The vast majority of stations streaming at the moment use 32k bitrate, but over the last week or so Clear Channel owned stations in San Francisco such as Wild 94.9 and Star 101.3 have upped their bitrate to 64k.So why is bitrate important for streaming? When you compare the station output on FM to the Internet stream with 32k bitrate, the difference in sound quality is noticeable. Previously, when most Internet listening came through rubbish computer speakers then this wasn't an issue. But now as listeners become more sophisticated by hooking their PCs up to stereo systems, using Internet radios or listening through headphones at work, sound quality is more important. Most people rip their CDs at 128k bitrate or more and songs purchased through iTunes use the aac encoding to deliver superior fidelity, meanwhile streams of terrestrial FM radio stations are sound more like AM stations with less hiss.
Internationally, most European stations stream at 64k or more. For example in London, UK, Capital Radio, XFM, Choice FM and Virgin Radio all stream at 128k, while Heart 106.2, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 all stream at 64k.So, will more North American stations catch up to their European peers and improve the quality of their streams?
