OK - since I can’t afford to buy a new XM radio system, what’s the best free Internet radio “station?” I’m looking for something that offers a good selection of stations, everything from good jazz to 70’s rock to classical to blues to bluegrass.
Recommendations?
iTunes.
Hmm — looking at iTunes — I’m not looking for a download site, but rather something that I can tune into in the same way that I would a radio station and just listen to the songs, with, say, a 70s channel, a jazz channel, etc. iTunes looks like all they offer is downloads unless I’m missing something?
There’s a radio section in the iTunes player. It has a wide selection of streams.
iTunes has a couple of “Sources” for where to pull audio. The “Radio” source section has internet radio stations in the following catagories:
[ul]50s/60s Pop
70s/80s Pop
Alt/Modern Rock
Ambient
Americana
Blues
Classic Rock
Classical
Country
Eclectic
Electronica
Hard Rock / Metal
International
Jazz
Public
Reggae/Island
Religious
Talk/Spoken Word
Top 50/Pop
Urban[/ul]
I’m not sure how fleshed out each is because all I ever go to is Alt/Modern Rock and then to WOXY (Miami, OH).
Also a big fan of iTunes radio, thanks to Mr. Whitta. Broad range of genres, lots of commercial free stations…
http://www.spinner.com has a nice variety of channels. Dunno if much has changed since they’ve been bought by Netscape, tho.
Ah, now that I’ve d/led the iTunes player I see the radio stations. It is a little limited in range (I’m a picky sob ;) ) But not bad. I’ll check out those other sites also. Thanks.
Actually, it’s now “Radio@Netscape Plus, powered by spinner” and it has a pretty nice interface and choice. I actually like its radio station selections a little better than iTunes. Shoutcast has a LOT of selections, but they’re pretty variable in quality and a lot of them were really slow to load.
Shoutcast as well for me. Either the super slut, groove salad or one the jazz or classical channels.
You may not know the answer to this, but I wonder if these days Shoutcast can do streaming well with low bandwidth connections?
I used to work at RealNetworks and always remember Shoutcast as the poor man’s streaming media server. Their big limitation was being unable to stream good quality sound without huge amounts of bandwidth, but this was years ago.
You may not know the answer to this, but I wonder if these days Shoutcast can do streaming well with low bandwidth connections?
I used to work at RealNetworks and always remember Shoutcast as the poor man’s streaming media server. Their big limitation was being unable to stream good quality sound without huge amounts of bandwidth, but this was years ago.[/quote]
It’s not that bad.
Also, slightly OT, but Winamp 5’s “Internet TV” is incredible.
Cool, I threw out the old (and long untouched) spinner software and got the new stuff. Very nice!
You mean Oxford, Ohio, right?
Miami is the University in Oxford, at least for the time I went there. ;)
Do any of them have J-Pop channels?
Do any of them have J-Pop channels?
Shoutcast has practically everything, and I think I saw a J-pop channel there once.
Winamp 5 links to plenty of radio stations too. I spend a lot of time with Smoothjazz and its ilk, plus Japan-A-Radio.
It’s the local Monroe Community College (Rochester NY) radio station. Plays excellent “modern alternative” (whatever that means) music. You need real player to listen which is kind of a pain, but besides that it is a really good station. It is very professional and un-college like for a station sponsored by the local community college. It also has a large broadcast area for us locals.
It’s funny, last month I received a number of radio station based marketing surveys, the pollsters seemed confused when I told them that I didn’t listen to any commercial stations. The two stations I listen to are the local npr affiliate and WBER. Commerical radio really is a waste land these days.