Listening to Internet Radio

You probably enjoy listening to your favorite radio stations in your car or home stereo. These stations broadcast their signals over the airwaves, but they have limited range. With iTunes, you can listen to Internet Radio stations from around the world that broadcast everything from the blues to pop favorites for free.

The better-sounding streams require broadband Internet access, because higher quality requires more song data.

Tips

Add radio stations to a custom playlist

You can add your favorite stations to an iTunes playlist so that you can quickly tune in any time you want. To do so, create a new playlist and give it a name, for example, "My Radio Stations." Then, just drag a few of your favorite stations to your playlist. You’ll notice a radio icon appear in front of the station names you add.

Choose the bit rate that matches your Internet connection

If you’re using a 56K modem to connect to the Internet, you’ll want to choose stations that broadcast at 56kbps or lower to receive uninterrupted playback.

Add a status column

If you want to quickly check to see if one of your favorite Internet radio stations is active, hold the Control key and click the header. From the menu that appears choose Status. A new column will be added so you can tell at a glance whether a station is active or inactive.

Open a radio stream in iTunes

If you go to the web page of your favorite local radio station, you might find that they have a "listen online" link. In some cases, clicking this link will add the radio station to your iTunes music library and start playing. This is a great way of adding your favorite stations to iTunes.

Keep your radio stations up-to-date

New radio stations are regularly made available through iTunes. To be sure you keep your radio stations current, select Radio in the Source list, and then click the Refresh button in the upper-right corner of the iTunes window. iTunes will automatically update your list with the latest stations.

Removing Internet radio from the Source List

If you find that you don’t listen to Internet radio stations, and want to remove the Radio item from the Source list, go to the iTunes menu and choose Preferences. In iTunes preferences you can deselect the Radio item, and the Radio item will be removed when you click OK.

Steps

Listen to an Internet radio station in iTunes

Make sure you’re connected to the Internet.
Select Radio in the iTunes Source list.
Click the disclosure triangle to the left of a category to see which stations are available in that genre. In the Comment column, you can read a brief description of the type of music each station plays.
Double-click the station you want to listen to. Watch as iTunes connects to the station and begins to play.
If it starts to skip or stutter, your Internet connection might not be fast enough. If this happens, try a station with a lower bit rate.