Streaming Media

Streaming is a method of transmitting online audio and video files for immediate playback, in which playback begins even before all of the file's data packets have traveled over the Internet to the user's computer. This characteristic makes streaming media distinct from downloadable media, which is slower to launch and requires that files be downloaded completely before they can be seen or heard, which in turn requires large storage capacity on the end user's computer. With streaming, the only thing that is downloaded is a small buffer file that takes about ten seconds to arrive over most Internet connections; the buffer prevents playback delays that can otherwise result from network congestion. No part of a streaming media file is stored on the user's receiving device, which again makes it different from downloadable formats such as MP3, .WAV, and .AIFF. Streaming media can be delivered from Web or intranet media servers, across broadband channels such as cable and digital subscriber (DSL) lines, or via satellite and can be received and played on everything from PCs and laptops to cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

The term “streaming” was used in the early 1990s to refer to a method of online information delivery that allowed text to appear on Web pages quickly. Graphics were allowed to fill in more slowly afterward. This innovation was first used by Netscape in its early Web browsers, allowing Web surfers to read articles on a page while waiting for data-heavy images to show up over slow-loading dial-up modems. However, in 1994, ex-Microsoft executive Rob Glaser redefined the term to name the data-compression and delivery model for audio and video that allows rich media files to play while many of the file's packets are still traveling over the Internet to their destination. Before the launch of Progressive Networks' first RealAudio player in 1995, streaming in this sense was impossible. Audio and video files had to show up in their entirety to work, much in the same way that email attachments still function. And with the modems of the time, multimedia delivery was painfully slow. Streaming media worked almost instantly, and as a result quickly found a large audience after the July 1995 launch of RealAudio 1.0 and its Real media servers.

RealAudio heralded a new phase in the development of the Internet. Soon after its release, radio stations began popping up all over the Internet—both standard “terrestrial” stations that simply streamed their on-air signals over the Internet, and numerous online-only radio competitors. Before long, television stations, educators, and online retailers like http://Amazon.com and http://CDNow.com all began using streaming media as a genuine multimedia platform on the Internet. Musicians started giving live concerts for Web-only audiences. Movie studios began streaming their promotional trailers online. For the first time, the Internet had become, at a practical level, more than just text and still pictures.

Despite streaming media's popularity, however, the relatively high cost of producing quality video and audio, and fear among advertisers and media companies about supporting it prior to wide consumer broadband Internet adoption, have combined to stifle the development of solid streaming-media business models. At the same time, the streaming-media model is being challenged by the very format it was designed to overtake, downloadable media. So-called “fast download” services such as the peer-to-peer file-sharing systems (which include Morpheus and KaZaA), and commercial subscription services such as RealNetworks' own MusicNet and the record-label venture Pressplay (the latter two of which combine streaming and downloading services), have proven to be a big business challenge to companies hoping to ride the streaming-media wave to newfound riches.

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