Following the invention of the internet in the 1970’s and the introduction of the world wide web in 1990, the first internet radio broadcasts came about in the mid 1990’s. Since then the technology has advanced at pace, as has the format of internet radio, and given us the scenario we know today. Throughout the developed world most homes now have direct access to the internet and nearly every member of the population has a computer with internet access, be it desktop, laptop, notebook, tablet or smartphone.

Traditional terrestrial radio stations still pump out their cosy but dull, fully scheduled programs on a regular basis, interrupted regularly for commercial breaks. A lot of these larger corporations also run associated internet radio channels, that are regularly interrupted with commercial breaks. Alongside this, independent internet radio has developed as a force to be reckoned with, having taken its own path.

Internet radio stations make use of highly efficient modern streaming technology to distribute data streams across the entire internet. This content can be accessed by anyone, anywhere in the world as long as they have internet access and a computer or domestic internet radio.

These independent internet radio stations cost very little to set up and run so have grown massively in number until there is currently estimated to be over 20,000 channels available to everyone. As it is often a one man band or small committee who run them, they tend to offer their service free of charge and rely on voluntary donations to keep them going. They are therefore free to set their own parameters for programming and content, hence the extreme range of subject matter and wide spectrum of music genre, sub-genre and even sub-sub-genre to be discovered somewhere amongst them.

There are many ways to find the internet radio station you want. If you have a domestic digital radio such as the one in the video below, it will already be set to such stations as Sirius XM, Live365, Pandora or iHeartRadio. These same stations are easily found when browsing with computer access.

Whether you use a computer for internet access or a domestic internet radio, you have access to thousands more stations than a standard terrestrial radio, enjoyment of your favorite music uninterrupted with commercials, and no fear that the signal strength will diminish with weather conditions or distance from the radio source.

For further information on the availability of domestic internet radio models, please visit http://www.bestinternetradioschoice.com where you will find comment and feature reviews of all the top internet radio models.