Streaming music

March 14, 2005 2:55 PM

What are some of your favorite choices for finding streaming music on the internet?

I'm particularly interested in 20th century composers.

posted by mert to media & arts (20 comments total)

Radio 3? They've got a massive variety in their output. Or Classic FM if you prefer your music from a more commercial station?
posted by Ridge at 2:59 PM on March 14, 2005

I've been listening to boombastic and KEXP seattle. Both offer great, if different, selections of music, and I've found them both to be very reliable.

If I have one complaint, it's that there's not enough DJ chatter. I mostly listen at my desk and I like a talkiness now and again -- especially on warm sunny days like today where I'd really rather be on the other side of the window. Sigh.
posted by hob at 3:07 PM on March 14, 2005

Ooops, didn't see the "twentieth century composers" until too late.
posted by hob at 3:08 PM on March 14, 2005

I wish I could edit out that 20th cent. composers part... I listen to other music as well. THanks.
posted by mert at 3:10 PM on March 14, 2005

Other music, then:

I'll second KEXP, and also mention Webjay, which has streaming playlists that play off-site MP3s set up Webjay users. Lots of good obscure stuff, here.

I also often stop by Groove Radio, which is isn't hippie groove, but downbeat, bossanova, and electro groove.
posted by kables at 3:21 PM on March 14, 2005

It's as simple as last.fm - start with an account on audioscrobbler and once it gets a feel for the type of music you like it flawlessly steams music just for you. Or if you'd like, you can find other audioscrobbler users who seem to like what you like and listen to their last.fm streams.
posted by pwb503 at 3:22 PM on March 14, 2005

iTunes has a large selection of streaming radio stations in the 'Radio' playlist. There are many many many different channels to choose from covering a wide variety of genres. WeFunk is good, as is Groove Salad, Secret Agent and WCPE Classical.
posted by gaby at 3:39 PM on March 14, 2005

whoops, really should have read the comments. You probably won't find many 20th century composers in the iTunes radio...... :( Although it does have a classical section.
posted by gaby at 3:40 PM on March 14, 2005

I'm partial to BBC 6Music -- usually an interesting variety of tunes on offer. There are also genre shows -- e.g reggae, funk -- for when you're in a discriminating mood.
posted by alexfw at 5:33 PM on March 14, 2005

I like somafm.com for Drone Zone mostly, but also Groove Salad and Secret Agent. Essentially wordless.
posted by Aknaton at 6:28 PM on March 14, 2005

I like Shoutcast myself. Its all homegrown, and there are a ton of stations to listen to.
posted by stovenator at 7:22 PM on March 14, 2005

The Classical Live Online Radio page offers a directory listing of such webcasts all over the WWW.

Epitonic is good for finding new music in general, and also offers a section for 20th Century Composers with sample tracks you can stream.

SHOUTcast, which is a WinAmp plugin for broadcasting mp3s, has a directory listing on its homepage. I also second the audioscrobbler+lastfm recommendation above - play a few songs of your own and let the server get a feel for what kind of music you like, then you can let it stream music for you or you can find similar users.

Yahoo! has LAUNCHcast which offers a few free genre-specific radio stations.

Personally though, I like Insound. Sometimes.
posted by Lush at 7:30 PM on March 14, 2005

This is a huge reservoir in that they have most shows archived as well so you can view the programme beforehand.
posted by tellurian at 7:54 PM on March 14, 2005

LivePhish Radio, Live Music Archives, and somafm.com
posted by muckster at 8:19 PM on March 14, 2005

PublicRadioFan.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:45 PM on March 14, 2005

big dumb fun show on Monday nights. All indie, all the time.

Not that I have anything to do with it. Swear to god.
posted by damnitkage at 9:02 PM on March 14, 2005

I used to really like Radio Paradise, a listener-funded station with an eclectic mix, somewhat like KEXP. Lately, though, it seems that once or twice a day they do a half-hour of music with a Christian theme, and that just goes down the wrong way. YMMV.
posted by rwhe at 10:20 PM on March 14, 2005

Oh, and I second monju_bosatsu on PublicRadioFan heartily, although I use it for the talking headless stuff.
posted by rwhe at 10:23 PM on March 14, 2005

I second Radio Paradise. I haven't noticed the Christian thing that rwhe mentioned. Their playlist is online, so you could check it out that way.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:52 PM on March 14, 2005

I am totally, hopelessly and uttering in love with the new Minnesota Public Radion station 89.3 The Current. it plays a wide variety of alt/indie (wilco, the replacements, the shins, the ramones, plus great gobs of stuff i've never heard of before) music with some frank sinatra, billie holiday, john lee hooker, bob dylan, etc. thrown in for good measure. They have a really nice stream on their web site. it's the best thing to happen to Minnesota radio in years.
posted by jodic at 5:57 AM on March 15, 2005