Analogue audio will become extinct in the near future. Although sound in nature and our own hearing is analogue, the capturing, storage and transmission of analogue sound is difficult without losing quality. For example, if one keeps making copies of an audio tape, the quality gets worse every time; in the same way, each time analogue sound is modified or retransmitted, it loses quality. Digital audio uses a binary code representation of the continuous stream of data. Once in this form, it can be modified in any way without any degradation of the original sound. One can make copies of copies with digital audio, and the hundredth will be exactly like the first.

The great advantage of digital audio with respect to radio is the possibility of listener interactivity. Currently, any interactivity is limited by the inability of the individual talk to the othe

r end of a radio transmission chain. When one switches stations on our radio, there is no interaction, we are simply selecting from a series of predefined options, just like changing channels on television. If you switch from one station to another, none of the stations know about it, and can do nothing to make their programming more interesting than their competition.

The Internet has no such limitations, from the ground up; it was designed as a mass communications medium that was two ways. With the Internet, there is no broadcaster or receiver and you can easily talk back to the content providers, or become one. The only downside to the Internet is availability; in today's world, Internet content is about as accessible as radio content was in its early days. The Internet and its content are largely available through a large, ungainly box, usually in the corner of the living room.

Today's broadcasters need to become collectors of information about the listeners and act as a source for the listener to tap into whenever they wish. The consumer is then no longer confined to the content that the broadcaster has picked for them, but content that the listener has decided that he or she wishes to hear, and at a time when they choose to listen.

As the Internet begins to permeate the classic places for radio to be used, radio will have to adapt to remain in use. The most likely way for this adaptation to occur

Some common words found in the essay are:
Internet Mode, Internet Analogue, Internet Internet, , digital audio, internet content, radio pictures, mass communications, analogue sound, begun broadcast,
Approximate Word count = 959
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)