Personal Internet Radio Stations

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The Radio Guide: Tune in Online

If you’ve ever found yourself wishing you could find a radio station that exclusively broadcasts video-game theme songs, it’s time to let go of the dial, and take hold of your mouse. The Internet is home to an abundance of stations that include FM, AM, online-only, and satellite; you can even create a station yourself. The sites below help you find stations, make stations, find programming, and choose services. You’ll also get a dose of radio history. For a Spanish-language version of the Guide, click here.

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Find Online Radio Stations

With online radio stations, the rule tends to be: if you can dream it up, it’s probably ... read more »

Personal Internet Radio Stations

If the hundreds of radio stations online fail to provide you with what you’re looking for, it’s time you learned how to customize your own station. A few sites allow you to create a custom radio station by choosing your favorite songs, albums, artists, and musical genres. The station software will then play similar types of music and provide the option to veto songs you hate. Or search for music you like online and create your own radio playlist.

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You’ll find more options for selecting and streaming your favorite tunes in the findingDulcinea Music Web Guide.

Although you can usually listen to customized radio without setting up an account, there are benefits to logging in. For example, you can save your favorite stations and accumulate your own portfolio of stations from which to choose.

As explained by the BBC, streaming is different from downloading, but it puts a similar toll on a network connection. Your office Internet policy may ban streaming, so be sure to check if it’s allowed.

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Pandora lets you customize a station based on a song or artist you like. Simply enter your favorite musician or song, and Pandora finds similar music based on musical characteristics of your original choice. Use the “Guide Us …” tab to find out why a song was selected, and then help Pandora improve your station by choosing “I really like this song” or “I don’t like this song.” Save your radio stations with a free membership or use Pandora’s links to buy the songs (and albums) that it plays.

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Last.fm offers a service comparable to Pandora’s. Listen to free radio based on an artist of your choice and choose songs that you like and dislike. However, Last.fm is more robust in the social networking department. Anyone can listen, but if you sign up and download the software, you can also make a profile and share your favorite songs with others.

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SeeqPod scans the Web for your favorite song or band and collects the tracks that are available for streaming. The best part is that you can create playlists with the music you find, so you’re essentially programming your own radio station. Just note that the site is in beta, so watch out for both kinks and improvements.

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Launchcast , a Yahoo site, also offers numerous radio channels and customizable radio akin to Pandora and Last.fm. Unlike those two sites, you can customize your station by selecting one or more genres or albums, not just a song or artist. You’ll still have the ability to highly rate a song so that Yahoo knows to play it again, choose more like it, or blacklist a song from your station. It’s convenient for Yahoo users who don’t want to set up yet another account, but the player is not supported by the Mac operating system.

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