Listening to radio can be done in various ways nowadays. A classic method is using a traditional radio receiver at home or in the car. Alternatively, many radio stations also offer their programs online. With a computer, laptop, or smartphone, you can easily access these radio streams over the internet and listen to them live. Additionally, there are special radio apps that provide a wide selection of radio stations from around the world. We have conducted research to identify the best apps to listen to radio and present them here.
Listen to radio with the best apps
Enjoy radio for free with the Audials Play app for Android or iOS. Alternatively, you can use the Audials Live online radio app on your PC or mobile device. Both options are free and ad-free.
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Radio streams that can be recorded with Audials do not use any effective protection against recording and output unencrypted audio e.g. on the PC's sound card. Audials always only records such unencrypted audio data. According to US Copyright Law “No action may be brought … alleging infringement of copyright based on … distribution … or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a … digital audio recording device”.
The Best Radio Apps to Listen to Radio
1. Audials Play
Audials Play is a versatile application for playing music, podcasts, and radio stations. It provides access to a wide selection of radio stations and podcasts from around the world. With Audials Play, you can listen to 10,000 US-American and a total of 100,000 radio stations. You can listen to your favorite radio stations live and record them simultaneously. The search function allows you to specifically search for content such as bands, artists, and stations. Frequently listened to stations can be saved as favorites. Based on your favorites, you will receive recommendations for additional radios, as well as displays of recently listened to radios, top artists, and stations near you.
Other useful features include an equalizer for optimal sound and a sleep timer. The Android app is equipped with a radio alarm clock, Chromecast, Android Auto, and its own alternative car mode. The iPhone app supports Apple CarPlay, a car mode, and AirPlay. Audials Play is available for free and is ad-free.
If you prefer not to install apps, you can use the web app Audials Live to listen to radio, search for stations by genre and country, and save them as favorites permanently after logging in. Whether on your PC or smartphone.
One disadvantage of Audials Play is that "music wish" is only available in the paid version, Audials Play Pro.
2. Radio.net
On radio.net you have a large selection of 60,000 US and foreign radio stations. They are sorted by topic, regional stations, genres, top stations and federal states. For each radio station there is a brief information, a list of associated and similar radio stations. You can add beloved stations to favourites, but they will disappear as soon as you delete the cookies in your browser. There is no permanent management of favorites on radio.net, because you cannot register. On radio.net you can listen to radio for free, but you will see advertisements on this website.
3. TuneIn
TuneIn offers a free web radio app that can be used to find, listen to and explore radio stations from all over the world. TuneIn has found an usual solution because they show you in the Radio section an interactive world map where you can select countries and discover new radio stations. A registration is offered so that you can save radio stations as your favorites permanently. To search for stations by keyword, you need to open the Search section. There the TuneIn web app does not show music genres, so if you are interested in a specific genre, you need to type it in the search.
If you search for some popular genres like pop or jazz in the map, you will not find anything.
In Music you will see most popular radios, a number of genres, local and popular radio stations. Furthermore, the free TuneIn web app has a Podcasts section where you will see most relevant podcasts in your country, but searching for podcasts is not possible.
TuneIn is available as an application for Windows, Android and iOS with more features.
4. Audacy
Audacy is a free web app that can be used to listen to radio and podcasts of Audacy, Inc. and some well-known radios, for example CNN. The web app has a view for each station with a short description, list of recently played songs, shows, and further content like similar radio stations and stations near you. If you register, you will be able to save radio stations as favorites and access them on all devices.
Unfortunately, the Audacy web app is available in the US only. The well-structured web app user interface does not contain any ads, except for ads played the radios themselves.
Audacy is available as an Android or iOS app so that you can listen to your music on the go.
5. iHeart
iHeart is a free web, Android, and iOS app to listen to the most popular radio stations in the US, Australia and New Zealand. Discover new artists, sort and browse for radio stations by genres and access podcasts, both on the web app and the smartphone app. Please note that the free smartphone app contains ads in contrast to the web app. If you want to listen to radio stations from other countries, you will have to search for a second app.
Comparison of the Best Radio Apps
The table below summarizes all radio apps presented on this page:
| Audials | radio.net | TuneIn | Audacy | iHeart | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Which radios are available? | from all over the world | from all over the world | from all over the world | Radios owned by Audacy, well-known US radios | well-known radios from US, New Zealand and Australia |
| Number of available radio stations | 100,000 | 60,000 | 100,000 | several hundreds | unknown |
| Favorite stations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Listen to podcasts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| web app ad-free | ✔ | x | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| smartphone app ad-free | ✔ | x | x | x | x |
Results: Audials is the Best App to Listen to Radio
If you compare all the radio apps, you will see that not all of them give access to radio from the entire world. Many web and smartphone apps contain ads. So if you want to get the maximum choice without seeing any ads, Audials will be the ideal option for you.
Please note
Music played by online radio stations is copyrighted. Any redistribution of it without the consent of the copyright owners may be a violation of the law in most countries, including the USA. Audials AG is not affiliated with the online radio stations, the music played by them, nor the company that owns the trademark rights to the online radio stations. This page is provided for compatibility purposes only, and in no case should be considered an endorsement of Audials Software products by any associated 3rd party.