Internet radio

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Internet radio (aka e-Radio) is a broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Not every internet "radio station" has a corresponding traditional radio station. Many internet radio stations are completely independent from traditional ("terrestrial") radio stations and broadcast only on the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not trasmitted broadly through wireless means but is delivered over the World Wide Web. 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. It is not synonymous with podcasting which involves downloading and therefore copyright issues. Nor does e-Radio suggest "on-demand" file servering.

Because the radio signal is relayed over the Internet, it is possible to access the stations from anywhere in the world—for example, to listen to an Australian radio station from Europe or America. This makes it a popular service for expatriates and for people who have interests that may not be adequately catered for by their local radio stations (such as progressive rock, anime themed music, 24/7 stand up comedy, and others). Some of the internet radio services offer news, sports, talkback, and various genres of music—everything that is on the radio station being simulcast over the internet with a netcast stream.

Contents

[edit] Internet radio technology

[edit] Streaming

One of the most common ways to distribute internet radio is via streaming technology using a lossy audio codec. The MP3 codec is most popular, followed by Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media Audio, and RealAudio; use of HE-AAC (sometimes called aacPlus) is gaining in popularity. The bits are "streamed" over a TCP/IP connection, then reassembled and played within about 2 seconds. Therefore, streaming radio has about a two-second lag time.

There are three major components to an audio stream:

  1. Audio stream source
  2. Audio stream repeater (server)
  3. Audio stream playback

Creating a stream
There are many methods for creating the audio stream source. Those more technologically savvy may opt for the SHOUTcast service, which utilizes Winamp and the SHOUTcast DSP plugin to deliver MP3 audio at higher bitrates. Other methods include open source technologies such as Streamcast, stream-db, IceS, and MuSE, and patent-free data formats such as Ogg Vorbis. Using open source stream source tools allows for interesting web interface possibilities like phpStreamcast.

Two of the most popular internet radio networks are Live365 and SHOUTcast. Open source alternatives include Icecast and Xiph.org, which include Ogg Vorbis streamings (that can be played by Winamp and Zinf). Collectively, these internet radio servers list thousands of Internet radio stations covering an ever-expanding variety of genres. The purpose of the server is to repeat the stream source to the audio playback software.

Types of radio that stream
Sites that aggregrate links of Internet radio broadcasts enable listeners to find internet broadcasts by genre, language, or location. If looking for traditional radio that streams online, you can use RadioTime. It also aggregates radio station schedule information, popular radio show topics, and access to radio personalities that offer podcasts. The Radeo Internet player includes a database with more than 500,000 broadcast, webcast, and podcast streams; search; and a player.

What you need to listen
Some sort of audio playback software or hardware, that is capable of reading HTTP data streams, is needed to listen to streaming MP3 audio. Some popular software players are Winamp for Windows, iTunes for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, and XMMS on Unix/Linux. Listening to internet radio through stand-alone hardware devices has not been very popular in the past, due to the limited number of devices on the market, though the availability of such devices and their consumer popularity is expected to increase significantly during 2006. Here is a list of commercially available Internet radio devices. Many of these are limited in which audio codecs they can use and consequently the variety of internet radio stations they are compatible with although the number of codecs being used today is becoming somewhat limited due to the inevitable commercial process.

Audio quality
There is a tradeoff between audio quality and audience size. Stations that encode their streams at a lower bitrate have lower audio quality, but they are more accessible to listeners with a dialup connection, and they can serve more simultaneous users on a given upstream pipe.

User ratings
There are also a small number of web radio programs that allow users to rate the songs they are listening to. This allows a user's music listening choices to be correlated against those of others, as with the programs iRATE radio, Last.fm, and Radio Paradise.

You can also rate traditional radio stations and radio programs that stream at a site like RadioTime.

[edit] Portalcasting

Portalcasting is a full featured broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Portalcasting stations broadcast more visual content and sensory gratification for the listener than typical internet radio stations. The music is high definition and the site supports the station with active time displays of current song, requests, dedication, games and other visual supporting content. Portalcasters provide services via internet sites, cable tv systems and wireless providers.

[edit] Podcasting

Audio and video programmes resembling those of radio and TV can also now be distributed by Podcasting which can be published by various means including RSS feed and P2P clients.

[edit] History

The first Internet "radio station", Internet Talk Radio, was developed by Carl Malamud in 1993. Malamud's station used a technology called MBONE (IP Multicast Backbone on the Internet). Later that year, Austin Arts BBS begin broadcasting pre-recorded information for members of the screenprinting community and artists from a Bulletin Board System in Austin, Texas. Austin Arts BBS, originally created in 1983 by Bill Hood was the first online screenprinting community. Hood created the first online radio presence for the screenprinting industry with Screenprinters Radio which featured interviews, stories, tips and tricks as well as music.

In February, 1995, the first full-time, Internet-only radio station, Radio HK, began broadcasting the music of independent bands. Radio HK was created by Norman Hajjar and the Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab, an advertising agency in Marina del Rey, California. Hajjar's method was to use a CU-SeeMe web conferencing reflector connected to a custom created audio CD in endless loop. Later, Radio HK converted to one of the original RealAudio servers. Today, Internet radio stations such as VoyagerRadio utilize the technologies of web services like Live365 to webcast 24 hours a day.

WXYC (89.3FM Chapel Hill, NC USA) was the first radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet on November 7, 1994. WXYC used an FM radio connected to a system at SunSite, later known as Ibiblio, running CU-SeeMe. WXYC had begun test broadcasts and bandwidth testing as early as August, 1994. WREK (91.1FM, Atlanta, GA USA) also claims to have started streaming on November 7, using their own custom software called CyberRadio1, although the stream was not advertised until a later date.

KJHK 90.7FM in Lawrence, Kansas, began to stream its live broadcast using CU-SeeMe on December 3, 1994. KJHK was the first radio station to maintain a continuous, live signal over the Internet. This has been verified by the National Association of Broadcasters, Sports Illustrated, and CNN.

KPIG also began to transmit a live, 24/7 feed, in August 1995, first using Xing Streamworks and later switching to RealAudio. Bill Goldsmith, who was KPIG's Operations Manager & morning DJ at the time, and the one responsible for starting the webcast, now operates the popular Internet station Radio Paradise.

WUEV launched its live simulcast in January 1996, also using the Xing Streamworks technology at first, then adding RealAudio and moving from the Xing platform to Windows Media Technologies as equipment (and budget sizes) changed.

The first radio station to stream 24-hours a day in Europe was the UK's Virgin Radio, who started streaming a live simulcast using Real Networks in March 1996.

Tuning in to a broadcast like a traditional radio is not possible on internet, so finding different broadcasts has to be done with a Search Engine or a website that collects on-line radio broadcasts.

In 1996 GBS Radio Networks, founded by radio veteran Guy W. Giuliano, was one of the first to launch an internet radio programming service. The firm syndicated two commercial formats, hip-hop station BombRadio, and hard rock format LoudRadio. In 1998, GBS was purchased by the Emusic.com corporation in a highly publicized cash and stock deal. In 1999, LoudRadio.com became the first online radio station to be syndicated on a commercial broadcast station via KLOD-FM in Flagstaff, AZ.

In 1999, one of the first University/College stations to operate was in Antigonish, Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University CFXU.

In 1999 a company called BMP released a tool that allowed anyone to Netcast in 10 minutes. The MyCaster tool was cleverly simple. It was basically a software MP3 player, similar to Winamp, that as the user listened to music it simultaneously sent a stream to the MyCaster Website. MyCaster then amplified the stream and listed it on its site for listeners to access. The free service allowed even people with little technical skill to easily go live with their own Internet radio station. Like many early Internet radio endeavors, MyCaster succumbed to the dot com bust in 2001.

Peercasting uses P2P technology. Its requirement of communicating a URI before transmission and the lack of a centralized repository of such addresses reduced peercasting's widespread adoption.

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Mercora IMRadio, a combination of social networking and Internet radio, streams music in the Ogg Vorbis format. Mercora allows users to webcast music and pays royalties to the copyright collectives such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange.

RadioVague, in 2003, acquired a transportable satellite internet broadcast system and started broadcasting live shows from events and music festivals around Europe using only free and open source software, broadcasting in OGG/Vorbis format using Icecast and Icecast2 servers, their first event being the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest. Since then they have extended their distribution platform to allow both traditional FM radio stations and other internet radio stations to achieve a global audience.

[edit] Business models

Most on-air stations broadcast the same commercial advertisements on their internet radio players. The cost is imbedded in the advertiser's payment to the station.

Others, which have no advertisements, like the BBC, simply send out their stream. The BBC is funded by the Television license which must be paid by all owners of a television in the United Kingdom. This fee funds the operation of the BBC's television radio and internet services. It should be noted however that the BBC is looking at methods of charging international users of its content through its commercial arm BBC Worldwide [1].

Other stations and shows charge a subscription monthly fee or a direct per-program fee for the internet radio broadcast.

[edit] Open source Internet radio streaming software

Main article: List of streaming media systems

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • "A Radio Giant Moves to Limit Commercials", by Nat Ives, The New York Times, Monday, July 19, 2004.

    "Clear Channel Radio plans to begin limiting number of commercials played on its more than 1,200 stations; revenue growth in radio industry has slowed despite long-term run-up in number of minutes in each hour devoted to commercial, by one estimate, up to 20 minutes today from 10 to 12 a decade ago; expanding volume of commercial has bred frustration among advertisers and radio audiences; proportion of people who turn on radio at least once a week remains high, but average time they actually listen each week has slid downward during last 10 years; Clear Channel's new limits on commercials is expected to create pressure for other station owners to do something similar ..."

  • "Business Models on the Web", by Dr. Michael Rappa [2], North Carolina State University
  • "Managing the Digital Enterprise", by Dr. Michael Rappa
  • "Will NPR's podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?", by Mark Glaser, November 29, 2005, USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review, Annenberg Center for Communication at USC.
  • "Internet Radio: This Year's Business Models" - 2004 Streaming Media West Conference session.

    'Recent developments in "web radio" indicate that this arena may be turning a corner on the path to profitability. After years of battling over royalties and programming restrictions, the industry is now looking at how to operate a successful business. Internet radio is expected to reach nearly 60% of the U.S. population by 2004, and there are signs that the medium is gaining acceptance as a viable distribution and advertising model. But questions of audience measurement, program availability, and the cost control still face the industry. This panel of Internet radio and broadcasting executives will discuss the state of digital radio today, how the industry can address the issues that affect this business, and where they see the industry headed. Speakers:David Oxenford, Partner, Shaw Pittman LLP, David Rahn, Partner, SBR Creative Media Inc, Paul Strickland, President, Ando Media, Inc., Raghav Gupta, COO, Live365.com, Track: B - Great America K, Tuesday, October 26, 2004, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM'

[edit] External links

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