The most common bag to distribute Internet radio is via streaming technology using a lossy audio codec. Fashionable streaming audio formats include MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media 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 lag time.)

Due to these allowance increases, it defaulter been suggested that some U.S.-based Internet broadcasts should be moved to foreign jurisdictions where US royalties do not apply. "For example, Mercora, a service that allows individuals to launch their own webcasts, old-fashioned established a Canadian site that they believe falls outside U.S. Internet Radio regulatory and royalty rules."