The rapid growth of Internet radio is undeniable. According to Edison Media Research 33 million Americans listen to a radio station over the Internet during an average week and AccuStream iMedia Research reports that online radio music generated 4.85 billion total listening hours in 2007, up 26.1% over 2006. I personally listen to Internet radio at least 12 hours a day and find it a very powerful tool for discovering new artists.

Radio airplay has been used as one of the primary ways to promote an artist and their music since the beginning of the industry. Record labels developed large radio promotions departments and / or hired independent radio promoters to develop relationships with influential Program Directors securing airplay for their artists. Independent artists have long been all but locked out of terrestrial radio airplay and its promotional benefits. The ongoing shrinkage of niche stations, specialty shows and local decision making for programming have further reduced opportunities for artists who fall outside the mainstream or don’t have the support of a major label.

Internet radio now provides independent artists with unprecedented access to a large and growing audience and promotional opportunities that had only been available to label backed artists. Many of the leading Internet radio stations accept submissions directly from artists so there is no need to incur the cost of hiring a radio promotions person or firm to work a new release to Internet radio stations.

While some stations offer centrally programmed channels many Internet radio stations allow their users to create custom radio stations based on their preferences. Some of the more popular Internet radio stations have developed powerful recommendation engines that, with the help of the listener community ratings, assist their users in discovering new music. With Internet radio the programming power largely resides with the user community instead of a Program Director. Social networking components on some sites allow members to build profiles, add friends, share favorites and discover new music through friend recommendations and by joining groups. The social networking aspect of Internet radio also provides artists a great way to connect directly with their fans by sharing their favorite music, building their own stations or adding unreleased tracks.

Musicians in niche genres (say zydeco or death metal) who have traditionally had the least opportunity with radio now have a great opportunity to be heard by fans of their specific genre. With Internet radio fans of unique or niche genres can easily search groups, genre lists or stations and artist tags to find and discover new artists. Suddenly being in a niche genre becomes an advantage since it’s much easier for that artist to be found or standout than it is for their contemporaries in much more crowded genres like pop or country music.

Internet radio is a very powerful promotional tool but it can also help artists actually make money from their music as well. Several of the Internet radio stations feature a “buy” button next to the track while it’s playing. The button links to a digital retailer like iTunes or Amazon. Providing music fans the option of immediately buying the track they really like is an opportunity many (myself included) have a hard time passing up.

Additionally, much like songwriters and publishers can get paid through ASCAP, BMI or SESAC for airplay on terrestrial radio, Soundexchange pays royalties directly to performing artists (and copyright holders) for tracks streamed on Internet Radio. The royalty payments for Internet radio are based on actual plays or streams and not estimates like terrestrial radio royalties. Artists and sound recording copyright holders must register with Soundexchange to receive payment. Millions of dollars in royalties from digital music services have been collected but not yet paid out simply due to the lack of a mailing address for many artists. If you are a recording artist and / or copyright holder please register at Soundexchange today!

There are an untold number of Internet radio options currently available. Below are a few worth checking out who have a large listener / user base and accept submission directly from independent artists. If there are other stations we should add to this list please let us know.

AOL Radio:Mail Submissions To

AOL Radio
Pete Schiecke
770 Broadway 4th Floor
New York, NY 10003 USA

Last.FM: Artists can build their own profile page and directly upload their music

Pandora: Mail Submissions To

Music Genome Project Submissions
360 22nd St. Suite 440
Oakland, CA, 94612 USA

Yahoo / Launchcast: Mail Submissions To