Streaming sound stops on switch to console

[chipschap]

I'm running Mint 13 Mate. I often stream audio from Firefox via sites such as sky.fm. But when I ctrl-alt-F1 to go to a console audio stops until I actually log in! It then starts up again. It will also resume when I ctrl-alt-F8 back to X-Windows. Similarly if I'm in console 1, logged in with audio resumed, if I go to console 2 audio stops again until logged in.

This doesn't happen on my (somewhat older) Ubuntu 10.04 systems; audio continues to play as I would have expected.

I've researched and can't find anything. Of course the simple workaround is merely to log in--- why else go to a console--- but this does seem strange.