RealAudio , also spelled Real Audio , is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs , ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can be used as a streaming audio format, that is played at the same time as it is downloaded.
57-632: In the past, many internet radio stations used RealAudio to stream their programming over the internet in real time. In recent years, however, the format has become less common and has given way to more popular audio formats. RealAudio was heavily used by the BBC websites until 2009, though it was discontinued due to its declining use. BBC World Service , the last of the BBC websites to use RealAudio, discontinued its use in March 2011. RealAudio files were originally identified by
114-441: A .smi or .smil file extension. However, SAMI files and Macintosh self mounting images also use .smi , which creates some ambiguity at first glance. As a result, SMIL files commonly use the .smil file extension to avoid confusion. SMIL was created during a time when structured data using XML was very popular and during a time when Internet Explorer was very popular. Thus "combining" SMIL with other markup languages
171-467: A voice browser , while combining SMIL with MusicXML would allow for the creation of infinitely-recombinable sequences of music sheets. Combining SMIL+VoiceXML or SMIL+MusicXML with RSS or Atom could be useful in the creation of an audible pseudo-podcast with embedded hyperlinks, while combining SMIL+SVG with VoiceXML and/or MusicXML would be useful in the creation of an automatically audio-enabled vector graphics animation with embedded hyperlinks. SMIL
228-450: A $ 50,000 "cap" on those fees with SoundExchange. However, DiMA and SoundExchange continue to negotiate over the per song, per listener fees. SoundExchange has also offered alternative rates and terms to certain eligible small webcasters, that allow them to calculate their royalties as a percentage of their revenue or expenses, instead of at a per performance rate. To be eligible, a webcaster had to have revenues of less than US$ 1.25 million
285-560: A 41 percent share. As of 2014, 47% of all Americans ages 12 and older—an estimated 124 million people—said they have listened to online radio in the last month, while 36% (94 million people) have listened in the last week. These figures are up from 45% and 33%, respectively, in 2013. The average amount of time spent listening increased from 11 hours, 56 minutes per week in 2013 to 13 hours 19 minutes in 2014. As might be expected, usage numbers are much higher for teens and younger adults, with 75% of Americans ages 12–24 listening to online radio in
342-402: A Last.fm employee, they were unable to participate because participation "may compromise ongoing license negotiations." SoundExchange , representing supporters of the increase in royalty rates, pointed out that the rates were flat from 1998 through 2005 (see above), without being increased to reflect cost-of-living increases. They also declared that if Internet radio is to build businesses from
399-616: A W3C Recommendation on 13 December 2005. n SMIL 2.1 includes a small number of extensions based on practical experience gathered using SMIL in the Multimedia Messaging System on mobile phones. SMIL 3.0 became a W3C Recommendation in December 2008. It was first submitted as a W3C Working draft on December 21, 2006. The last draft revision was released on October 6, 2008. Authoring and rendering tools for smilText and SMIL 3.0 PanZoom functionality : Demos A SMIL document
456-594: A W3C Recommendation on 9 August 2001. SMIL 2.0 introduced a modular language structure that facilitated integration of SMIL semantics into other XML-based languages. Basic animation and timing modules were integrated into Scalable Vector Graphics ( SVG ) and the SMIL modules formed a basis for Timed-Text . The modular structure made it possible to define the standard SMIL language profile and the XHTML+SMIL language profile with common syntax and standard semantics. SMIL 2.1 became
513-674: A filename extension of .ra (for Real Audio). In 1997, RealNetworks also began offering a video format called RealVideo. The combination of the audio and video formats was called RealMedia and used the file extension .rm . However, the latest version of RealProducer, Real's flagship encoder, reverted to using .ra for audio-only files, and began using .rv for video files (with or without audio), and .rmvb for VBR video files. The .ram (Real Audio Metadata) and .smil (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) file formats are sometimes encountered as links from web pages (see .Streaming Audio section below). The official player for RealMedia content
570-492: A proprietary protocol called PNA or PNM to send streaming audio data. RealNetworks later switched to the IETF standardized Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) but they use RTSP only to manage the connection. The actual audio data is sent with their own proprietary RDT protocol, which they initially kept secret. Recently, some specifications for the RDT protocol have been made public through
627-555: A wireless communication network connected to a switch packet network (the internet) via a disclosed source. Internet radio involves streaming media , presenting listeners with a continuous stream of audio that typically cannot be paused or replayed, much like traditional broadcast media; in this respect, it is distinct from on-demand file serving. Internet radio is also distinct from podcasting , which involves downloading rather than streaming. Internet radio services offer news, sports, talk, and various genres of music—every format that
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#1732868620604684-442: A year and stream less than 5 million "listener hours" a month (or an average of 6830 concurrent listeners). These restrictions would disqualify independent webcasters like AccuRadio , Digitally Imported , Club977 and others from participating in the offer, and therefore many small commercial webcasters continue to negotiate a settlement with SoundExchange. An August 16, 2008 Washington Post article reported that although Pandora
741-522: Is RealNetworks' RealPlayer SP , currently at version 16, and is available for various platforms in binary form. Several features of this program have proven controversial (most recently, RP11's ability to record unprotected streaming media from web sites), and many alternative players have been developed. RealNetworks initially tried to discourage development of alternative players by keeping their audio format secret. However, in recent years, RealNetworks has made efforts to be somewhat more open, and has founded
798-462: Is an XML-based application, and is a part of many Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) applications. SMIL can be combined with other XML-based specifications such as with SVG (as has been done with SVG animation ) and with XHTML (as done with HTML+TIME ). As of 2008 , the W3C Recommendation for SMIL is SMIL 3.0 . SMIL 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on 15 June 1998. SMIL 2.0 became
855-603: Is anticipated for use within Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) documents. SMIL is being implemented on handheld and mobile devices and has also spawned the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) which is a video and picture equivalent of Short Message Service (SMS). SMIL is also one of the underlying technologies used for " Advanced Content " in the (discontinued) HD DVD format for adding interactive content (menus etc.). The field of Digital Signage
912-439: Is available on traditional broadcast radio stations. Many Internet radio services are associated with a corresponding traditional (terrestrial) radio station or radio network , although low start-up and ongoing costs have allowed a substantial proliferation of independent Internet-only radio stations. The first Internet radio service was launched in 1993. As of 2017, the most popular Internet radio platforms and applications in
969-485: Is continuously transmitted serially (streamed) over the local network or internet in TCP or UDP packets , then reassembled at the receiver and played a second or two later. The delay is called lag , and is introduced at several stages of digital audio broadcasting. A local tuner simulation program includes all the online radios that can also be heard in the air in the city. In 2003, revenue from online streaming music radio
1026-574: Is embracing SMIL as a means of controlling dynamic advertising in public areas. Most commonly used web browsers have native support for SMIL, but it has not been implemented in Microsoft browsers. It was to be deprecated in Google Chrome, but it has now been decided to suspend that intent until alternatives are sufficiently developed. Other software that implement SMIL playback include: Media player boxes based on dedicated 1080p decoder chips such as
1083-438: Is identified by a four character code . Below is a list of the codecs and the version in which each was introduced: While the newest version of RealPlayer should be able to play any RealAudio file, other programs may not support all codecs. Internet radio Internet radio , also known as Online radio , web radio , net radio , streaming radio , e-radio and IP radio , is a digital audio service transmitted via
1140-935: Is similar in structure to an HTML document in that they are typically divided between an optional <head> section and a required <body> section. The <head> section contains layout and metadata information. The <body> section contains the timing information, and is generally composed of combinations of three main tags—sequential (" <seq> ", simple playlists), parallel (" <par> ", multi-zone/multi-layer playback) and exclusive (" <excl> ", event-triggered interrupts). SMIL refers to media objects by URLs , allowing them to be shared between presentations and stored on different servers for load balancing . The language can also associate different media objects with different bandwidth requirements. For playback scheduling, SMIL supports ISO-8601 wallclock() date/time specification to define begin/end events for playlists. SMIL files take either
1197-615: Is written in XML, and has similarities to HTML . Members of the World Wide Web Consortium (also known as the "W3C") created SMIL for streaming media presentations, and published SMIL 1.0 in June 1998. Many of these W3C members helped author several versions of SMIL specifications between 1996 (when the first multimedia workshops were hosted by the W3C) and 2008 (when SMIL 3.0 was published). SMIL
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#17328686206041254-489: The Helix Community project. By around 2004 the open-source MPlayer project developed a means of playing the RDT streams. In many cases, web pages do not link directly to a RealAudio file. Instead, they link to a .ram (Real Audio Metadata) or SMIL file. This is a small text file containing a link to the audio stream. When a user clicks on such a link, the user's web browser downloads the .ram or .smil file and launches
1311-523: The Helix Community , a collaborative open source project, to extend their media framework. When RealAudio was introduced, RealNetworks disclosed no technical details about the audio format or how it was encoded, but it was soon noticed that some of the audio codecs used in RealAudio were identical to those used in cellular telephones and digital television . As these formats had been described in detail in various technical papers and standards documents, it
1368-502: The Internet . Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means. It can either be used as a stand-alone device running through the Internet, or as a software running through a single computer. Internet radio is generally used to communicate and easily spread messages through the form of talk. It is distributed through
1425-838: The Copyright Royalty Board were required to pay to SoundExchange an annual, nonrefundable minimum fee of $ 500 for each channel and station, the fee for services with greater than 100 stations or channels being $ 50,000 annually. Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language ( SMIL ( / s m aɪ l / )) is a World Wide Web Consortium recommended Extensible Markup Language (XML) markup language to describe multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things. SMIL allows presenting media items such as text, images, video, audio, links to other SMIL presentations, and files from multiple web servers. SMIL markup
1482-487: The UK. For example, Ofcom has very strict rules about presenters endorsing products and product placement; being an Internet radio station they are free of this constraint. One of the large controversies regarding internet radio revolved around a dispute between regulators over the amount of royalties Internet radio stations had to pay out. The Copyright Royalty Board initially wanted internet radio stations to pay out 100% royalties to
1539-652: The US Copyright Royalty Board announced that "it will apply royalties to streaming net services based on revenue." Since then, websites like Pandora Radio , AccuRadio, Mog , 8tracks and recently Google Music have changed the way people discover and listen to music. The Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 expired in January 2016, ending a 10-year period in which smaller online radio stations, Live365 among them, could pay reduced royalties to labels. On January 31, 2016, webcasters who are governed by rules adopted by
1596-623: The US, more than one in seven persons aged 25–54 years old listen to online radio each week. In 2008, 13 percent of the American population listened to the radio online, compared to 11 percent in 2007. Internet radio functionality is also built into many dedicated Internet radio devices , which give an FM like receiver user experience. In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2012, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, iHeart Radio, and other subscription-based and free Internet radio services accounted for nearly one quarter (23 percent) of
1653-573: The United States, and Chrysalis in the United Kingdom, restrict listening to in-country due to music licensing and advertising issues. Internet radio is also suited to listeners with special interests, allowing users to pick from a multitude of different stations and genres less commonly represented on traditional radio. Internet radio is typically listened to on a standard home PC or similar device, through an embedded player program located on
1710-536: The advent of streaming RealAudio over HTTP, streaming became more accessible to a number of radio shows. One such show, TechEdge Radio in 1997, was broadcast in three formats – live on the radio, live from a RealAudio server and streamed from the web over HTTP. In 1998, the longest running internet radio show, The Vinyl Lounge , began netcasting from Sydney, Australia, from Australia's first Internet radio station, NetFM (www.netfm.net). In 1999, Australian telco "Telstra" launched The Basement Internet Radio Station but it
1767-485: The average weekly music listening time among consumers between the ages of 13 and 35, an increase from a share of 17 percent the previous year. As Internet-radio listening rose among the 13-to-35 age group, listening to AM/FM radio, which now accounts for 24 percent of music-listening time, declined 2 percentage points. In the 36-and-older age group, by contrast, Internet radio accounted for just 13 percent of music listening, while AM/FM radio dominated listening methods with
RealAudio - Misplaced Pages Continue
1824-417: The combination of multimedia-laden .smil files with RSS or Atom syndication would be useful for accessibility to audio-enabled podcasts by the deaf through Timed Text closed captions, and can also turn multimedia into hypermedia that can be hyperlinked to other linkable audio and video multimedia. VoiceXML can be combined with SMIL to provide a sequential reading of several pre-provided pages or slides in
1881-657: The concert by saying, "I want to say a special welcome to everyone that's, uh, climbed into the Internet tonight and, uh, has got into the M-bone . And I hope it doesn't all collapse." On November 7, 1994, WXYC (89.3 FM Chapel Hill, North Carolina , USA) became the first traditional radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet. WXYC used an FM radio connected to a system at SunSite, later known as Ibiblio , running Cornell's CU-SeeMe software. WXYC had begun test broadcasts and bandwidth testing as early as August 1994. WREK (91.1 FM, Atlanta , GA USA) started streaming on
1938-575: The first European radio station to broadcast its full program live on the Internet. It broadcast its FM signal, live from the source, simultaneously on the Internet 24 hours a day. On May 1, 1997, Radio306.com (now Pure Rock Radio ) launched in Saskatoon, Canada. The internet-only station purerockradio.net celebrated 20 years on air in 2017 as the longest-running Canadian internet station. Internet radio also provided new opportunities to mix music with advocacy messages. In February 1999, Zero24-7 Web Radio
1995-575: The initial public stock offering for Broadcast.com set a record at the time for the largest jump in price in stock offerings in the United States. The offering price was US$ 18 and the company's shares opened at US$ 68 on the first day of trading. The company was losing money at the time and indicated in a prospectus filed with the Securities Exchange Commission that they expected the losses to continue indefinitely. Yahoo! purchased Broadcast.com on July 20, 1999, for US$ 5.7 billion. With
2052-532: The last month, compared to 50% of Americans ages 25–54 and 21% of Americans 55+. The weekly figures for the same age groups were 64%, 37% and 13%, respectively. In 2015, it was recorded that 53% of Americans, or 143 million people, ages 12 and up currently listen to internet radio. Some stations, such as Primordial Radio , use Internet radio as a platform as opposed to other means such as FM or DAB , as it gives greater freedom to broadcast as they see fit, without being subject to regulatory bodies such as Ofcom in
2109-422: The latest advances in digital compression" and delivered "AM radio-quality sound in so-called real time." Eventually, companies such as Nullsoft and Microsoft released streaming audio players as free downloads. As the software audio players became available, "many Web-based radio stations began springing up." In 1995, Scott Bourne founded NetRadio.com as the world's first Internet-only radio network. NetRadio.com
2166-417: The musicians whose songs were played compared to the 15% that satellite radio stations had to pay. This disagreement was temporarily postponed when the webmaster act of 2008 and 2009 was passed. Internet radio was pioneered by Carl Malamud . In 1993, Malamud launched " Internet Talk Radio ", which was the "first computer-radio talk show, each week interviewing a computer expert". The first Internet concert
2223-466: The new rates, many smaller Internet radio stations will have to shut down." The Digital Media Association (DiMA) said that even large companies, like Yahoo! Music, might fail due to the proposed rates. Some observers said that some U.S.-based Internet broadcasts might be moved to foreign jurisdictions where US royalties do not apply. Many of these critics organized SaveNetRadio.org, "a coalition of listeners, artists, labels and webcasters" that opposed
2280-549: The product of recordings, the performers and owners of those recordings should receive fair compensation. On May 1, 2007, SoundExchange came to an agreement with certain large webcasters regarding the minimum fees that were modified by the determination of the Copyright Royalty Board . While the CRB decision imposed a $ 500 per station or channel minimum fee for all webcasters, certain webcasters represented through DiMA negotiated
2337-644: The proposed royalty rates. To focus attention on the consequences of the impending rate hike, many US Internet broadcasters participated in a "Day of Silence" on June 26, 2007. On that day, they shut off their audio streams or streamed ambient sound, sometimes interspersed with brief public service announcements voiced, written and produced by popular voiceover artist Dave Solomon. Notable participants included Rhapsody , Live365 , MTV , Pandora , Digitally Imported and SHOUTcast . Some broadcasters did not participate, such as Last.fm , which had just been purchased for US$ 280 million by CBS Music Group . According to
RealAudio - Misplaced Pages Continue
2394-520: The publicly available information about the formats, and do not use the RealPlayer or Helix software. It is also possible to obtain codecs which allow Windows Media Player to play some versions of RealAudio. Although RealNetworks has made the Helix player available as an open source project, they have kept some of the audio codecs proprietary, and the Helix player can not play all RealAudio files. RealAudio
2451-467: The respective station's website or on a smartphone app. In recent years, dedicated devices that resemble and offer the listener a similar experience to a traditional radio receiver have arrived on the market. Streaming technology is used to distribute Internet radio, typically using a lossy audio codec . Streaming audio formats include MP3 , Ogg Vorbis , Ogg Opus , Windows Media Audio , RealAudio , AAC and HE-AAC (or aacPlus ). Audio data
2508-566: The same day using their own custom software called CyberRadio1. However, unlike WXYC, this was WREK's beta launch and the stream was not advertised until a later date. On December 3, 1994, KJHK 90.7 FM, a campus radio station located in Lawrence, Kansas , at the University of Kansas , became one of the first radio stations in the world to broadcast a live and continuous stream over Internet radio. Time magazine said that RealAudio took "advantage of
2565-478: The same reasons. On September 30, 2008, the United States Congress passed "a bill that would put into effect any changes to the royalty rate to which [record labels and web casters] agree while lawmakers are out of session." Although royalty rates are expected to decrease, many webcasters nevertheless predict difficulties generating sufficient revenue to cover their royalty payments. In January 2009,
2622-470: The user's media player. The media player reads the PNM or RTSP URL from the file and then plays the stream. With RealPlayer SP , it is now possible to save an audio stream to a file. Other programs, including MPlayer , RM Downloader , VLC media player , StreamBox VCR , HiDownload and Real7ime Converter can also save streams to a file. RealAudio files are compressed using several audio codecs . Each codec
2679-681: The world include (but are not limited to) TuneIn Radio , iHeartRadio , and Sirius XM . In the U.S., unlike over-the-air broadcast radio, an FCC license is not required to operate an Internet radio service. Internet radio services are usually accessible from anywhere in the world with a suitable internet connection available; one could, for example, listen to an Australian station from Europe and America. This has made internet radio particularly suited to and popular among expatriate listeners. Nevertheless, some major networks like TuneIn Radio , Audacy , Pandora Radio , iHeartRadio and Citadel Broadcasting (except for news/talk and sports stations) in
2736-431: Was "one of the nation's most popular Web radio services, with about 1 million listeners daily...the burgeoning company may be on the verge of collapse" due to the structuring of performance royalty payment for webcasters. "Traditional radio, by contrast, pays no such fee. Satellite radio pays a fee but at a less onerous rate, at least by some measures." The article indicated that "other Web radio outfits" may be "doomed" for
2793-533: Was US$ 49 million. By 2006, that figure rose to US$ 500 million. A February 21, 2007 "survey of 3,000 Americans released by consultancy Bridge Ratings & Research" found that "[a]s much as 19% of U.S. consumers 12 and older listen to Web-based radio stations." In other words, there were "some 57 million weekly listeners of Internet radio programs. More people listen to online radio than to satellite radio, high-definition radio, podcasts, or cell-phone-based radio combined." An April 2008 Arbitron survey showed that, in
2850-604: Was a pioneer in Internet radio. It was the first Internet-only network to be licensed by ASCAP. NetRadio eventually went on to an IPO in October 1999. Most of the current Internet radio providers followed the path that NetRadio.com carved out in digital media. In mid December 1995, Vancouver-based AM radio station CKNW became the first commercial radio station in Canada to stream 24/7 over the internet. In March 1996, Virgin Radio – London became
2907-482: Was broadcast on June 24, 1993, by the band Severe Tire Damage . In March 1994, an unofficial automated rebroadcast of Irish radio news was setup as the RTE To Everywhere Project, allowing Irish people across the world daily access to radio news from home until it was rendered obsolete in 1998. In November 1994, a Rolling Stones concert was the "first major cyberspace multicast concert." Mick Jagger opened
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#17328686206042964-487: Was considered one of the best current practices of the day. SMIL is one of three means by which SVG animation can be achieved (the others being JavaScript and CSS animations ). While RSS and Atom are web syndication methods, with the former being more popular as a syndication method for podcasts , SMIL is potentially useful as a script or playlist that can tie sequential pieces of multimedia together and can then be syndicated through RSS or Atom. In addition,
3021-523: Was developed as a streaming media format, meaning that it can be played while it is downloaded. It is possible to stream RealAudio using HTTP . In this case, the RealAudio file is retrieved similarly to a normal web page, but playback begins as soon as the first part is received and continues while the rest of the file is downloaded. Using HTTP streaming works best with pre-recorded files so some alternative protocols have been developed which work better for live broadcasts. The first version of RealAudio used
3078-480: Was later shut down in 2003 as it was not a viable business for the company. From 2000 onwards, most Internet radio stations increased their stream quality as bandwidth became more economical. Today , most stations stream between 64 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s providing near CD quality audio. As of 2017 the mobile app Radio Garden , a research project of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision ,
3135-422: Was launched. It was the first Internet radio station to be crowdsourced and programmed by professional broadcasters and crowdfunded by a unique partnership of people, charities and businesses. Out of Washington DC, the station mixed progressive music and green messages. It was created by BBC and WHFS veteran Mark Daley . Internet radio attracted significant media and investor attention in the late 1990s. In 1998,
3192-563: Was possible to write software capable of playing RealAudio based on this information. A variety of unofficial players now exist, including MPlayer , and Real Alternative . However, Real Alternative does not decode the audio data by itself, but relies on the dynamically linked libraries (DLLs) from the official RealPlayer. Thus Real Alternative requires RealPlayer to be installed (or at least its DLLs) in order to function. Most other players are based on FFmpeg , which has its own audio codec library. The audio codecs in ffmpeg were written based on
3249-879: Was streaming approximately 8,000 radio stations to a global audience. In October 1998, the US Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), one result of which is that performance royalties are to be paid for satellite radio and Internet radio broadcasts in addition to publishing royalties. In contrast, traditional radio broadcasters pay only publishing royalties and no performance royalties. A rancorous dispute ensued over how performance royalties should be assessed for Internet broadcasters. Some observers said that royalty rates that were being proposed were overly burdensome and intended to disadvantage independent Internet-only stations —that "while Internet giants like AOL may be able to afford
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