Recipe 11.5. Playing Internet Radio Stations

Problem

You want to play Internet radio stations on your PC.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

Windows Media Player will play Internet radio stations as well as handle digital music and DVDs. To customize the way you play Internet radio stations, do the following:

1. Click the Radio tab on Windows Media Player and type in your Passport user name and password. If you don't have one, follow the directions for getting a Passport.

2. You'll be sent to the MSN Radio page. Radio stations will be organized by category, including Classical, Country, Dance/Electronica, and so on. Next to each category there will be a + sign. Click the + sign and you'll see a list of all the stations in that category.

3. For each station there will be a description of the music it plays, including the bit rate at which it plays. The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality of the radio stream. To play a station, click the play button to its left.

4. Some stations will be grayed-out and will have a "learn more" link as part of the description. Those are for-pay stations, and you can only listen to them if you subscribe to MSN Radio. To subscribe, click the "learn more" link and follow the subscription directions.

5. To make it easier to return to your favorite stations, you can use the My Stations feature. To add a station to your My Stations list, click the + sign to the right of the station description.

6. When you click the + sign, the station will be put at the top of the page, underneath the heading My Stations. The station you just added will be at the top of the list. That station will always appear at the top of the list until you add another station, or until you remove the station from the list. To remove a station from the list, click the - sign to its right.

Discussion

There are generally two kinds of Internet radio stations normal, broadcast stations that also stream their signal over the Internet, and Internet-only stations. There's no difference in the way you play each.

The sound quality of the music you listen to over Internet radio varies widely. It's dependent on many factors, including the bandwidth of your connection, whether there is any Internet congestion, and the bit rate of the radio stream. In most instances, the quality isn't nearly up to FM standards, and often is quite below that. Not uncommonly, the stream will be interrupted by short breaks in the transmission, primarily due to Internet congestion.

See Also

Windows Media Player is only one of many ways to play Internet radio stations. You can also listen to stations by going directly to their home pages, and clicking on a link that will play the music. You can also go to web sites that include links to Internet radio stations, and that often let you play the radio station without having to visit the station's home page, and just by clicking on a link. Among the sites that have links to radio stations are http://www.live365.com/index.live, and http://www.radio-locator.com.

Also, other music-playing software, in addition to Windows Media Player, will let you tune into radio stations. A good one is MusicMatch, available at http://www.musicmatch.com.