4d ago

Internet radio recommendations

Hi,

I took my spotify playlist and downloaded it all in mp3, because it doesn't change very much and I would like to do away with even a free, arr, spotify.

When I was younger I got my music from the radio, so I am checking that vector, any recommendations?

I found https://radio.garden/ which is a good start I think.

As a side note, publicity in foreign languages goes so much better on my ear, even American English, "buy this medicine", "contact this lawyer" lol! but it is of course even better with no publicity at all.

Thank you!

25 comments

SomaFm is great
- Been listening to Soma.fm for a long time. Groove Salad and Indie Pop Rocks. Sometimes they play really strange stuff on one or the other, so that’s about when I will switch channels.
- Ooh I have donated to them. I did listed like hundreds of hours during long study sessions.
- I love and donate to SomaFM.
  I have been hooked on the 'DroneZone', but there are lots of other channels on SomaFM that I should explore.
  There is very minimal interruption (hourly? and quietly) asking for donations.

May I ask how you downloaded your Spotify playlist? I'd love to do that. Or I may go back to apple music as I still have an account there, but would love to move my list over somehow.

https://fip.fr/ 's main and Jazz radio. fm4 ORF Also France Musique.
Use RadioDroid on F-Droid if you use Android.

I really love WFMU in New Jersey. Of course they broadcast on FM, but they have four live streams (I especially like the 'Give the Drummer Radio' stream https://wfmu.org/drummer). Take a look at the schedules - you'll find lots of music that you won't hear on mainstream radio, across a wide range of different genres, and all of it is archived so you can listen to past shows and see the playlists for each one. It's listener supported, so there are no adverts except for their own WFMU fund raising. My favourite shows:
Continental Subway with David Dichelle, on the Drummer stream, playing music in many languages - https://wfmu.org/playlists/CW
This is the Modern World, with 'Trouble', on the main WFMU stream. Incredibly eclectic - https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/LM

Jamendo streams different genres as stations without adverts/publicity.
https://www.jamendo.com/radios
--//--
Or put a search string into YT,
'creative Commons mix
<genre>
'
( eg. creative Commons mix lofi' )
Will give something like this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYOHQ3GXK5JIIYcSfxDzB8vJagRKAw8XN

My most common recommendation is campus-fm.com, which is a frontend for listening to a bunch of North American college radio stations. Wide net but may help you find various shows whose programming you dig.

KEXP.org - public indie radio out of Seattle. Has good shows over the course of the day. I really like the afternoon show (1 pm pacific time) on Thursday. The DJ does "OG Thursday" where he picks a group or artist and highlights songs that sample them.
Thecurrent.org - kinda the same deal out of Minneapolis, but also different
Both available on their website or through the https://www.radio-browser.info/ database

LoFi Girl if you’re looking for real downtempo background noise. Lived on it when I was doing Uni.
If you’re the patient and organized type, you can download their entire library from their main site. The advantage here is that the livestream gets a little repetitive after a while.

Not super on-topic, being more traditional radio than internet, but I hope to boost the mission anyway:
https://www.prometheusradio.org/

I discovered a lot of interesting new music through BBC Radio 6 Music.
- Oh yes, 6 Music is a good one. I notice that Iggy Pop has a Sunday afternoon show at the moment (16:00 UK time), and he’s had several series on there in the past, they just keep asking him back because he's interesting and has good taste in music. And also on Sundays (20:00 UK time) is Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone, which has been running for years - so long in fact that when it started I remember recording it on cassette tape so I could play it on my commute to work.
  As with all BBC radio there are no adverts apart from their own promotional stuff, and everything is available for 28 days after broadcast via the BBC Sounds website and app - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/stations
  I spend a lot of time listening to BBC Radio 3, which is their classical station, but they also have a jazz show 5 nights a week, and lots of other music apart from classical - ‘world’ music, experimental and new music, all kinds of interesting stuff in the evenings UK time. Serious music radio, done properly.

radiparadise.com is curated and cute

The two ancient stalwarts are still up and running:
Icecast directory: https://dir.xiph.org/
Shoutcast directory: https://directory.shoutcast.com/
Note that these are sites containing links to online radio stations not a statement about the quality of what might be available. Shoutcast has the better website, but is also slightly more oriented towards commercial content. Given that you say you like ads from other countries, maybe that's the one you'd want to try first.

https://wxpn.org/ - community-funded, all kinds of shows playing all kinds of music
Edit:
Bonus! It’s an actual radio station :)
- Love wxpn, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to a new dentist and they had it playing too. They are responsible for a great many new artists in my favorites playlist. The current is a good station too, it’s out of the midwest, good vibes.
  
  Awesome! Nice to meet another fan of the station :)

ChIRP, Chicago Independent Radio Project, is an ad-free station that broadcasts over the Internet. They have volunteer DJs and you can make requests and everything. Though they don't take paid ads, they do occasionally do PSAs and promotions for local charity events.
https://chirpradio.org/

Would instrumental radio count?

Flashback Alternatives
Past, Present and Future of Classic Alternative
punk, new wave, post-punk alternative
music requests.
For those from Ontario it's very much like CFNY radio through the 80s

I've asked some DJ's what radio they listen too and NTS has been unanimously answered. Very good variety, playlist for any mood and discovery is great as well.

25 comments