iTunes: Where to find internet radio stations
One-hundred and seventeen public stations can’t scratch your itch? Just gotta have an Algerian Cultural fix? We’ve gotcha covered with four unique services and one iTunes plugin designed to track down music from around the corner and around the world. And, with one withering on the vine exception, all of these are free as in speech or beer.
So, fire up iTunes and Safari; let’s get started.
ShoutCast
Hundreds of stations available in bit rates from dial-up friendly 28K right on up to 256K “CD quality.” And while some stations will ask for donations and others have advertising, this is radio so it’s free—the way it should be.
Also, when you click a ShoutCast “Tune In” link, it automatically opens in iTunes—brilliant!
RadioTower.com
A web resource for finding terrestrial and internet radio stations throughout the US. On the whole, you won’t be able to click once and play—it takes a little more effort with this service to find the iTunes-friendly .pls or mpu links. But, you’ll find US stations here that you won’t find in anywhere else.
Live-Radio.net
Like RadioTower, this station location website will generally take you more than a single click to track down these stations’ .pls or mpu links. Further, there are quite a few dead and/or out-of-date links.
However, this website lists international radio stations, and I encourage you to dig in and keep trying. For example, I tried a half-dozen African stations before I found one that was active—Radio Dzair—from Algeria that features local music with a deep dish blend of Arab, North African and French influences. Very cool.
Only kinda work…
Live365
Great selection of stations, effectively a web-based player (ie the stand-alone player seems to be useless and hasn’t been updated since June, 2004) and it’s not free. Yes, you can get a 35-hour trial, but after that you’ll be expected to pay at least $5.95. Pay for radio? Puh-leeze…
Live365 is in sorry need of a major update (or a mercy killing).
iRadioMast
The only iTunes radio plugin and it instantly adds thousands of stations to Apple’s industry-leading media player. The catch? It’s not Leopard compatible!
Although I’m a great fan of free, independent internet radio only rocks if we support it, so why not donate $5 to your Top 5 favorite stations? It’s only $25 to you, but it could make all the difference to a broadcaster struggling to pay the RIAA and keep his kids in school.
Do you know of other great sources for internet radio URLs and information? Please share it below…
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November 12th, 2008
you can also try my site at : http://www.radio-internet.com