Jean-Claude Elias, The Jordan Times

Radio was officially invented by Italian Marconi in 1895. The first actual broadcast of music took place in 1910 when American De Forest sent the voice of tenor Caruso flying across the airwaves. Since then, and with countless technological transformations that drastically improved the quality of the sound, radio is still a favourite way to enjoy music for listeners the world over. After all these years, a century after, the oldest means to transmit music still holds a dear place in the heart of the public. CDs, MP3, high definition audio, satellite TV, podcasts and the like haven’t killed radio.

Internet radio, the latest of these transformations, is one of many ways to listen to digitally stored music today. It is part of the streaming services now available on the web. Whereas most such services are about selecting the music you want to listen to, as if you were playing back your own collection, radio still retains this special, unique flavour of “music spontaneously coming your way”.

People enjoy listening to music without having to select it themselves. The feeling that someone is choosing the songs for you and broadcasting them is tantamount to someone talking to you, thinking of you, and it is quite pleasant. This is particularly true if you are working or driving and do not wish to keep selecting and playing back pieces from your own set. Radio is a friend.

In this very newspaper there was an interesting article by Dirk Averesch last Tuesday about Internet streaming music services you can subscribe to. As popular and interesting as they can be, these are quite different from radio. Besides, many streaming service are only available in the US, and they are also pay services — not free. Radio remains universal, and free.

How good is Internet radio?

The most spectacular part of it is the overwhelming choice it gives you. Whereas local FM is geographically restricted to a radius of more or less 50km in your area, Internet radio can reach a station that is over 16,000 kilometres away, as easily, as surely as it can reach one that is in the neighbouring country. If you are in Amman, a news radio in Paris, France is no harder to catch than say a country music station in southern Texas, in the US.

Because of the flabbergasting number of Internet radios out there the stations often are classified into groups or genre: news, sports, classical, country, metal, pop, jazz, etc., making it easier to listen to what you like most, or to better match your mood at any given moment. It is estimated that more than 44,000 Internet radio stations are operating in the world today and that most people prefer to listen to these stations instead of subscribing to pay music streaming services.

Whereas you can tune (the old term isn’t valid anymore here of course…) to Internet radio using your computer’s web browser, the popularity of the phenomenon is such that dedicated, stand-alone Internet radio sets are available on the market. Physically they look like a traditional radio set, except that they connect to the Internet, through WiFi or Ethernet cable.

There isn’t any need for a computer anymore, and modern-age Internet radio sets usually come with built-in amplifier and speaker, resulting in a convenient, self-contained package, with a quality of sound that typically is better than what a laptop computer can produce, if only for the larger speaker. Manufacturers like to wrap these sets in a retro external look that is pleasant and guaranteed to raise a smile when you first see it. The sets also double as regular FM radio that can catch local, traditional stations.

Purists and demanding audiophiles, however, are usually disappointed by the intrinsic quality of the sound. To reduce Internet bandwidth most stations “broadcast” in a format equivalent to MP3 at 128k, a low quality of MP3. A minority transmits at 256k, which is slightly better than 128, and some do it at a terrible 64k — totally unacceptable, however easy-going you may be. But even 256k is still far less ear pleasing than regular CD or even local FM radio for that matter.

Yet, the convenience and pleasure to listen to an Internet radio that is at the other side of the world remains unsurpassed. One thing is certain, we don’t listen to music the same way we used to do it only 10 or 15 years ago. Some Internet Service Providers in Jordan are offering stand-alone Internet radio sets to their clients.