Abstract
This article discusses the main aspects of the functioning of Internet radio stations, analyzes the current content of these media, and outlines the prospects for the development of this broadcasting format. The purpose of the work is to identify the features of modern online formats in the field of mass communications, to describe the content and functional aspects of the development of online radio. Research objectives: to study the historical prerequisites for the appearance of radio; to trace the evolution in terms of the content of this type of media (ideological, musical, advertising topics); to identify the differences between official radio and commercial and «‘pirate»’, to study the features of their functioning that contributed to the formation of network radio; to describe the mechanisms inherent in Internet radio (interactivity, podcasting, streaming, creativity); to present a comparative aspect of modern radio formats (MP3, online radio, FM). Based on the comparative analysis conducted by criteria such as: the nature of the audience (its age, number of listeners), musical preferences, perception methods, additional user capabilities, the authors concluded that online radio has certain features: more individualized, focused on its own (youth) audience, has online streaming.