Internet radio


Now that I’m alone at work, I’m listening to a lot more music. I’ve got a bunch of my CDs ripped to my hard drive, but that’s not always what I want at work, so I often turn to Internet radio.


Unfortunately, we don’t have a huge pipe at work. A 56 kbps stream works great; a 128kbps can be spotty sometimes but is usually ok; a 160kbps stream isn’t very usable. (A 24kbps stream sounds awful.)


So I’ve got a bunch of old favorites that I listen to, like Monkey Radio (triphop, acid jazz, downtempo), SomaFM (a whole bunch of channels, from IDM and indiepop to secret agent music and old-time country), and Philosomatika (psychedelic trance, great for work but 160kbps).


Anyhow, I want more options than that. Specifically I want music that’s good to listen to at work — I find SomaFM’s Groove Salad to be great background music and Philosomatika to be good get-crap-done music when
it works, for instance. I’d prefer to listen to them with xmms, so I’d rather ShoutCast-based stations than Real or Windows Media-based ones.


So, with all the above in mind, what ‘net radio stations should I be listening to?


5 responses to “Internet radio”

  1. I like http://www.radioio.com a lot. They have about eight different streams and the one I like best is the eclectic one, but there are also 70s, 80s, ambient, classical, rock, and I forget what else. Lately my friend in Texas turned me on to http://www.khyi.com that plays traditional americana and that can be fun if you’re in the right mood. But I find that radioio eclectic plays a really good mix and I sure love a good mix! Oh, and one more that I used to listen to a lot when they had more streams available is http://www.moontaxi.com. They’ve reduced their availability of free streams but the ones still available last time I checked include Ultimate 80s, Sounds of the Seventies and a lot of classical and jazz. Have fun!