StreamWriter is a freeware application for Windows computers. Sized at only 1.8 MB, the setup file of the app is quick to download and easy to install. Once installed you can open the app and search for music radio stations of various genres. While executing your search you can also specify the station’s music genre, audio bit rate, and type.

The stations that appear can be streamed; streamed stations appear in the left pane. You can easily begin recording these radio stations and keep local copies of the audio.

Features:

• A userfriendly desktop application.
• Compatible with Windows computers.
• Lets you find and stream online radio stations.
• Lets you record radio stations.

Check out streamWriter @ http://streamwriter.org/en (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Spreaker is a web service that lets you broadcast your radio shows online. While regular podcast services simply offer straightforward audio streaming features, Spreaker supports live broadcasting as well as multiple channel recording with controllable volumes to better emulate the radio experience. In addition to your own voice you can create a playlist of songs and sound effects to be played.

Your radio shows can have multiple episodes and can be shared through their direct URLs; visitors to your channel can subscribe to it and play a list of aired episodes. In case you have a personal blog running you can use the embedded code generated for your radio shows.

As others can tune into your radio shows, you too can browse the site for others’ radio programs.

Spreaker offers a free package that allows 30-minutes long individual recordings and an hour of total recordings. You can increase these figures by opting for the site’s premium packages.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service.
• Lets you broadcast online radio.
• Offers multiple audio channels for broadcasting songs and sound effects.
• Lets people subscribe to your stations.
• Stations are embeddable.
• Also read related article: How To Start Your Own Internet Radio Station With Shoutcast.

Check out Spreaker @ www.spreaker.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)

For every played song you can “Love Track” if you liked it or “Ban Track” if you did not, or simply Add it to your favorites. The system learns your tastes with every played song and makes better personalized listening recommendations based on this feedback.

All of these basic features are free (with streaming at 128Kbit/s). To start streaming, sign up for an account or sign in with your Facebook account. If you want more, you can sign up for a Premium account (5 euro/month) to get higher quality streaming, access to more channels, unlimited favorites and no ads.

Features:

• Personalized online radio.
• Play music by artist/band, by channel (Pop, Rock, R&B etc) or by mood (happy, fun, relaxing etc).
• Buttons to share the playing song on Twitter, Facebook.
• Free to use basic features, short ads between every 4-5 songs.
• Premium account (5 euro/month) gives you higher quality streaming, access to more channels, unlimited favorites and no ads.

Check out AUPEO @ www.aupeo.com

Durocast is a free to use website that lets you search online radio stations and listen to them. You can browse stations via frequency, name, or music genre. Alternatively you can check out the most popular stations that have been listed on the site.

By creating an account on the site you can save your presets and share them with your Durocast contacts. Considering your favorited radio stations and their genres, the site recommends other stations that you might like. Countless stations are covered ““ local and national (US).

Features:

• A user friendly website.
• Lets you search and save online radio stations.
• Stations can be searched via genre, keywords, and frequency.
• Your presets can be shared with site contacts.
• Similar tools: Spreaker, RadioTuna, RadioBeta, TheRadio and One Llama.
• Also read related articles:
  RadioTime ““ Listen To & Record FM Radio Online
  The 3 Best Online Free Radio Players For Your Desktop
  5 Online Radio Stations To Get Your Music Fix.

Check out Durocast @ www.durocast.com (by MOin from ThumbPress)

While the above two are examples of series that have been adapted or released outside the UK also, not many people outside the UK are aware of the incredible documentaries that the BBC has produced. If you’re a radio buff, you will have definitely heard of the BBC World Service radio and it is under this banner that the BBC releases some of their best radio documentary work.

If you like listening to documentaries on the radio and have a couple of hours to kill, the BBC World Service has its (almost) complete archive available for download.

Features:

• No need to sign up.
• Free to access and download.
• Access over 500 BBC radio documentaries for free.
• Documentaries also available for streaming on mobile phones.

Check out BBC Documentaries @ www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries

As is the case with any site like this, some of the content is legal and some are questionable. But if you’re a fan of world music you’ll find no shortage of content to pick from here: in my perusal I found several broadcasters showing off the flavor of their home countries to an international audience. The site’s worth checking out for that alone.

Features

• Broadcast audio to the world, instantly.
• Browse a variety of user-created radio stations.
• Discover music from around the world.

Check out Spreaker @ www.spreaker.com

RadioTuna is a free online radio discovery tool with a real-time internet radio search engine. It provides up-to-minute search results of music that are broadcasted online and connects you to internet radio stations that play the kind of music you are looking for. If no stations are currently playing music that you like, it will suggest stations that are most likely to play it.

You can find music in RadioTuna by artist search, genre search, and station search. Navigate the website using the Genre sidebar which expands into the various subcategories of a particular genre. You may also go to the Bookmarks sidebar and check out the most popular stations in RadioTuna, go back to the recent stations played, or browse favorite stations.

Another feature is the Current Station sidebar. Here you can find various information about the station, current track, cover art, genres, recent tracks, and top artists of the station. You can also bookmark the station, adjust the volume, bookmark currently playing artist, perform a new search, and display artist biography with links to buy their album.

The interface of RadioTuna works seamlessly with all functions of the app available to you in one page. You can browse through different tabs easily, and get the top songs or top station to start your online radio search. The best feature of this app is that it can tell you the genre of any online radio station based on the type of songs they frequently play.

With RadioTuna, listening to internet radio and managing your favorite stations have never been this easy.

Features:

• Free internet radio portal.
• Search for an artist or a genre and get an up-to-the minute result of the stations that play that kind of music.
• Suggests stations that are most likely to play the music you are looking for.
• Browse stations by genre.
• Browse the most popular stations in RadioTuna.
• Displays the top 5 songs based on real-time global radio chart.
• Bookmark radio stations and artists.
• Retrieve stations from your listening history.
• Share a station to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, or via email.
• Displays the artist’s biography as well as links where you can buy their albums.

Check out RadioTuna @ www.radiotuna.com

Click on any station to start listening to it. Information is also provided about the reliability of the link and the bit-rate of each station. You also have the option to rate each station and browse the stations you have recently listened to or rated. The application takes less than a minute to install and is seamless without any advertisements or clutter. You can also chat with other Antenna users or change your map preferences.

Features:

• Browse radio stations on a map interface.
• Listen to thousands of stations online.
• Rate stations and chat with other users.
• No registration or sign-up required.

Download Antenna @ www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace

VirtualRadio is an application for Java enabled cell phones which allows the user to listen to Internet radio stations on their cell phone. The app uses the GPRS internet connection available on almost all cell phones to download the audio at a rate of 32kb/s. The audio quality is very high and music is crisp and uninterrupted.

There are loads of different channels to choose from  and categories (called groups) to browse through channels which interest you such as “˜Music’ and “˜Politics’.

The app is completely free to download and use, although GPRS costs apply and vary depending on your network.

Features:

• Listen to radio on your phone.
• Multiple Channels.
• Good quality audio.
• Works on almost any Java enabled cell phone.

Check out Virtual Radio @ www.download.cnet.com/VirtualRadio (by Dean Sherwin)

Listening to stations doesn’t require a login but uploading and voting does. Currently it features 5 stations – Hip Hop/ Rap, Video Games, Pop/Hits, Dance/Electronic and Rock/Alternative. It’s a completely browser based and has a nice and simple interface. A desktop version is coming soon.

Features:

• User driven online music streaming service.
• Sign in using Facebook, Google, Twitter or OpenId credentials.
• Login to upload and vote songs.
• Listen to songs without the need to login.
• Similar tools: TheSixtyOne and many more.

Check out Stereo8@www.stereo8.com (By Abhijeet from Jeet Blog)