There are various options to enjoy music in today’s interconnected and digital world. I would not get through my day without music. While I store a ton of music on my MP3 player and in my laptop, I often find that I need updates on a regular basis as well as news, creating a need to have the ability to listen to the radio.
Streaming a radio station online a fun way to enjoy music that you love and keep track of the latest developments locally and internationally. For the radio lovers out there like me, we intend to keep you informed on the availability of online radio based on free and software applications available.
A couple of days ago we introduced you to the Adobe Air app, an antenna that gives you access to literally thousands of online radio stations via windows. Today, I would like to introduce you to our list of the top five radio applications that are available for free on the Linux platform.
Table of Contents
RadioTray
This is a scaled down player that lets you access radio via Linux. It works as an online application, streaming radio for you in real time with a small interface running on the system tray. The GPL has licensed this free software. In my view, this is the best application to enjoy radio alongside other things. This is because it keeps the radio content at the back end playing and does not slow down your computer or restrict you from doing other things or slow down your computer. Various media formats are supported by Radio Tray. These include WAX, ASX, PLS, M3U and WVX. A pop up window that says ‘configure radios’ will appear and from there you just need the button named ‘Add’ to have the name of your radio stations available and stream URL added to the player. Once that is done, select ‘Ok’ and you are ready to enjoy your favorite station. There are no charges associated with this player.
Streamtuner
The Streamtuner app gives users on the Linux interface the ability to access and use a wide variety of music resources through a speedy and well organized interface. This app enables users to plug into and enjoy various radio shows over the internet. Streamtuner offers an instinctive GTK2.0 user space to access directories listing internet radio stations. These include Live365 and SHOUT cast.
Rhythmbox
The inspiration behind the Rhythmbox concept originally came from iTunes. Rhythmbox offers Linux users a unified app to manage music whose design heavily borrows from iTunes. It also supports various audio formats. Rhythmbox has an extra edge as it is founded on GStreama, the powerful media framework and it also functions effectively via the GNOME desktop.
TunaPie
This app has proven compatibility with two directories, Shout cast and Ice cast. In addition to radio, this app plays TV streams. Using stream ripper, it also enables users to keep a record of both video and audio streams. On top of all this, TunaPie is compatible with your entire fav video or audio player.
Pithos
My personal favorite is the Pandora app. I would rate it as the unsurpassed apps since you do not need flash or even a browser to access it. The downside is that Pandora is only usable if you reside in America. The service is yet to be made available to other parts of the world. Pandora executes faultlessly and runs alongside other applications so you can continue to use it while doing other tasks.
You now have your pick of the top five coolest and trending radio apps. The added benefit is that all these are absolutely free. So go ahead Linux users download your favorites and start enjoying online radio!