Added: 10/05/2005 |
Online Radio Stations Popularity BoostInternet radio is a media service broadcasted through the Internet. There are a lot of online radio stations available to choose from. One should be aware that an online radio station should not necessarily associate with a traditional radio station. Many of today's online radio stations operate on the Internet only and do not have any links with offline. This has both positive and negative sides. On one hand, such stations are usually totally independent. They do not face huge expenditures thus being able to provide independent information on almost any topic. On the other, internet radio stations lack investments, therefore being unable to provide with the high-quality shows, self-made news etc. Their earning on advertising also let them hope for the best.
Online radio stations or streaming radio has one inevitable useful feature and the undoubted advantage - its broadcast can be accessed from anywhere in the world. This gives the online radio stations additional points in the eyes of those who want to reach something not available within the area covered by the local traditional radio stations. For instance, one of the American origins now living in Japan would certainly be glad to listen to some traditional country music, broadcasted on the net, but hardly available in Japan.
1993 was the year when the first streaming radio station was given birth to. This happened in the USA, where a guy named Carl Malamud has set up the so-called "Internet Talk Radio". The first full-time, strictly Internet-operable online radio station appeared in 1995, broadcasting the music of the independent bands. It was Radio HK.
It is now really easy to set up your own online radio station. Various software providers are eager to provide you with all the necessary software to start your own streaming radio. The most common way to broadcast radio on the Internet is via the technology of streaming mp3. This method uses the well spread mp3 format. Usually, streaming radio, operating through the streaming mp3 technology, has a two-second lag, because the bits are being coded and decoded in the process.
Among the most popular software available to create the streaming source, one should definitely pay attention to those of Live365 and SHOUTcast. There are also some open source counterparts, including Icecast and Xiph.org, which support Ogg Vorbis streaming (Ogg Vorbis is an open source coding format, which is now becoming very popular, competing successfully with the mp3 technology). Multiple radio stations among those broadcasting online, stream through RealAudio .rm format, which is usually presented with a lower bitrate, if to compare to mp3, which results in lower quality, therefore becoming available for those using dialup connection.
The world of modern technologies, that's what we call our life nowadays. That's true, as we could hardly imagine some 15 years ago that we would be able to listen to some jazz band performing live somewhere in Arizona, while we are at our apartments in Paris. All you need is to connect to the Internet, join some online radio station and have fun.
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