Sumptuous Free Android Internet Radio Apps

Internet radio is an audio service delivered over the internet. This type of service can offer personalized streams of music and is often seen as a promising medium for promoting recorded music. Internet radio should not be confused with podcasting. The difference between the two technologies is that the former involves streaming media, the latter focusing on downloaded media. Of course, some applications offer both internet radio and podcasting functionality.

This article focuses on two distinct types of internet radio. We cover software for traditional radio stations that are transmitted via FM and AM which are broadcast over the internet, and dedicated internet stations that are streamed using technology such as SHOUTcast and Icecast media server programs. The diversity of radio stations that can be listened to on an Android phone over Wi-Fi and 3G is mesmerising. For example, SHOUTcast is one of the largest directories of professionally and community programmed online radio stations in the world featuring over 25,000 stations from around the globe. Moreover, internet radio is both personalized and socalized.

There are a couple of streaming music applications that definitely merit a mention which are not featured in the list below. The first is Pandora Radio, which is a very popular automated music recommendation service. Unfortunately, it is only available in the United States. The same issue affects Slacker Personal Radio, also an excellent application to listen anywhere to free personalized internet radio stations. However, it is also restricted to the United States. Nevertheless, for non-US residents, there is the option to use a proxy that is located in the United States.

So, let's explore the 7 internet radio applications at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, providing screenshots of the software in action, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources and reviews. We give our highest recommendation to TuneIn Radio and Winamp. In our view, these two currently are the finest free streaming radio applications available for Android.

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Last Updated Sunday, August 28 2011 @ 05:51 AM EDT