February 10th, 2010 | 
Author: If you’re old enough (like me) to remember when there wasn’t an Internet, then you’ll probably have memories of fiddling around with the tuner on your radio trying to find a decent music station to listen to. If you were really lucky, you may have also had a built-in analog tape deck that you could use to record radio onto compact cassette tape. These days, it’s so much easier (and convenient) to listen to radio. With the invention of the Internet, we are now accustomed to listening to music on-demand via streaming audio, MP3 downloads, music services, and other Internet-based delivery methods.
Web radio, or more commonly referred to as Internet radio, is very similar to traditional radio in that you can tune into radio stations that broadcast over the Internet; a lot of terrestrial-based stations also broadcast over the Web. However, one of the biggest advantages of using this technology, is that you can access thousands of stations from all over the world — something that couldn’t be done before the digital age.
But how do we access this enormous resource of music? One of the most convenient ways is to use software that can play streaming music straight to your desktop. As well as popular software media players such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp which can access Web radio, there’s alternative light-weight applications that specialize in delivering Internet radio. The big advantage of using a dedicated Web radio software program is that many of them offer more functions such as being able to record what you’re listening to — similar to the old cassette tape.
For more information on listening to and recording Internet radio stations, be sure to read our article on Free Web Radio Software.
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Web Radio: Tune into Thousands of Radio Stations From Your Desktop originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 09:00:36.
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