Winamp Shoutcast Radio

So lately I have been wanting to listen to some radio streams to help pass the time when I am doing work. I have found some good website alternatives like AccuRadio (http://www.accuradio.com/) but haven’t really been able to find anything specifically that meets my needs. After doing some searching around, I realized the answer was right under my nose, because Winamp, my regular media player, supports shoutcast streams.

Shoutcast Radio

Even the free version of Winamp will allow you to stream radio (Satellite radio style) onto your PC. I say “Satellite radio style” because the quality of these streams is extremely good, as well as, very little interruptions with the station itself. Every now and again there will be a DJ who will get on the channels and give a little blurb about the station you are listening to, otherwise its as good as gold.

I have been extremely impressed by how well this works and since it is free you really can’t go wrong. With hundreds upon hundreds of stations to choose from you can search for a specific artist to see if they are playing a song at that time, or you can search in that genre, for instance “Alternative Rock”.

Search: "Alternative Rock"

Once the search is complete you will have listings of the stations found under your search specifications. You will see the quality at which it is streamed as well as the current listeners. I would recommend staying on the MP3 type channels at 128 bit for the best quality. Not to mention you can also “Right Click” and Bookmark your favorite stations for later listening.

If your lucky, you may even find one of your local stations under a stream, in which you can get the same quality as if you were to have your radio running (Maybe even better). Unlike regular radio you CAN pause the stream, but as you resume the shoutcast the song will play for about 15 seconds and then skip to it’s current part in the stream.

After using this for about 5 days straight now I have been hooked on it and can’t seem to stop listening, as most of the DJs have a very good since of what songs are popular and you really won’t run into a station that is playing outdated music except if your looking for an “80’s Hits” station.

You can download this free version of Winamp from the Winamp website (http://www.winamp.com/player) [Full Version], which alone is worth the download as just a media player. The stream is already setup for you so all you need to do go into the “Media Library” under “Shoutcast Radio” and listen. I would advise that during installation you uncheck the “Winamp Agent” as it is completely useless, and on later installation options the “Winamp Toolbar” and look for some of the other things they have added with it to uninstall as well; these extras won’t harm your computer they are more or less worthless addons.

Remember this is a free service so they will add little things to get their money’s worth, but luckily you can uninstall them ahead of time to save you any hassle.

Anywho, good luck and happy streaming!