TV & Music TechnoGeek: September 2013

September 23, 2013

The Best Internet Radio Stations of 2013

August, 2013, By Paul Gil, About.com Guide

This list is randomly ordered. Many items on this list are 'hubs' of radio stations with multiple channels. This changing list is compiled from reader suggestions. The evaluation criteria is a subjective blend of music selection size, ease of use, friendly navigation, availability, system requirements, and convenience of service. Nominate your own favorite radio stations here. Be warned: Internet radio does consume significant bandwidth over the hours. Streaming music is best listened to at home where you have a large or unlimited bandwidth allotment on DSL or cable.

1. Grooveshark: Self-Directed Radio

Grooveshark is a real crowd pleaser! It is not a conventional Internet radio station where a DJ or database designs the playlists. Instead, you choose your own songs with the playlist creator. But much more than your own computer, there are hundreds of thousands of songs to choose from at Grooveshark. If you're willing to put in ten minutes of effort to design your own playlist, Grooveshark will not disappoint. Advertising is a sidebar of visual ads on the right, which can be removed for 3 dollars per month.

2. Spotify

(Spotify.com)

Spotify is arguably the best free music service available today. While Spotify is limited to the USA, Spain, the UK,and parts of Europe at this time (sorry, Canadians and the rest of you), it's already a massive hit with listeners. As they surmount music licensing challenges, Spotify hopes to expand into other countries soon.
As for the service itself: Spotify is a fast and reliable radio system that outstrips the competition. Spotify differentiates itself from iTunes and Pandora by behaving as a massive external hard drive (i.e. it plays full songs and albums as if you owned the CD). As a recommendation and discovery tool, Spotify also stands out: it reads your own music collection and playlists from your hard drives, and then suggests new releases, top-10 lists, and your friends' music lists. The interface is clean, and the search box is very convenient.
The service is free and unlimited for six months. After that, users can continue to receive free music with some limitations on number of hours, or else they can subscribe for five dollars a month.
Definitely try Spotify.com.

3. Canadian Web Radio

This is not a destination service, like the other items in this list. Rather, this is a compilation of links to traditional Canadian radio stations that also stream their shows across the Web. If you are curious to listen to what Canadians are listening to, and talking about, check out the music and talk shows at this Canadian radio hub. Special thanks to the About.com readers in Alberta who sent in this suggestion.

4. Maestro.fm

Like Last.FM, Maestro is about social networking with other music fans. You can trade playlists, follow user discussions on music genres, and discover new artists through conversations. You can even store some of your music at their remote storage site. If you like Facebook and Last.FM, do give Maestro a try.

5. AcousticAlternative.com

Not just acoustic, but also alternative, Charlestown, Ska, punk, and other genres can be found at Acoustic Alternative. AA is not as popular as other stations on this list, but the readers who have recommend Acoustic Alternative really like it.

6. Pirate Radio Network

Pirate Radio Network offers two different means of listening to their broadcasts: via web tuner or via a downloadable special player. Hundrds of music genres abound here, and you're bound to discover new music that you will like at Pirate Radio Network. For those of you who use a PC: you can even make your own radio station and start broadcasting yourself as an amateur DJ. You will have to install a software package to try this, but it's definitely worth trying if you've ever wanted to DJ.

7. Last.fm

Social networking is strong at Last.FM: you can connect with other users and trade suggestions and friendly banter. You can vote that you 'love' or 'hate' a particular artist or song. The recommendation will even try to help you choose songs by taking your favorites and extrapolating from there. The service does cost 3 dollars per month, and sometimes it feels like Facebook, but Last.FM is a crowd pleaser. Try it and decide for yourself if you agree with the thousands of users who frequent this site.

8. 'The Inferno' Radio

The Inferno specializes in 'eclectic' listening: blending many different genres into a single playlist. David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga, Kid Rock, Led Zeppelin, Cyndi Lauper... playlists that are compiled by both DJ's and user music requests. If you have broad tastes in music, The Inferno might be a good radio station for you.

9. SHOUTcast by Nullsoft

SHOUTcast is a massive selection of individual radio stations (over 700 pages worth). In fact, there are so many stations here, it is intimidating to even find one in the first place. But if you like niche music that is hard to find, definitely try SHOUTcast. Gothic metal from the 90's, big band swing remixes, German synth music... if there is a place to find niche music, it would be here at SHOUTcast.

10. Pandora

Pandora uses a form of low-level artificial intelligence: it tries to learn what your music habits are, and then suggests new music that you might like. The 'recommendation engine' behind Pandora is still very new, and uses arguably shallow criteria for deciding the DNA of a song. But thousands of users love Pandora, and if you live in the USA, definitely try this service. Sorry, American computers only... machines outside the USA will be blocked. Copyright agreements are annoying, yes.

11. Nu-Perception Radio

If you like drum, bass, jungle, and very deep percussion, then you're bound to like Nu-Perception. Rave fans and trance fans consistently bookmark this site as a destination of choice for their mad beats and hard-driving rhythms!

12. Real Radio

Real Radio is a blend of paid and free straming stations. It's cumbersome to find the free choices, and some of them require you to download and install RealPlayer software, but Real does offer some solid music choices. The interface is easy to use, many stations will let you play with Windows Media Player, and thousands of users do bookmark this site as a favorite. Definitely give it a 30 minute try to see if you like Real Radio.

13. Accuradio

Accuradio is a solid music destination, having proven itself over the years. It outputs high quality sound (for those of you with high-end sound hardware). It is very configurable by genre, artist, even instrument. It has a fabulous selection of radio channels/stations. If you can ignore the large real estate consumed by advertising, Accuradio is a definite top choice for music fans.

14. 977 Music

977 Music is another one of many social networking radio station hubs. There is plenty of visual advertising, so this site has good funding behind it. 11 individual channels are offered. The big appeal is the Facebook-type aspect of this, where you can meet other music fans who share your tastes. While 977 Music is not a standout service, it does have a solid following of users, and was recommended by at least About.com readers to be included in this list.

15. Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music used to be one of the kings of Internet radio in 2004-2005. It has lost popularity to other names like Pandora, but Yahoo! is still a darn good destination for music. Users like the streaming video options, along with the information on artists and current events news. Give Yahoo! Music a try for at least 15 minutes as you find a radio station for yourself.

16. Live365

Hundreds of individual radio channels, an immense breadth of music genres, and minimal advertising = a good Internet radio station. The interface is a little cumbersome at first, and it isn't as clean as Rip Rock and other stations, but definitely give Live365 a try.

17. RIPROCK Radio

This is a very stylish single-channel site dedicated to the classic rock FM culture of years past. Rip Rock blends all the recognizable FM classics from the rock genres with new and obscure pieces. Van Halen, Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, The Police, 38 Special, and more. Requests are taken by the email engine, and there is a charming basement-studio flavor to this station. If you are new to Internet radio, but know FM rock radio from your youth, then definitely check out Rip Rock Radio.

18. Radioparadise.com

The Wailin' Jennys, Spoon, Gustavo Santaolalla, Basement Jaxx, Pearl Jam, Norah Jones: these are some of the artists you'll hear played at this listener-supported radio station. Sound quality is controlled by you, (16k to 192k bitrates, to allow for bandwidth restriction on your connection). There are even live DJ's providing commentary and voice interaction, just like an FM or AM radio station. If you like the sounds of Radioparadise, you can support their operations by buying their nifty merchandise.

Source: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/multimedia/tp/The-Best-Internet-Radio-Stations.htm

September 10, 2013

5 Lightweight Music Players That Don’t Sacrifice Features

By Joel Lee. Over the past year or so, I’ve made a conscious effort to search around the web and find the best free music players out there. Time and time again, I find myself coming back to my tried and trusty Foobar2000, but every once in a while I wonder if there might be anything even better. In terms of sheer power, yes, there are great programs like MediaMonkey and MusicBee, but is there anything both awesome and lightweight?
Let me first define what I mean by lightweight: good performance even on older systems, does not suck up loads of CPU while running, and requires no more than 75 MB of RAM. Foobar2000 fulfills those requirements with flying colors, but for some reason or another, you may not like Foobar2000. Personally, I’m just bored looking at the same music player day in and day out. Won’t you join me as I explore these high-performance alternatives?

GOM Audio [Windows]

GOM Audio is a lesser known music player that shares a lot of similarities with players like Winamp, a media player so popular I probably don’t need to elaborate, and AIMP3, which you can find further down on this list. Right out of the box, GOM Audio is slick, clean, and presents itself with a warm theme that’s best described as inviting. Coming from the same developers behind GOM Video, you can be sure that GOM Audio will deliver the same level of polish.
I installed GOM Audio for the first time a few months ago and I still use it on a regular basis. It comes equipped with playlists, an equalizer, a flexible interface, skinning, and a plugin system for extensibility. It does NOT have a library feature so don’t expect to manage your music with GOM Audio – it’s just a music player.
For a deeper look at this program, check out our GOM Audio review.

AIMP3 [Windows]

AIMP3 is a music player that reminds me heavily of Winamp, except much cleaner and more modern. The interface is a bit more sophisticated without being more complicated and the whole thing just feels more complete to me. The base program is feature-complete as is, but with the plugin system, you can extend functionality even further.
A wonderful feature of AIMP3 is the Audio Library, which opens up and allows you to manage all of your music files with ease. Another great feature is the Tag Editor, which can be a bit daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be keeping your music organized left and right. For someone who’s as obsessive about music tags as me, the Tag Editor is a godsend.
For a deeper look at this program, check out our AIMP3 review.

Nightingale [Windows, Mac, Linux]

Nightingale is a fork off of the more widely known Songbird Classic, but with Songbird recently closing its doors, Nightingale has pretty much become the main branch of Songbird’s codebase. And to be frank, Nightingale is everything that Songbird should’ve been from the start: fast, clean, with a focus on performance instead of eye candy. If you want extra features, there’s always the addon system.
One draw to Nightingale is the built-in web browser – a feature that never made sense to me, but apparently some people like being able to browse the web from right inside the player. The other draw is Nightingale’s Smart Playlists, which can set up dynamic filters and parameters to automatically create and adjust playlists for you on the fly. With Songbird out of the way, maybe Nightingale can finally shine as a powerful, lightweight music player.
For a deeper look at this program, check out our Nightingale review.

Clementine [Windows, Mac, Linux]

Clementine is somewhat of a middle-of-the-road music player. It provides more features than a typical lightweight player, but because of that, it ends up requiring a bit more resources than a true lightweight player. The interface is clean and intuitive, the controls are good, and it comes with managers for your music, cover art, cloud syncs, and more. I like Clementine because it has a strong audio library without sacrificing too much speed.
Out of all the programs on this list, Clementine is probably the least lightweight for the reasons mentioned above. Depending on how many songs you load into its library, the RAM requirements can hover close to the 75 MB cutoff that I use as one of the criteria for lightweight. Still, Clementine is a great piece of software that operates well even on older machines, so if none of the other choices appeal to you, give it a go.
For a deeper look at this program, check out our Clementine review.

Spider Player [Windows]

Spider Player is not the most amazing music player that you’ll ever see, but when you need a feature-complete music player that’s easy on the resources, it’ll do just fine. What’s even greater is that Spider Player can be portable, which means you don’t need to install it to use it. Stick it on a thumb drive and take it with you to use Spider Player on any computer you plug it into.
The interesting thing about Spider Player is that it used to be premium software, but a few years ago, the developers pushed out a final version and released a product key that allows anyone to unlock the Pro features for free. Don’t be frightened by the “hasn’t been updated since December 2010” aspect of Spider Player because it is pretty much complete and, as far as I can tell, doesn’t have any major bugs.
The product key to unlock Spider Player Pro (for version 2.5.3): 27U3Z909I95-KK147A893S4K6Y1M0F-780363812
For a deeper look at this program, check out our Spider Player review.

Conclusion

Foobar2000 took the lightweight music player market by storm many years ago, and it still reigns as king year after year. Many music players have tried to overtake it since then, and many of them have failed, but the music players on this list have enough merit on their own to be considered plausible alternatives to Foobar2000. Definitely give them a go if Foobar2000 isn’t perfect for you.
For those of you who have tried these music players, what do you think? Do you like them? Hate them? What other lightweight music players can you recommend? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments!