Online Radio Guides
Everything you need to get more from online radio, written in plain language: how to get started, how streaming works, what to do when something goes wrong, and how to find the music and talk you like. Each guide is written and checked by our editorial team and opens with a short summary of its key points.
Getting started
New to online radio? Start here.
How to Listen to Online Radio
A beginner's guide: what you need, how to find stations by country, language and genre, and tips for phones and computers.
Read the guide →Smart Speakers, TVs and the Car
Get radio from your browser onto Bluetooth, Echo, Nest, HomePod, Chromecast, AirPlay, a TV or your car.
Read the guide →Radio Stream Not Playing?
Ten fixes that usually work when a station will not start, buffers or keeps cutting out.
Read the guide →How radio works
What happens between the studio and your speakers, and what the numbers mean.
What Is Internet Radio?
How a live broadcast travels from a studio to your browser, and what codecs, bitrates and buffering mean.
Read the guide →Streaming Quality and Data Usage
A clear table of how many megabytes each bitrate uses per hour, with monthly examples.
Read the guide →Internet Radio vs FM, AM and DAB+
An honest comparison of sound, coverage, cost, data use and reliability, and which to use where.
Read the guide →Radio and Streaming Glossary
Plain-English definitions of AAC, bitrate, buffering, DAB+, HLS, Icecast, RDS and more.
Read the glossary →Discover and go further
Find stations you will love, put radio to work, or start your own.
Radio Genres Explained
What to expect from pop, rock, jazz, classical, talk, community radio and world music.
Read the guide →Learn a Language with Radio
Which stations suit each level, a weekly listening routine, and where to find stations by language.
Read the guide →Start Your Own Internet Radio Station
Servers and hosting, free broadcasting tools, bandwidth maths, music licensing and getting listed.
Read the guide →About our directory
How we build the lists, and answers to common questions.