Do you know the three top rated internet radio stations in North America? You may be curious about the metrics used to determine an internet radio station's rating. The technology in use and the means whereby data is measured and evaluated for internet radio stations is quite fascinating.

Ando Media is a company that helps internet radio station gauge their performance and at the same time converts their audience to sales. Some of the web metric technology developed by this company includes Webcast Metrics, Ad Injector and PodLoc. It was formed 6 years ago and has been acquired by Triton Media Group just last year. Just recently, it released its ranking for August, the latest that they have so far which is based on the results given by Webcast Metrics platform. Using a platform to monitor audience data, Webcast Metrics enables Ando Media to convert this data to metrics which makes it easier for station, publishers and advertisers to understand. Following, is a list of the three most listened to internet radio stations.

The number one position is owned by CBS Radio Inc. which includes AOL Radio and Yahoo LaunchCast registered to have 160,741 average active sessions. CBS Radio is the largest radio broadcasting company in the United States with in excess of 100 stations. It is part of a bigger family of CBS Corporation. Its name and affiliations have been altered over the years.

The second slot belongs to Digitally Imported Inc., it has sixty four thousand average active sessions. This company was one of the pioneers in the internet radio broadcasting industry which has been branded as one of the best electronic dance music radio stations on the internet. It has 32 streaming music channels that play various types of dance songs.

Last but not least, sitting at third rank with 51,419 average active sessions is 977Music.com. Both an online music and online radio station network, it provides eleven streaming internet radio stations playing the hits of the fifties up to the present. Considering, that it has the least number of stations available, it must have the most number of average active sessions per station compared to the two highest ranked stations. This rounds out the top three free online music stations.

Apart from the listening experience, 977music has integrated a social networking platform which allows its members to connect with each other sharing their passion for music. Each member is able to create his or her own social media profile and can include a playlist of his or her favorite songs on this profile. There is also a blog section where you can get just the essential information about the music you like as well as the top artist list and their biography for you to learn more about them.

Average active sessions is the main metric used to rank each station, it is the number of listeners that are simultaneously listening to a given station. This data is averaged, over a specific time period to yield the average active sessions metric.

With these metrics, each station's performance can be measured and compared to other stations or to its own performance from a different time period.