If you are looking around for new options of Web radio, here are 6 of them that you can consider.

1. Deezer

The first one I came across was Deezer. It has playlists, radio stations and full albums to listen to. Deezer really lets you explore new music in all kinds of different ways. What I liked most about this site is the options; it isn’t just radio or playlists.

Deezer is laid out in a way which gives you plenty of way to start. Right in the center of the homepage are a few of the featured albums or radio stations. As you move down the page, you are presented with more options like featured playlists, songs topping the charts in different countries and a few featured webradios

2. Pandora

Pandora is one I have used a lot. The main reason I use Pandora so much is the app for my Blackberry. Having all of the basic functions and all of my stations with me where ever I am has been really great. When I am at my desk or on my laptop, I don’t always want to have my browser open.

Pandorabrowse (Windows) and Pandoraboy (Mac) allow such access.

What I do not like about Pandora is it play mostly well known groups. Also when you “thumbs up” several songs, it really narrows the amount of songs it plays.

3. Grooveshark

Grooveshark is a pretty cool site for finding new groups. The site and player has a iTunes feel to it. When you type a query into the search bar, it pulls up a window with a long list of possible matches. The selections had a pretty wide variety with a lot of groups I had never heard of. When you find an album you want to listen to, you can add either a single song or the entire album to your playlist.

Signing up for a free account gives you options to save songs, playlists and share the song via email, Twitter, Facebook and a few others.

4. Imeem

Imeem is a little different than the others in the way it pulls up the results. If you were to type in the artist Tricky into the search bar, it pulls up a bunch of individual songs with the word or artists with tricky in it. From this window, you can click the blue bar at the top of the list and add all of the songs in the results to a playlist. The playlist plays in a pop out window.

5. Playlist

Playlist is a great site for sharing music with friends. You can share an entire playlist of songs you have randomly chosen. Other sites typically let you share a single song or artist. On Playlist, you can see other people’s playlists in their entirety. You can also create a playlist of your own while listening to other people’s playlists. This is done simply by clicking the add tab to the right of the song playing. It will add that song to your list.

6. 8tracks

8track is another great site to share playlists with people. Much like some of the other sites, it is very easy to share your musical selections with others via social media. With 8track, it is easy to find and listen to random playlists. When you search for a particular artist or tag, it will pull up mixes created by others which include that artist or style of music. I really like this because you are not getting one artist, you are getting several all with similar styles but in the same genre. It is really easy to find new music this way.

Overall, I still use Last.fm and Pandora the most because of the mobile and desktop application options. I know I would use the others more often if such options were available to me. (My Blackberry 4.5 OS isn’t supported… I need an upgrade ASAP)

What sites do you use to discover new music?

Image credit: onkel_wart

6 Useful Web Radios For Music Listening originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

GNUMP3d – The GNU Streaming MP3 / Media Server

Platform: *nix, Windows, OSX
Browser/Client Player: Client
Supported formats: MP3, Ogg Vorbis
Configuration: Text File

So far, I think GNUMP3d is my favorite simple music streaming application. According to the website it runs on Windows as well as the UNIX type systems you’d expect from GNU. I’ve only tested it on Linux and it’s been a breeze.

To install GNUMP3d, you just download and extract the tarball from the GNUMP3d website, and run

make install

Configuration is done through a plain text file, instructions are provided on the website.

Once it’s up and running, you point a web browser to the address you’ve set up (like http://localhost:8888) and you should see a screen similar to the screenshot above. From here you can click directories or individual tracks. Each click will result in the server generating a playlist file (.m3u) which your host computer will open in whatever media player you have set up for M3U files. I tested it through VLC but the website notes that others like WinAmp and XMMS work as well.

Another handy feature found in GNUMP3d which seems to be rare with this type of software is that it allows not only streaming but plain downloads of the music files. You can download the MP3 as easily as you can stream it.

One thing I felt was missing from GNUMP3d was user access control. I’d like to be able to set permissions so that only those with the correct username and password can access my music collection. The README stated that similar functionality had been there for a previous release, but had been removed as it didn’t really do anything to improve security.It did, however, let me restrict connections based on IP address. This worked well for me as I intend to stream my home music collection from work, so I set it to only accept connections from my employer’s IP range.

Vibe Streamer

Platform: Windows (also reported to work through Wine)
Browser/Client Player: Browser
Supported formats: MP3
Configuration: Graphical

Vibe is the music streamer I’ve tested most in Windows.  Like GNUMP3d, it runs a mini webserver which gives you a browsable list of available music files. Unlike GNUMP3d, it is set up through a normal Windows graphical program. Another difference is that Vibe uses an in-browser player to play the music, instead of relying on a client-side program such as Winamp or VLC.

The one feature I really liked about Vibe was that it was very easy to set the server to only accept connections from someone with a proper username and password. It didn’t seem to use HTTPS so I can’t make any claims on how much that really improves security, but it’s a nice feature. It would at least stop someone from casually strolling on to my server and using up my bandwidth.

Icecast

Platform: Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris
Browser/Client Player: Client
Supported formats: MP3, Ogg Vorbis
Configuration: XML file

Of the software I reviewed for this article, Icecast was by far the most difficult to set up. Configuration is done through a XML file using a lot of unfamiliar terminology. I read over the docs on the website which clarified a few of the options, but there was a lot I had to figure out on my own.

Icecast streams music like a regular radio station, with a certain selection of music being beamed out to the world. You don’t have the control over music selection you have with the other options I’ve covered here. This is good from the server side, as you only need to send out a single stream which all listeners will hear. For my purposes, I just want the stream for myself while at work, and I’d like to choose my music selection as I go, so Icecast doesn’t meet my personal needs very well. If you intend to stream music to many listeners, the Icecast style might be the best way to go.

Apache

Platform: Just about everything
Browser/Client Player: Either
Supported formats: Anything
Configuration: Apache config is a BIG topic better handled elsewhere

That’s right, the plain old Apache webserver is all you really need to stream/download your music. It’s probably not the BEST option in most circumstances, but it’ll do the trick. You simply install Apache according to the instructions for your operating system, and drop your music files in the web folder. That’s it. You won’t have any nice graphics, no playlist support, nothing fancy just a list of files that can be clicked to download or stream, depending on client/server configuration.

IMPORTANT – As with any internet-connected server, be very careful about what you place for public access. Any of the software listed here could potentially have some kind of security flaw. On top of that, it’s probably a bad idea to host copyrighted music to the whole internet. Stream at your own risk.

What other software do you use to stream music over the Web? Share with us in the comments.

4 Easy Ways To Stream Your Music Online originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)