| In 1995, Progressive Networks released RealAudio as a free download.
Time magazine said that RealAudio took "advantage of 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 the U.S., Knitting Factory and the House of Blues have been at the forefront of the digital nightclub revolution by preaching the gospel of the Internet since their launches. (House of Blues Webcast a concert in 1995, before it even had inner-office e-mail.) The company launched its first Web site in 1994, and produced its first streaming event — Stevie Wonder, Chuck D, and the Blind Boys of Alabama live from the Sunset Strip — on Martin Luther King Day in January of 1995 using CUseeMe technology. July 24th 1995, Benford Standley and Doug Weston and company at the world famous Troubadour produced one of the first audio and video webcast just following the lead of House of Blues and RealAudio's ventures at webcasting... |
