Though the birth of P2P, Peer to Peer, sharing of MP3s was an enormous blow to the radio and music industry the internet hasn’t been all bad for radio. Internet, E-Radio or Web radio is the delivery of radio directly to listeners and subscribers across the internet. In society today everything must be accessible through the internet to survive. Many radio providers will post simulcasts, transmission of one signal at one time across many sites with the same frequency, which are the customary over-the-air broadcasts. Some of these simulcasts will try to recreate the broadcast to be identical others will include extra information about the programming, events, or artists. The more extreme internet stations are called bitcasters and are only available online. The most successful of the bitcaster sites are the online streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify, allowing public access to music catalogs and personalized stations for free legally. Even better, these sites are platform agnostic, meaning they are offered on essentially all types of digital devices.
Podcasts have also been a critical shift for the era of personalized radio. Podcasting is the recording and downloading of audio file on servers. They are posted in complete data bundles online and therefore do not require streaming. When the phenomena started the posters were typically techies, community organizations, at home DJs, and outspoken bloggers. Now the practice is widespread and common for all internet users from the average joe with recording equipment to large companies, stations, and brands. Now there are over 27,000 recognized podcast programs online.
Over half of the American population now utilizes internet radio stations with an average of about 10 listening hours a week.
Rearview: Radio 