Section 37. Listen to an Internet Radio Station


37. Listen to an Internet Radio Station

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

2 Run iTunes for the First Time


SEE ALSO

33 Find and Play Music


Internet Radio, a mechanism by which "streams" of music are broadcast by amateur DJs over the Internet to anyone with a client program (such as iTunes), used to be a lot more prevalent than it is now. At the time of iTunes' introduction in 2001, many thousands of Internet Radio channels existed, served out of high-speed corporate networks and college dorm rooms alike. iTunes shipped with the capability to browse to any of these channels and tune in to listen for free. However, only a short time later, the record labels began to crack down on these illicit sources of music; only those channels that could afford to pay the new fees that the labels levied on them (usually by running ads) were able to stay on the air. Today, Internet Radio is only a shadow of what it once wasbut it's still there, serving a die-hard cadre of loyal listeners, and iTunes still supports it the same way it always has. Internet Radio is still free and can prove to be a great source of enjoyment and music you might never otherwise hear.

1.
Connect to the Internet

Make sure that you've got an active connection to the Internet; you can't connect to an Internet Radio station without being online. Dial your modem or connect your laptop to the wireless network, as necessary.

2.
Select the Radio Source

Click Radio in the Source pane of the iTunes' window. The list of available Internet Radio genres appears in the song listing area.

3.
Choose a Genre

Click the triangle next to any of the listed genres to reveal all the available Internet Radio channels within it. Some channels come and go over the course of the day, or from one day to the next ; the central server to which iTunes connects gets an up-to-date listing of available channels when you select the Radio source, so each one listed should be available to connect.

The channels are listed by name along with their available bit rate (the speed at which the audio stream is delivered to you) and a description. The higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality will be. One caution: Do not choose a channel with a bit rate faster than your Internet connection. For example, a 56K modem connection (56 kilobits per second, or Kbps) won't be able to support a 64Kbps audio stream without the music stuttering and pausing to rebuffer. Choose a channel with a bit rate lower than the speed of your Internet connection ( much lower, if you want to do other stuff online while you're listening).

4.
Connect to an Internet Radio Channel

Double-click a listed channel to begin listening to it, or select the channel and click the Play button. iTunes connects to the server and downloads the channel's playlist of upcoming songs; this enables it to report to you the name of each song as the channel plays it, just like satellite radio.

NOTE

Because Internet Radio channels are streamed, you can't fast-forward, rewind, or pause them. Holding down the Back and Forward buttons has no effect, and skipping forward and backward switches to different channels in the genre list rather than moving among individual songs.

37. Listen to an Internet Radio Station


5.
Add an Internet Radio Channel to Your Library

If you like a particular channel and want to be able to return to it easily in the future, you can add it to your library. Click and drag the channel from the Radio view to the Library option in the Source pane (the + icon on the mouse pointer indicates that the reference will be added ). After you do this, you can navigate to the channel in the Library view by searching for its name or sorting the lists in a way that enables you to find it easily (for example, you can search by Kind and then locate the channels listed as MPEG audio stream , or you can sort on the Date Added field and scroll to the top or bottom where the newest entries appear).

6.
Connect to an Internet Radio Channel by URL

Not every Internet Radio channel in the world is listed in iTunes' navigation system. Many more channels exist on the Web, organized onto websites that collect links to popular channels and make them available to listeners by simply clicking their links. You can connect to any of these channels using this method. Alternatively, you might find or be given the direct URL of a channel. You can connect directly to the channel by selecting Advanced, Open Stream , pasting in the URL of the channel in the Open Stream dialog box that appears, and clicking OK . Connecting to a channel directly in this way automatically adds the channel to your Library .

WEB RESOURCE

http://www.live365.com

Live365 is one of the largest and most widely known clearinghouse sites for thousands of freely available Internet Radio channels. The music on freely listenable audio streams are generally paid for by advertising, just like commercial radio. You'll have to choose Other MP3 Player when setting up the embedded player preferences on the site.


NOTE

If you connect to an Internet Radio channel by clicking a link on a web page, you might notice that a "playlist" file (with an extension such as .m3u or .pls ) has been downloaded. This file is what launches iTunes with the proper channel. After iTunes has connected to the channel, you can delete the playlist file.




iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap
iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328992
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 152
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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