For optimal music appreciation, I recommend the website RadioTuna. It features a list of free online streaming radio stations, arranged by genre. You can also search by station, or by currently playing artists.
They file under genre according to their own analysis of what the station plays, not according to how the station markets itself. Though there are other online services to stream music online, the benefits of RadioTuna are that it is
available worldwide (as far as I can tell) and features radio stations from all over; unlike Pandora which is unavailable in many countries (including where I live)
the way it’s organised into genres and sub-genres mean you can start listening to a style of music you want to know more about without knowing any of the artists or terminology.
For example, a little over a year ago I decided I wanted to know more about Jamaican Ska—I found an appropriate station on RadioTuna, specifically playing first-wave jamaican ska, not the other derived genres, and left it on in the background while doing other stuff on my computer. Any time I heard a song I liked, I could just click into my DJ and see who it was by (without having to wait around for announcers to name the song and artist, or risk missing the announcement or mishearing it) - I now have a modest but working knowledge of Jamaican Ska music.
available worldwide (as far as I can tell) and features radio stations from all over; unlike Pandora which is unavailable in many countries (including where I live)
FWIW, I use Pandora and it is very similar. This is an obvious advantage, but if you have access to Pandora, I’m not sure which is better.
Back when Pandora first launched and was available in Ireland, I remember that it required you to put in an artist/song you liked and it would seek out similar music based on that artist/song’s features—this approach seems to be slightly different in that you don’t need to know any artists to start off with.
Though, now that I think about it, I’m probably more concerned with musical genre than a lot of casual listeners, and perhaps everyone is not aware of what the genre they are seeking is called. So this may only be of benefit to a minority of people.
For optimal music appreciation, I recommend the website RadioTuna. It features a list of free online streaming radio stations, arranged by genre. You can also search by station, or by currently playing artists.
They file under genre according to their own analysis of what the station plays, not according to how the station markets itself. Though there are other online services to stream music online, the benefits of RadioTuna are that it is
available worldwide (as far as I can tell) and features radio stations from all over; unlike Pandora which is unavailable in many countries (including where I live)
the way it’s organised into genres and sub-genres mean you can start listening to a style of music you want to know more about without knowing any of the artists or terminology.
For example, a little over a year ago I decided I wanted to know more about Jamaican Ska—I found an appropriate station on RadioTuna, specifically playing first-wave jamaican ska, not the other derived genres, and left it on in the background while doing other stuff on my computer. Any time I heard a song I liked, I could just click into my DJ and see who it was by (without having to wait around for announcers to name the song and artist, or risk missing the announcement or mishearing it) - I now have a modest but working knowledge of Jamaican Ska music.
FWIW, I use Pandora and it is very similar. This is an obvious advantage, but if you have access to Pandora, I’m not sure which is better.
Back when Pandora first launched and was available in Ireland, I remember that it required you to put in an artist/song you liked and it would seek out similar music based on that artist/song’s features—this approach seems to be slightly different in that you don’t need to know any artists to start off with.
Though, now that I think about it, I’m probably more concerned with musical genre than a lot of casual listeners, and perhaps everyone is not aware of what the genre they are seeking is called. So this may only be of benefit to a minority of people.
I believe Pandora will let you go by genre.
Fair enough, in that case the only real advantage I can see (without first-hand knowledge of Pandora) is availability outside of the US.