In the second of a series of columns on the future of music, ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK explores the impact the Internet’s Audio streams have had on radio.
As one traditional delivery channel for music, namely the record store, faces its demise, another is thriving. Radio was meant to be an early victim of the Internet revolution, given how easy it is to deliver an audio stream online. Instead, it remains the most pervasive mass medium in the world, reinventing itself again and again as it migrates onto cellphones, and uses the Internet to intensify its engagement with listeners.