The most banal way to distribute Internet radio is via streaming technology using a lossy audio codec. Popular streaming audio formats include MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Cable Audio, RealAudio and HE-AAC (sometimes called aacPlus). The bits are "streamed" (transported) over the network in TCP or UDP packets, then reassembled and played within seconds. (The delay is referred to as Internet Radio lag time.)

Some of the first Internet-only commercial radio stations emerged in 1995. NetRadio "was lone of the Internet's original Webcasters," eventually "streaming exceeding than 100 channels including both music and spoken material." Nonetheless, NetRadio Corporation ceased operations in 2001.