Internet Radio

Eversince i got broadband connection i wanted to listen to internet radio. So as usual the first thing i did was to google for online radio channels. Then i found link to http://www.xmradio.com. Unfortunately accessing this site required me to shell out some money. However there was a 3 day trial offer which i tried. Thus i got my first feel of internet radio. XM Radio Online has a very good catalogue of channels and programs,currently being broadcast. It comes with a online player - XM Radio Online Player, so we neednot have real player or anyother media player installed. XM Radio Online has around 100 radio channels broadcasting various things like news, comedy shows, kids shows, musics of various genres like rock, blues, jazz, country, world, hip hop, dance, christian etc. Its worth a shot.

Easiest way to get access to free internet radio is through real one player. It has categorised various radio channels into Rock/Pop, Alternate/Punk, Rap/Hip Hop, Country, Jazz,..., News, Sports,Talk etc. Every category has a suggested list of stations. We can also see all the stations in each category. We can create a personal account in the real player and make a preferred list of stations etc. http://radio.msn.com is also a very good place for internet radio. Numerous channels are catalogued here. One channel that particularly interested me was http://beethoven.com. It calls itself "the world's classical radio station". It surely is. It features live classical music 24x7. There are many more such stations, i haven't yet tried listening to.With internet radio around, i have stopped brooding for having in my house a radio which refuses to play and a TV which has seen more new years than me.

Advantages of Internet radio over Traditional radio:-Apart from PCs it can be accessed through mobile devices like car radios, cell phones, PDAs etc. Along with the audio content related media like photos, track info can also be broadcast. It is easier to start a Internet radio broadcasting station...

The following links gives detailed description of working of Internet radio

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-radio.htm