Before the advent of the Internet, radio listening was a rather one-sided, monotonous experience. Beyond the call-in requests, it was limited to tuning into whatever the DJs offered. However, a new breed of dynamic, interactive online music services is changing all this.. The Internet based music services are offering listeners access to music on demand, and mostly for free, thus rapidly changing dynamics of music listening.The on-demand format of the Internet — getting what one wants when ones wants it — has gradually but definitely pulled the young listeners away from more traditional media like radio and print.
As the focus for media consumption turns more toward the Internet, people are looking for their online substitutes. The early version of the Internet radio was tough to listen to, but that was before the advent of broadband. Even the choice in terms of genre and artists was limited.

However, the jerky streams of initial Internet radio broadcasts have evolved considerably. No surprise, Internet radio is now very much in demand. Some opt to call it ‘music discovery’ or ‘social radio’. But the fact is that Internet radio has replaced the old, traditional radio.

The Internet radio services have made music-listening a much easier and pleasurable exercise. These services let you filter out what you do not wish to hear and tune to new things that you might not ever get to hear on the radio.
The issue is whether these services can compete with traditional form of radio, or vice versa.