We ARE living in an Internet century! This is not the future, this the truth … lots of traditional forms of entertainment are now making the transition to Internet. Almost everything is now online … why not take advantage? Radio was one of the first to make it’s way to Internet, but a while ago was considered more of “look what you can do with Internet” thing. A few years passed, the technology advanced and internet transfer rates allow everyone to stream hi-quality audio, navigate on internet, downloading all in the same time … no compromise. So now you can take online radio serious!

Most of airwaves broadcasting radios, also allow their listeners to stream online. This is a great achievement because if travel to some other zone or country you can still listen to your favorite radio if you have a laptop with you and a connection to internet!

Also, there are radios that are completely on Internet and as an example I can tell that I’m a big fan of Soma FM for a few years now. Soma FM is an independent, commercial-free and listener-supported internet radio, with 11 unique channels featuring underground electronica, chill out, ambient groove, downtempo, lounge, space music, indie rock and alternative rock, broadcasting from San Francisco. Rusty Hodge is the founder of SomaFM, a professional radio DJ that also developed software for broadcasters, multimedia, and founded Hodge Interactive to put radio and TV stations on the web.

I specially like their Groove Salad channel, which is a nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves as they say :). I discovered a lot of good music and artists by listening to Groove Salad for example Sigur Ros, Boards Of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss etc. They stream audio in a mp3 format (128k, 56k, 24k), wma format (128k, 32k) and aacPlus format (48k).

Just as a side note, Groove Salad was one of my inspirations for LOOPSalad V1

According to Accustream Imedia Research, in 2007 online internet radio (live streaming channels and individual track plays) generated 4.85 billion total listening hours, that’s 26.1% more than in 2006, generating a revenue of $92 million from advertising.

In 2007, SomaFM averaged about 5 million listener hours a month and the number is growing with an average of 6.4 million listener hours per month since December 2007. If those numbers are right, then 1.23% of all net radio listening is to SomaFM! (via Rusty’s Blog) This is pretty impressive, congratulations Soma FM!

Go check it out, you might like some radio channels or you could discover some new music!