How can I listen to new music inside my blackhole office?

November 24, 2013 11:15 AM

In my office at work, I have no FM radio reception, no cellular phone reception, and only have https internet access. Are there any internet music streaming sites using SSL? Or any podcasts I could download at home and bring to work?

I mostly listen to "indie" I guess, punk rock, and whatever's on KCRW MBE.

posted by mnemonic to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Best answer: I think Spotify supports HTTPS
posted by Phssthpok at 11:18 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I know this may be far fetched, but could you install a VPN and get through the corporate firewall this way?
posted by nostrada at 11:20 AM on November 24, 2013

I believe you could use Audacity to record streaming audio of whatever sort at home and then play it back while at work like a podcast.
posted by K.P. at 11:31 AM on November 24, 2013

All of the streaming services I'm aware of offer a free trial, so you should be able to try and see if any of them work. My guess is that if your network restrictions are so strict that they only allow https, they probably don't want you streaming music even if you can technically get it to function.
posted by primethyme at 11:32 AM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you buy Spotify Premium, you can mark playlists for "offline" use and play them that way without having to stream anything. So, I mark the ones I want and synch them at home and then go offline to listen to them in the car without using any data on my cell phone.
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:44 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

A lot of the music streaming services have downloadable phone apps, as do a lot of radio stations. And there are some good general radio streaming apps like I Heart Radio and Rad.io.

Could you put your phone on the company wifi and provide your own speaker, or does that not get around the https problem?

Additionally, if the streaming apps won't work on your office wifi, could you afford an unlimited data plan for your phone?
posted by Sara C. at 12:31 PM on November 24, 2013

Best answer: Podcast ideas if you really can't get around this:

All Songs Considered
Morning Becomes Eclectic
(both of those put out weekly podcasts with an hour or so of music and are long-running enough that there are tons of old episodes to check out)

Sounds Ace, by Esther Werdiger, is much more sporadic, but there are old episodes and they tend to run pretty long when she does put them out.

All Songs Considered has a supplemental live performance podcast that sometimes has whole sets from live concerts. They also do a weekly new album streaming feature, which I believe is hosted through npr.org. Not sure whether that is https compatible or not.
posted by Sara C. at 12:37 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sara C., no wifi for employees, and no phone reception (zero bars). Not kidding. At the window in the hall 20 feet away I get a clear signal on my pocket FM radio, then I head into my office and it turns into pure white noise. I almost wonder if this was deliberate. I'll try the MBE podcast though.

Phssthpok, Spotify may work, I will try to install the client and see how it goes.
posted by mnemonic at 12:50 PM on November 24, 2013

Triple J, Australia's alternative radio station, has a bunch of podcasts you might like.
posted by escapepod at 1:02 PM on November 24, 2013

If you are a classical music lover, http://www.allclassical.org/
KQAC in Portland, OR streams classics 24/7. It is a listener supported FM station.
posted by Cranberry at 1:04 PM on November 24, 2013

MeFi Music is streamed securely, and is about as indie as they come.
posted by carsonb at 1:16 PM on November 24, 2013

No need to install Spotify: there's an SSL web client.
posted by telegraph at 3:10 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Pandora is another option that should work. If you have trouble getting it to work due to network restrictions, these tips from a question on another site might help figure out a solution (though your specific situation is different, I know).
posted by StrawberryPie at 3:40 PM on November 24, 2013