There are many free online radio stations available, all of which play great music. Here are some of the best online radio stations which I have used over the years.
Yahoo! Music: Launchcast Radio
Yahoo! Launchcast Radio service is available for free online and is customizable to the user’s tastes. All you have to do is rate genres, tracks, artists and albums. After a while, Launchcast Radio becomes trained to your preferences. You can also tell Yahoo! Launchcast Radio which selections you don’t like by clicking the red circle with a slash, which rests at the left of the four stars at each track, album and artist. After some time rating and eliminating tracks, your Launchcast Radio personal station will play only selections that you like.
The only downside to Yahoo! Launchcast Radio is the frequent reminders to free online users to “subscribe” to Y! Unlimited, the paid service. They’re not really obtrusive but they happen, especially when you’re listening to free 30 second samples. You also can’t save the Launchcast Radio tracks to your hard drive, or burn them to CD.
However, there is an incredible range of music available online for free on Yahoo! Launchcast Radio. Whatever genre you like, it’s almost certain you’ll find it here. They include pop, urban, rock, country, dance/electronic, indie/folk, jazz and latin.
Live 365
On Live 365, you can sign up for a free account to listen to many different genres of music online. There are hundreds of stations available for free. Genres include alternative, blues, classical, country, easy listening, electronic/dance, folk, freeform, hip-hop/rap, inspirational, international, jazz, latin, metal, new age, oldies, pop, R&B; and rock. Radio Disney is also available for free.
Ads are limited, and usually come up just as you open a station. I have listened online to the free Live365 service for hours without hearing a single ad.
You’ll need to sign up for a free account, and provide an email address in order to listen to music. There’s nothing to download.
However many of the stations are not available with the free membership. The VIP membership costs between $5.95 and $7.95 per month, depending on your payment plan. You can access thousands of commercial-free stations with no banner or pop-up ads.
The online radio station Pandora can be a little bit like Pandora’s Box if you’re not careful. Like Launchcast Radio, you must program Pandora Radio to play the music you like best. When I first got online to listen to Pandora radio, I made a specific music request, but instead was treated music that I didn’t want to hear. If Pandora plays music you don’t like, simply hit the “pause” or “fast-forward” button on the player.
However, if you add several “Artist Seeds” the Pandora Radio system will get a better idea of the music you like to listen to. You can also vote on music that plays in the Pandora playlist. The station limits the number of songs you can skip in a certain period of time. However, you can create a new station on Pandora Radio with new musical selections.
I had much more difficulty getting Pandora Radio to play the music I liked than Launchcast Radio. The tools in Pandora Radio are simply not as accessible, and the music suggestions are not as on-target.
Radio IO
The online station Radio IO offers a wide range of radio stations for free. You don’t even have to sign up for an account. The song now playing appears below the player. There’s a “what I’ve missed” section below that, which lists other songs in the playlist. Stations include 70s, 70s pop, 80s, 80s pop, 90s, acoustic, ambient, beat, classical, country, dead, disco, eclectic, edge, history, jam, jazz, pop, rock, unlimited and world.
There are a few commercials if you’re listening online for free, but they’re few and far between. Radio IO is mainly just great music.
You can sign up for an account if you like. With a free account, you can get set up to receive email, or purchase a SoundPass. A SoundPass costs $4.99 per month or $50.00 per year, and entitles the subscriber to a choice of bitrates, a choice of mp3, Windows Media and Real Audio formats, access to exclusive content, and the ability to listen on different computers and devices.
