Streaming classical and jazz music.

September 2, 2015 6:35 PM

I work from home—writing and various bits of research—and always have music on in the background. Recommendations?

As the title states I am looking for classical (no opera) and jazz (bebop, not new or 'smooth'). I most often listen to WQXR, KQAC and KMHD. Preferably accessible via TuneIn radio app as I stream on an old iPod (almost every radio station is available on there AFAIK). I am open to other ways of streaming as long as they are free. Many thanks.

posted by standardasparagus to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

WNIU streams their classical station, and except for opera on some Saturday afternoons, it is Classical24, the classical service from Minnesota that many public stations use for various parts of the day. But, they run it all the time.
posted by BillMcMurdo at 6:50 PM on September 2, 2015

ABC Classic FM. Though I don't know whether it works outside Australia, and it does play opera sometimes.
posted by kjs4 at 6:56 PM on September 2, 2015

TSF Jazz out of Paris. I listen via my internet radio. Bonus: the commercials are in French.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 7:00 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's not bebop, but lately I've been listening to a lot of Radio Dismuke when I just want some pleasant background music. It's all jazz from the 20's and 30's.
posted by Diagonalize at 7:36 PM on September 2, 2015

Songza has some excellent curated jazz playlists. Just look and see what appeals to you. It's super easy to navigate. Here's the classical playlists. There's some opera but it's labelled as such. Check out their playlists for different moods and tempos of music.
posted by irisclara at 8:06 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

I listen to the WQXR live stream for the usual classical as well as their Q2 stream for contemporary classical (or whatever you want to call it) music.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 8:26 PM on September 2, 2015

Similar in musical era to Radio Dismuke, Hot Jazz Saturday Night is available for streaming, though it is only the most recent three hour episode each week.
posted by fings at 9:14 PM on September 2, 2015

How about Chicago's WFMT and Raleigh's WCPE for classical, and San Mateo's KCSM for jazz (which took over the record library of the legendary KJAZ).
posted by DandyRandy at 10:09 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Kulturradio from Berlin is a really good classical music station.
posted by colfax at 10:59 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

both those songza links redirect to http://daily.songza.com/ ?!
posted by Spumante at 12:29 AM on September 3, 2015

WBGO is my favorite jazz station. They play some contemporary artists mixed with music going back as far as the 1930's, but mostly bebop and no "smooth jazz". There are a few shows I don't care for, so sometimes I switch to Pure Jazz Radio or Jazz 24. All are commercial-free and listener-supported.
posted by jkent at 2:50 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I often just go for BBC Radio 3 via the TunedIn app.
posted by Kitteh at 5:13 AM on September 3, 2015

I'm a big fan of the classical and jazz programming on WHRB for music at work.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:18 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've been listening to a lot of Your Classical recently. Again, this is a repository of a lot of the shows rebroadcast on local stations (Performance Today, Pipe Dreams), but they also offer separate streaming stations.

No separate app, but I can stream it right from Chrome on my Android phone.
posted by dforemsky at 7:15 AM on September 3, 2015

Pandora might be a good solution for you. If you train it with the "thumbs up/down" buttons it seems to do a good job of playing things you will like.
posted by mmascolino at 8:32 AM on September 3, 2015

89.9 All Classical in Portland.

as a life-long classical radio junkie, it's my absolute favorite.

now if i could just find a way to stream Karl Haas's "Adventures in Good Music"...
posted by hollisimo at 3:42 PM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Terrific. Thanks all; there are some very good suggestions here.
posted by standardasparagus at 11:35 AM on September 4, 2015