I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a pair of audiobytes and I'm starting to think about what I'll be listening to on them. I'd like to listen to the radio through my laptop as well as CDs. But I don't want the radio to sound terrible and paying for radio wouldn't exactly be my first choice. What would all of you recommend for free, quality internet radio? Or should I just give up on the radio idea and just download MP3s/WMAs? And if so, where is the best place to download them from? Thanks.

Pandora should be one for sure. You can setup your own radio stations and it learns your taste based on groups or songs that you enter. It is a good way to find out about new music.

Wolfgangsvault is hard to beat also
You can listen to classic concerts going back decades and buy concert memorabilia.

Mo, as I've mentioned before, when I'm at the computer I'm typically also using this site for excellent programming. For example, at the moment I'm listening to Jim Svejda's program(weekday nights, 7:00 to 12:00, PST)from KUSC, Los Angeles. Other favorites are BBC Radio3, WQXR New York, WCLV Cleveland, WFMT Chicago, and KVOD Denver.

Pandora is out of order for Canucks. The second link is awesome though! Thank you. It sounds clear too.

John, that's a good one too. I'll try it.

I haven't been there for awhile but after Pandora's run-in with the DCMA I spent a fair amount of time on CBC Radio 3. New Canadian pop/rock/alt.

For classical music, emusic.com has a nice subscription model. I use it a lot for large pieces (pay-per-track) of things I would not buy on CD. They also carry lots of independant producers of tons of other stuff, but I have never looked at it.

http://www.icebergradio.com/

Another Canadian site, huge selection of options for every style of music, pretty good sound too.

Check it out Vinyl FM under Rock or 80's Hair Bands under Metal (if you like your music sung by men who look kinda like women).

Paul

I've been listening to NPR Music quite often lately. Very nice and broad music styles. Sound is ok, but not great like pandora.

Mojo, as far as downloading music goes I can help you out there (having just short of 4000 songs on my computer). I used bitcomet as a download client, and search through the torrent sites to download music. Torrent sites are only good if you want to download an entire album or what I do with many artists is download an entire discography! You can't download single songs on torrent sites. For that I would recommend limewire.

It takes a little bit to get used to bitcomet, but I'd be more than willing to help you. Just let me know.

Cam

I would also recommend Limewire.

Paul

I should point out that using torrent sites is a bit of a gray area. You may or may not care about this, and frankly I don't care whether you use them or not. It's just something to consider.

Uh Oh, Why did I just get a popup stating

[Wheelz999's IP Address logged by SOCAM]

??

Sorry about the previous message regarding downloading music. That was my illegitimate son that replied. I don't even know what a torrent is.

LOL. Thanks guys. These are all good sites. I would actually prefer not to download at all. Streamed is fine with me.

I use Last.fm all the time - lots of customizable streaming content, most for free. Premium service is cheap, gives you a few more options, and prioritizes your stream for fewer hiccups.

I always been pretty happy with Shoutcast streams. Stick to the 128kbps and greater channels and the sound quality is pretty good. The higher, the better, of course.

I also like Shoutcast because its web page and interface is very simple. It renders well & streams play perfectly on non-PC devices such as my WindowsMobile, Palm, and Nokia N series devices.

As far as downloading music goes, there are several options. If you have an iPod, you should gravitate towards using iTunes. I am an iPod person, and so I am ok with iTunes even though I have been dissapointed in the sound quality with a couple of albums. Most are ok though. Definitely listen to the previews before you click the buy button. 'Regular' iTunes tracks are 128kbs AAC with DRM. However, some albums/tracks are now available as iTunes+, which are 256kbs AAC files with no DRM. I have been very pleased with the sound quality of these.

I also like Amazon's MP3 downloads. All 256kbs, DRM free. I've downloaded 3 or 4 albums so far. The sound quality is also excellent, and because they're simply MP3 files you have many options as to how to play them. iPod, Zen, iRiver, burn to CD, Squeezebox, etc, etc.

Linn Records also has music available for download. Their download selection is limited to only their own music, not other record companies. What they do have can be purchased and downloaded in several different formats including pure lossless WMA files, all with no DRM. I've purchased a few albums from them, and they sound absolutely amazing. Fantastic SQ. Highly recommended, if your musical tastes are covered by their meager selection.

Excellent! Thank you to both of you.

I've been downloading music from SpiralFrog. Downloading is a manual process on that site (you have to manually download each selection) but at least it's free. They've got a million songs so it's a pretty good selection.

I found some great free music sites right here. Enjoy!

He's baaaaaack!

I really like http://www.radioparadise.com . They play a wide variety of music and have plenty of stream options. Check it out, you might like it. If not, try another time the music styles change.

Not sure if it came up earlier in this thread, but be sure to check out Pandora Free Internet Radio .

You enter a song/album/artist that you like and it plays only songs that it believes are similar based on a database of hundreds of attributes that are assigned to each song. It's pretty amazing how well it works. I've discovered a lot of new music from it and find myself buying a lot of it after hearing it for the first time on Pandora.

Alas, they block out Canadian IP addresses due to America's maniacal copyright laws.

Boo, hiss! Sorry, I had no idea.