Internet radio (also known as web radio, net radio, streaming radio, and online radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet.
Why do we like internet radio? There are no sign-up or subscription charges. There’s a huge range of stations available from around the world. If you like classical music, pop music, folk music, news, talk radio, and much more, internet radio has something for everyone wherever you live (providing you have a net connection). Internet radio offers every format that is available on traditional broadcast radio stations.
There’s a wide range of free and open source software that lets you listen to internet radio. With so many different possibilities available it’s easy to get lost trying to find the right one for you.
This article recommends our favourite terminal-based internet radio apps. We only include free and open source software.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart.
Let’s have a look at the programs in more detail. For the best tools, we’ve written a detailed review. If you’re looking for GUI-based internet radio apps, look here.
| Terminal-Based Internet Radio Apps | |
|---|---|
| PyRadio | Cross-platform curses based with support for Radio Browser |
| radio-active | Command-line tool to listen to more than 30,000 radio stations |
| SonicRadio | Stylish TUI radio player |
| RadioGoGo | Surf global radio waves |
| tera | Play radio stations, CRUD your favorite lists, and explore stations |
| radion | TUI client written in Bash |
| cTune | ncurses tool with good search functionality |
| rig.fm | Fast, focused, keyboard-friendly, and free of clutter |
| Radio Recorder | Internet radio player and recorder |
| PMRP-NG | Ground-up rewrite of PMRP |
| goradion | TUI internet radio player that uses mpv |
| Radiotrope | AI agent-enabled internet radio player |
| Radioboat | Terminal web radio client, built with simplicity in mind |
| PMRP | Poor Man's Radio Player |
| radio-cli | Simple radio CLI written in Rust |
| TuneIn CLI | Basic internet radio with TuneIn Radio and Radio Browser as providers |
| tmuzika | Music player and internet radio player |
| Curseradio | Very simple application for navigating and playing radio streams |
This article has been updated to reflect the changes outlined in our recent announcement.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |
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