Recording an Internet Radio Stream

Lots of Sciencetext readers, worried about copyright issues associated with Bit Torrent and other file sharing systems and more to the point ISP throttling of such systems, are apparently turning to internet radio streams for their listening pleasure. Given the dubious legal status (at best) of file sharing copyright music, streaming radio seems to be the only way to go. There are countless internet radio sites out there and many that play full tracks. Indeed, some streaming sites like the recently launched Deezer give you the chance to pick and choose the music you want to hear, so it’s like file sharing, but without the risk of exposure to legal recourse.

So, what if you are listening to a great track(s) and want to make a backup, so that you can listen again without wasting the streaming site’s bandwidth and all those electrons and photons that have to be sent back and forth in the process? Well, there are several ways to save an internet radio stream, it’s the green choice after all!

Netradio is a good program for Linux if a little dated. It plays and records from internet radio streams (using Realplayer or an MP3 player) or local files. It can be used with two commands (’at’ or ‘cron’) to record radio streams even when you are not logged into your computer. What’s more it’s free and open source from sourceforge.net

iMagneto does a similar job for Mac, but as well as recording audio streams, it also lets you record video streams transmitted over the internet. You can play and record your favorites streams as Web TV or Radio, ADSL TV and multimedia podcasts.

MediaPortal for XP/Vista helps you make the most of your media center. You listen, record and organize music, movies, radio, streams, pictures, and even pause TV. It can also add album art and song names to recorded files.

There are dozens more programs for recording an internet radio stream and those good folks at About.com have a nice comparison chart so you can figure out which one to choose based on your preferences for audio format, interface, noise reduction options, file splitting, and other parameters.