Internet Radio

Internet Radio, better known as e-radio, streaming radio, net radio, and web radio can be described as an ‘Audio Broadcasting Service’ transmitted through Internet. Internet Broadcasting is generally called web casting as transmission does not take place broadly via wireless means. A ‘streaming medium’ is involved in Internet radio. It presents the listeners with constant audio ‘Stream’ over which there is no control, just like conventional broadcast media. In this sense, it’s distinct as compared to ‘On-Demand File Serving’.

Internet radio can by no means be compared with pod casting that implies downloading instead of streaming. Most of the Internet ‘Radio Stations’ are linked with a matching terrestrial radio network or radio station. Radio stations which are ‘Internet-only’ are not dependent on such associations.

Services related to Internet Radio are generally accessible from any part of the world. For instance- one can listen to ‘Australian’ Station from America or Europe. That’s why; it has become popular amongst listeners having an utmost interest and expatriates which are often inadequately served through local stations like stand-up comedy, classical music, folk music, ambient music, and progressive rock. Services related to Internet radio consist of different music genres, talk, sports, and news- literally everything offered by conventional radio stations.

Technology

The most general way of distributing ‘Internet Radio’ is through streaming technology by making use of a ‘lossy audio codec’. The most popular streaming formats are inclusive of HE-AAC, RealAudio, Windows Media Audio, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3. The streaming of bits takes place in UDP or TCP packets, and then reassembled. Then comes the playing.