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Music is an ever-present and vital force in our society. It is important, because it helps people to connect with each other and share emotions. Many people enjoy simply sitting at home or going out on the town while listening to their favorite artists. However, for some people, gaining access to new music can be a difficult challenge. There are many different ways to go about finding new music. Along with regular radio, Internet radio has positioned itself as a useful resource for those who want to discover new artists or simply for those who need something on in the background.

People listen to radio for many different reasons. One of the most popular uses of the radio is background music. However, many people take to using the radio as a means of finding more artists that they enjoy. Internet radio works with this concept by allowing users to select a single artist or type of genre of music to build playlists off of or find artists of a similar type. What this means is that there is a high possibility of finding something that you will like based on previous likes or dislikes.

There are many different types of Internet radio, some that are highly innovative and useful. One of the most popular Internet radio sites is Pandora.com. This is a website that allows people to choose a certain artist or song that they enjoy, which the system uses to then build a specialized and randomized playlist full of similar songs. The website itself operates much like a radio station, with one song being played after another in a sequence.

For those who enjoy the more eclectic and electronic side of things, Digitaly Imported (DI.fm) is a fantastic website. This site features a more traditional format of Internet radio. The user picks the station that they wish to listen to from a drop-down menu. The listening of these types of stations requires a media player such as Windows Media Player or VLC. Once clicked, the user is presented with a file which can be imputed directly into the media player, and the station will begin to play. The Internet factor comes into it by allowing users to interact with each other in real time on message boards and in chat rooms.

Even more eclectic still is Somafm.com. This is a website that is independently owned and operated and features radio stations that are very different from one another. This website offers a great variety and being independent and relying on donations from listeners, the stations themselves do not feature any ads. There are also a lot of incentives for those who donate, including apparel, CDs and mugs. All of this culminates into an excellent listening experience.

As we entered the age of high-technology networks like the internet and cable/satellite television, radio lagged severely behind as a a relic of a forgotten time. The traditional radio format has not aged very well, and its rating numbers show that its relevance is dimishing as the years go on. In the context of this declining medium, a new type of radio has emerged to try to bring the basic idea of radio into the twenty first century.

Satellite radio has existed since the early 1990s in different forms, but it was not until the early 2000s that two major satellite radio companies really emerged and became major players in the entertainment market. Both Sirius and XM radio fought each other for countless years before becoming the only major satellite radio company, Sirius XM Radio, which provides satellite radio channels to massive amounts of consumers.

But how exactly does satellite radio work? In fact, satellite radio works in a very similar way to satellite television. No matter your location on the earth, the same programming is available, transmitted from a satellite that orbits around the earth in space, and provides hundreds of different channels representing a huge selection of different genres. Unlike satellite television however, satellite radio is mostly commercial free, and requires a monthly fee to connect.

Today, because of the Sirius and XM merger, there is only one real choice in the United States for Satellite radio. In Canada however, Sirius and XM remain distinct services which consumers subscribe to separately, and in many European countries, many FM stations offer free satellite services.

While satellite radio is well established today, it is now far from the only modern radio solution. In recent years “HD Radio” and “Digital Audio Broadcasting” have emerged as serious threats to the dominance of satellite radio, mostly because the broadcasting methods are cheaper. In areas with a large population, a land-based solution is far more cost-effective than a satellite solution where expensive rockets and advanced techniques have to be used simply to get the signal out.

That said, satellite radio is fighting back. With its decreased popularity, SiriusXM has begun offering limited internet services through its radios, such as Pandora, a service that allows you to “discover” new music by feeding it a song or artist and then letting it go through similar artists and albums, voting for and against each song and developing your taste as you go along. These types of services help make satellite radio more interactive, and therefore more appealing than traditional radio.

Digital radio is a form of radio broadcasting technology that was originally designed to replace standard analog radio. With analog radio technology, sounds are processed into patterns of electric signals, similar to sound waves. In a digital broadcasting system, however, the basic analog transmission is taken and the sounds are “digitized” into patterns of zeros and ones. These patterns are then compressed into a smaller, more compact form and sent out using a digital modulation scheme. Because these signals take up so little room, the number of digital radio programs found in a given spectrum can be much higher than that of analog radio.

There are a number of other significant advantages that digital radio brings. For one, audio quality is noticeably better than that of analog radio. FM digital radio, for example, provides sound quality similar to what would be found from a CD. The sound quality of AM digital radio is quite similar to that of FM analog radio and is considerably higher than that of standard analog AM. In addition, digital radio signals are much more resistant to outside interference and provide better overall reception.

Digital radio has many more benefits tailored specifically to listeners. Enhanced design allows users to select their desired station using names or letters, rather than tuning the dial to a specific number. On-screen information such as artist names and track listings can be displayed easily while music is playing. Some radios provide optional features like pause and rewind functions or program recording. Finally, with all the extra stations available over analog radio, a listener should always be able to find something that he or she enjoys hearing.

Despite all the potential benefits that digital radio brings, analog radio still remains the more popular of the two in today’s world. This may be due to a variety of factors, but the foremost may be the absence of global standards and agreements during its original introduction. Additionally, new digital radios are typically more expensive than their analog counterparts, and the enhanced functionality requires some knowledge to use, discouraging some first time users. However, prices have come down significantly since the initial introduction of digital radios, and most listeners are happy to find out that all digital radios are able to receive analog signals as well.

As of 2012, there are four officially accepted digital radio systems across the globe. The oldest of the four, Digital Audio Broadcasting (abbreviated DAB), is based in Norway and has been in existence since the 1980′s, broadcasting to multiple European nations. The three others include HD-Radio of the United States, the Japanese ISDB-T and the European-based Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).