"Agent Radio" is the music of the future: one inexpensive piece of software which will replace all radio stations, audio-CD's and electronic concerts. The principle is simple: in the near future, all kinds of music pieces, spoken texts and other sounds will be accessible through the internet. "Agent Radio" downloads random selections from this material, and presents an audio-mix of its selection. Depending on its selection criteria and its mixing style, "Agent Radio" can generate a wide variety of different kinds of soundscapes, from drunken parties to soothing environments or austere electronic music -- and all these different kinds of soundscapes will be ever-changing and unpredictable, because the material on the net is virtually infinite and always expanding.

If radio-broadcasting as we know it continues to exist, a substantial part of the available bandwidth should be devoted to "Agent"-style automatic stations, which transmit an intelligent mix of the sounds of the world through the local airwaves. It is obvious that most listeners would find this more satisfying than the current garbage.

But to the extent that the radio audience will gain high-bandwidth access to the internet, "Agent Radio" will start to show its true potential: it will enable everyone to listen to their own, customized radio programs. Everyone with a cable-modem can run their own copy of "Agent Radio", and will be able to change the selection criteria and the mixing style of this copy to their own preferred settings. In this way, everyone can create their own, personalized sound stream -- a sound stream which does not reiterate one boring commercial playlist, but which keeps actively searching the net for relevant sound files, and keeps combining these in different ways.

The time has come for people to stop their slavish submission to a few mindless radio-makers and cynical media-moguls. With "Agent Radio", everyone can have their own radio station!