Internet audio streaming is enabling a new model of radio and expanding the medium's definition by challenging the conventions of the broadcasting industry. As broadband access approaches ubiquity, consumer and audience habits are shifting, markets are consolidating, copyright laws are evolving and advertisers are experimenting. It is in the midst of these interacting forces that the radio broadcaster must succeed online while adapting to the up-side down, emerging business model of Internet radio - where technology and licensing costs have a direct relationship with the size of the audience and the one-to-many broadcasting strategy may be irrelevant. The objective of this thesis is to contrast the emerging and traditional radio models according to their technologies, operations, laws and business practices by analyzing the perceptions of industry experts in the context of historical and contemporary issues. To this end, experts were recruited from the audio/music production, radio broadcasting and music education/performance fields to share their perceptions and insights with the industry through an anonymous online survey, yielding a set of recommendations regarding the application, usability and sound quality of current streaming technologies. The position of this thesis is that the practice of simulcasting is logical in the short-term; though short-sighted in the long-term, as the online amalgamation of markets will progressively require a narrowcasting approach.
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