I am always plugged into new songs on my portable iPod or desktop computer, regardless of whatever I am doing. However, I also enjoy finding new songs that are still missing from my iPod playlists. In such situations, Internet Radio saves the day.

Radio channels streamed from the internet is a great way to listen to latest tunes as well as old classics. Things are pretty random with radio streaming, so if you are looking for a tool that will let you enjoy online radio stations from all over the world, try Nexus radio.

With a collection of over 15 million tracks and 11000+ radio stations listed, you will never get bored with music streamed with this free application.

Download Nexus Radio and install the tool on your computer. You will need to sign up for a free account to get started with it. Once you have successfully registered for a free account, use the login credentials to sign in.

NOTE: If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, the program may crash several times. It is recommended to start the player in administrator mode, to avoid the annoyance.

There are 17 tabs that you can use to control different parameters of the radio player as well as use it properly. I took a quick look at the tool and listed below are the most needed tabs along with the tasks that are included within them:

1. Music Search: This tab lets you search individual tracks, there are four sources to choose from and the count of the tracks is more than 15 million. Once the search is complete, choose the song and use the playback buttons to play, pause or stop the track. This is a great way to look for tracks you just can’t live without.

You can also use the “Save Song” button to download any selected song to your computer and listen it offline.

2. Stations: This tab lists more than 11000 radio stations from all over the world and all of them are categorized as per genres. Click a genre from the left tab and select the station from the middle pane. Use the play button to start playing the channel.

Use the “Quick Record” button to record the currently streaming radio station. There are an overwhelming number of radio stations available, so finding your favorite one is not a problem at all.

3. Record: This is one of the great features of the tool that lets you record live radio stream on a scheduled time. Choose a Genre from the dropdown at the top of the middle pane. Select the radio station, choose date and time from the left pane and hit “Save” to save the recording schedule.

4. Filters: If you are want to record a specific song or songs from a specific artist, creating filters will help you.

Go to the filters tab and click the “Add/Remove” button (just above the playback controls) and select “Add Filter” and enter the artist or song name. After you have added a filter, you will be prompted to activate it. You can also turn it off/on from the “Options” button located beside the “Add/Remove” button.

5. Equalizer: The tool has a built-in 10 band equalizer to adjust the sound quality of the radio stream or the songs playing. The equalizer worked perfectly for me and the sound quality can be optimized to great level to soothe your ears.

6. Effects: Next to the equalizer tab, there is an “Effects” tab which complements the equalizer effects, by letting you control the pan, speed, echo and reverb settings of the songs played.

7. Tagger: The tag editor can be found under this tab and can be used to edit the ID3 tag info of any track on your PC which is quite neat if you are using any portable device to sync songs with your computer. Although I feel a bulk editor would have been better.

8. Trimmer: The tool’s inbuilt trimmer can be used to cut selected portion of any song on your computer. There are times I need to change my cell phone’s ringing tone. Till date I have been using some dedicated online tools to get this task done. I’m glad to find another reason to stick with this free tool now.

9. Options: This tab contains all the additional options relevant to the tools working methods. You can set to start the tool as Windows starts, change the default download location or hide/unhide song pop ups within this tab.

The other tabs included in Nexus Radio can be used for visualization during playback, see top 100 song charts, watch music videos, install or uninstall plugins, see history and many more other things.

By far, I am more than satisfied using the program considering its all in one usability. Barring the case of crashing on several occasions, the tool worked just as fine otherwise. Do try Nexus radio once and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Firefox Add-on

The first is to a Firefox add-on called Fire.fm. Once you installed the add-on, it will load the Last.fm homepage. Sign in and give Fire.fm permission to access your account. A toolbar will be added with basic controls to start and stop a song, start a new station, change stations, adjust volume, ban or love a song.

The obvious downside to having this toolbar is the need to have Firefox running at all times. This isn’t all bad if you are surfing the web or don’t mind having a browser open all the time. On a Windows machine, Firefox must be minimized for the music to still play. Where as on a Mac, no window needs to be open or minimized for the music to keep playing. However, without the browser open, the controls are not available to skip, love or ban a song. Not very convenient.

Download

The desktop application for both Windows and Mac fills this void. The downloaded app gives you slightly more control and information than the Firefox add-on in a stand alone window.

The desktop app can be minimized or closed and still be controlled from the task bar in Windows or the menu bar on a Mac. The majority of the time, this is the method I use. I have things set up so I can stream audio from my computer to my home audio receiver in another room. I leave it on all the time when I am at home so there is always great music in the background.

On the Webpage

The most social way to use Last.fm, is via the website. The site offers a plethora of features so all of your friends know what your your listening to. You can share you library, suggest songs or artist you like to friends and so on. Those features are pretty common among most social music sites.

A feature that I really like is, Last.fm displays the local shows for artist that play in your radios stations. At first glance, this feature didn’t appeal to me; When I looked a little deeper, there were A LOT of shows at very small clubs and venues. Some of these shows weren’t advertised anywhere else in town. To top it off, there is an option to add the show date and information to your calendar with a reminder.

While viewing an event on the site, there is a spot on the page to let others know you are attending the show. This puts you on a list of attendees allowing everyone to see who else will be there.

Software Integration

Developers have created add ons to other apps like Aduim, iPhone, Android, social networking sites, Greasmonkey and many others. Through their hard work, it is  super easy to show the world your vast and varied musical tastes. Some of the add-ons will list or “scrobble” the songs you have listened to on other devices or with other apps such as iTunes.

What other ways do you use to access your Last.fm?