A year ago Web based audio was solely the province of the devoted fans - those people with the bandwidth and the patience to tolerate the download time necessary to receive a full-fat "wav" file. Now the wait is over.

RealAudio3.0 has been released by Progressive Networks and solves the problem of audio delays by offering streamed audio. In practical terms this means that audio files can be played while they download - allowing almost instant playback.

Unlike other World Wide Web technologies, RealAudio was designed to work over low speed network connections and, consistently, it does work - even over a 14.400 modem.

What RealAudio has to offer comes in several parts - most significantly the RealAudio Server, Player and Encoder. Individually these elements represent impressive technologies. Collectively these tools are the first wave of the inevitable streaming-media shift that is the next step for the World Wide Web.