audio broadcasting over the internet instead of by other means. It has also been called webcasting. What internet radio does is to pull all parts of the world together. Whereas in the past if you were listening to a radio station in New York City, you could only hear it in NYC. Now, if this radio station was connected up to the internet, anyone anywhere in the world could potentially listen to this radio station. Traditional radio stations typically had a broadcast range of about 100 miles. Within this broadcast range there was also only the potential of about 2 dozen stations.
The particular aspect of internet radio where a radio station takes its broadcast and puts it onto the internet began in 1994 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. The first internet only radio station came around in 1995 and was and is called HardRadio and it was a licensed affair.
Internet radio should be available on cell phones and wireless in relatively short order. What about internet radio in your car? While it can be done, there are some issues to get around to make it work such as the connectivity to an internet provider which may require some custom device to connect up to each carrier. This will need a bit more work before it becomes a widespread reality.
So what is the difference between internet radio and more traditional radio. Traditional radio is programmed and has a schedule which is followed and people listening know their stations and can predict what they are doing to listen to. With internet radio people generally search for what they want to listen to. Traditional radio has a stronger appeal to those over 35 years of age and internet radio is more popular to those between the age of 18 and 34.
The internet radio stations do have a similar set up for advertisement which is where they make their money unless it is like the BBC where there are no advertisements and where they get their funding from the viewers. Internet radio is generally free. Then there is the question and controversy at this time as to whether or not or how much in terms of royalties will be paid and how will this be done? It appears that webcasters are being asked to pay performance royalties that a typical broadcast station would not be required to pay. Webcasters typically want to pay the musicians who create the music but are not in agreement with other extraneous royalty fees that are being dictated by music conglomerates. It is the same sort of issue that accompanied records where the record labels were in control of the financing aspect of the music which was produced. Anyway this is the realm where this needs to be sorted out.
no comment untill now