Overview

Among the many imponderables of the Internet, one thing is certain: the technology for picking it up will continue to improve and adapt itself to the ways in which people want to use it. The Web will not remain trapped within the desktop computer for long many of its applications quite evidently cannot wait to get out. The ICT companies have at their disposal huge investment capital sums with which to finance the research and development of the killer applications that will really set it free. The combination of the pace and forward momentum behind this technological revolution is unprecedented.

The number of web radio stations online is difficult to keep track of precisely, but at the time of writing is commonly estimated at around 5000 (e.g. by http://www.penguinradio.com/ in March 2001). Twenty-two per cent of Americans, the most researched audience, are estimated to have tuned into some streaming audio on the Web (radio plus music channels) by the end of the year 2000 (Arbitron/Edison, 2001, p. 17). The potential global listening audience can be gauged very approximately from estimates of the numbers of people who so far have access to the Internet (Table 3.1).

Remember web radio has only been with us for 6 years. For the...