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Music on the Internet

Links, Players, and Live Streaming Broadcasts

animated musical notes on a staff

Copyright © 1997-2003, 2007, 2010, 2012-2013, 2015, 2017-2021 by David E. Ross

Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To … promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; …

U.S. Constitution, Article I

I believe in the benefits of copyrights. This Web page is copyrighted as are most of my Web pages. However, the current state of intellectual law is unacceptable. Extending copyright coverage to 90 years (Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998) violates the concept of "limited Times". The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) stifles innovation instead of promoting it. And the primary beneficiaries of these laws are not "Authors and Inventors" but corporate publishers, movie studios, and record companies who reap the bounty of others' creativity. If you agree that this situation is intolerable, tell your representatives and senators in Congress.

23 September 2003

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

William Congreve

I have enjoyed listening to classical music as long as I can remember. I bought my first vinyl LPs in the 1950s. They were monaural; stereo systems were still quite rare.

Today, I have an eclectic collection of LPs, cassettes, and CDs. The composers cover the alphabet from Adson ("Two Ayres for Cornetts and Sagbuts") to Ziehrer (the "Wiener Bürger" waltz). Genres include Baroque trumpet suites; Broadway shows with original casts and the off-Broadway original cast recording of "Hair"; Balinese gamelans and Indian ragas; Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; Barbara Streisand; all nine Beethoven symphonies; Bach, Bach, and more Bach; ditto Tchaikovsky; Bobby McFerrin with Yo-Yo Ma, Placido Domingo with John Denver, and Itzhak Perlman with Andre Previn; ragtime; French hunting horn calls; Shaker hymns; American, English, Irish, and Jewish folk songs; Dixieland jazz; French and Italian operas; big band and swing; and various concert performances of all the music from Disney's "Fantasia".

Music and information about music can be found on the Web at the following:

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of links to music on the Web. But each of the links above points to even more links. Part of the fun of surfing the Web is the search; you really do not want everything handed to you.

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

Duke Ellington


Streaming Radio

Streaming is a technology that allows PCs, Macs, and UNIX platforms to play a audio or video clip while it is still downloading. By extension, this allows for an infinite clip. For example, a radio station can feed into a streaming server. I connect to the server through the Internet and play that stream of data while it downloads without storing it on my hard disc. All of the following can play both audio and video streams from the Internet and also play audio and video files on the user's local computer.

RealPlayer logoRealNetworks®, Inc distributes RealPlayer®, both in a freeware version and a more elegant for-purchase version.

Warning: RealPlayer has its own cookies.txt file, separate from any cookies.txt file used by your Web browser. Cookies are set relative to advertisement clips that download and play prior to an actual connection to a streaming broadcast; cookies might be set for other reasons. RealPlayer has an option to disable the use of cookies. From the menu bar, select [Tools > Preferences]. Under Category on the left side of the Preferences window, select [Connection > Internet/Privacy]. On the Internet/Privacy pane, clear the checkbox for Enable Cookies to remove the checkmark. For additional information, see About Those Cookies….

Winamp logoWinamp (® Winamp SA) was developed and distributed by Nullsoft®, Inc. (a unit of AOL®, Inc.); but development and distribution were terminated at the end of 2013. In 2014, however, a new company named (appropirately) Winamp SA bought AOL's rights to Winamp and tried to resume development and distribution. Now, WACUP — the WinAmp Community Update Project — is unofficially continuing that effort while the Winamp SA Web site appears broken.

VideoLAN logoVideoLAN® (VLC) is a relatively new freeware entry among streaming broadcast clients. Since installing VLC, I find that it handles almost all stations to which I listen.

Apple Music logo Apple®, Inc. replaced its iTunes with Apple Music. I have not installed it, so I cannot comment on its capabilities. It appears to be "purchaseware" instead of freeware.

ClipGrab logoClipGrab® is NOT a streaming player. Instead, this application captures and downloads inline audio and video clips from Web pages.

Indicated trademarks belong to RealNetworks, Inc.; AOL, Inc.; Winamp SA; VideoLAN; and Apple, Inc. The trademarks apply to the names of the applications, their logos, and the companies.

images of U.S. stamps depicting musical instruments images of U.S. stamps depicting musical instruments
images of U.S. stamps depicting musical instruments images of U.S. stamps depicting musical instruments

Radio stations with streaming Internet broadcasts may be found on such Web pages as

Note that these may also list links to playable clips that are not live broadcasts. Some of these clips may even be downloaded and saved as files. Often, however, the clips are merely advertisements.

Below are listed streaming broadcast stations to which I listen. Most also broadcast over the air.

NOTE: Because of extortionate royalty demands by record companies (not necessarily supported by the performers and composers), many online broadcasters have either reduced the number of allowed connections, reduced the hours of connection, or ceased Internet broadcasting entirely. I call those demands extortionate because the recording companies are demanding a higher payment per listener from the online broadcasters than from the radio broadcasters. These demands are being made by the same four companies that destroyed competition in the recorded music industry by engaging in a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions. They suppressed Napster, sponsored the hated Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and want to extend copyrights indefinitely. These companies hold performers in long-term contracts that constitute indentured servitude and then engage in "creative bookkeeping" to deny them their fair share of the royalties they demand. If you are half as outraged as I am, write to your Representative and Senators. In the meantime, the list below is now shorter than it used to be.

In the listing below, the icons indicate which application I generally use for listening. Some stations, however, also provide streaming broadcasts for more than one application. Stations that broadcast only via applications embedded within a Web page are omitted because their broadcasts require dedicating a Web browser rather than a separate application, thus interfering with using the browser. Note that some of these Internet broadcasters require broadband connections; others support both dial-up and broadband.

In some cases, playing streaming broadcasts through a non-browser application required creating files on my Web site that are linked from the speaker icons. Those files contain the actual URIs of the streams, URIs that might not be recognized by a browser for launching a streaming application.

Many streaming broadcast sources frequently change the URI of their streams. If you find a stream listed below no longer works, please let me know. Note that some of these do NOT have classical music. I do indeed have eclectic taste in music.

Please let me know if any of these links are broken or if you want to suggest additional music links (both Web and broadcast).


Link to David Ross's home page
David Ross home

The stamp images in the middle of this page represent a combination of my hobbies. From the "Americana" series of United States definitive stamps issued in the 1970s, these samples from my collection relate music to the spirit of the American revolution and a celebration of democracy. They appear here, on a Web page devoted to listening to music.

Last updated 12 December 2021.

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