The most daily habitude to distribute Internet radio is via streaming technology using a lossy audio codec. Fashionable streaming audio formats include MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Radio Audio, RealAudio and HE-AAC (sometimes called aacPlus). The bits are "streamed" (transported) over the network in TCP or UDP packets, then reassembled and played within seconds. (The delay is referred to as lag time.)
On May 1, 2007, the United States Absorb Royalty Board approved a rate growth in the royalties payable to performers of recorded works broadcast on the internet
. This was the arrangement of a two year proceeding, with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of documents from over twenty different parties, including ample and inconsiderable webcasters, NPR, college stations, and SoundExchange. The CRB was privy to private financial records and business models of the webcasters, and after reviewing the evidence and testimony, issued their preference on May 1, 2007 (which is currently under appeal). If enforced, this judgment will undermine the biz models of countless Internet radio stations, which had previously relied on the relative of $0.000768 per song that had been unchanged from 1998-2005. These rules were scheduled to go into denouement on May 1, 2007, with the first due date being July 15, 2007, and apply retroactively to January 1, 2006.
