I have been listening to internet radio more than before. I thought it was more fun to listen to internet radio right on the Mac itself, rather than having to play local radio stations on a separate radio receiver.

I was using Snowtape previously and it gets the job done in an awesome user interface, it also lets you record internet radio etc. But what if you just want the core feature of an internet radio app, that is to listen to the radio.

Meet Radium

Radium by CatPig Studios got you covered. And the best thing about Radium is that it is a faceless app. Well almost.

There is no window or dock icon, it just sits quietly in the menubar just doing its job. Radium is one example of an app that does only one thing but does it extremely well.

User Interface

You can control Radium by clicking its icon on the menubar. The search box is immediately highlighted to let you search quickly for a radio station. The volume and playback controls are at the bottom of the interface. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to control certain aspects of the app (which we’ll discuss later).

Favorites

To access radio stations that you frequently listen, mark it as a favorite by clicking the star beside the radio station. To see all your favorite stations, click on the star beside the search box.

Radio Networks

There are tons of radio networks to listen to. if you can’t find one in the list, add it using a URL.

You can even request a radio network to be added by telling CatPig Studios.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Of course, no app can ship without keyboard shortcuts. :) The most useful one I find, is the “Play/Stop” shortcut. When I receive a call, this is the key combination I hit.

Conclusion

Radium is an app for listening to internet radio and nothing else. I love it and use it very often. When you’re listening to music, the app should naturally be in the background and Radium is TRUELY in the background, not getting in the way and just playing the radio stations you love.

Radium cost $16. And yes, we have a giveaway for this!

Giveaway

Thanks to CatPig Studios (cute name by the way) we have 5 free licenses to giveaway! Winners will be announced on Sunday, 18 April.

Just share with us what genre of music you like most in the comments. :)

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This is one app that I absolutely love in terms of functions and looks, 5 upon 5 stars. I finally took a break from iTunes and off to exploring more new music from the realm of internet radio stations. SUBERAPPS readers gets a 20% discount code! Read on.

When I was a kid, I used to love listening to the radio. I didn’t have much money to spend on CDs, so I bought empty tapes to record songs played on the radio so that I can listen to my favorite songs over and over again!

Times have changed very quickly, tapes are a thing of the past. You can now listen to radio on the internet. Internet radios are great ways to discover new music, wouldn’t it be great to be able to record internet radio so that you can keep the song permanently with you?

With Snowtape, this is possible – and more!

Meet Snowtape

Snowtape lets you listen to internet radio, record them and even export recorded songs directly to iTunes with just one click!

To me, Snowtape is like iTunes but for radio stations and even more beautiful.

Features

Radio Stations
Snowtape is able to store thousands of radio stations to let you explore the almost infinite world of internet radio stations. Found one you like? Mark it as favorite to quickly listen to that radio station later.

Record

Snowtape not only lets you record broadcasts from radio stations, it took recording even further by helping you cut the tracks at audio track boundaries automatically. This means that the songs you record are complete soundtracks stored in your repository as individual songs (with album artwork fetched from Last.fm!), rather than a long piece of audio track. Snowtape can also identify commercials or interludes, automatically excluding them from the recordings.

What more do you need to do? Just hit the record button and let it run on auto-pilot!

iTunes Integration

For every recorded track, Snowtape will check if the track is available on iTunes. If it is, it can bring you to the artist directly in iTunes with one click! I don’t know how this can be useful when you can export the recorded track to iTunes, saving you one buck or so. The only thing you might want to buy the track off iTunes is when the track wasn’t recorded properly which is rare, or you simply want to support the artist.

As you should know by now, iTunes also lets you play internet radio. But if you want to streamline and manage radio stations all on Snowtape, just drag the item from iTunes into Snowtape and it’ll do the rest.

Importing

Not only can Snowtape import radio stations from iTunes, you can also import URLs of any radio station and Snowtape will check if it is valid before importing.

Controlling Mini Controller

You can either run Snowtape in a window, or as a mini controller. As gorgeous as the app window itself, you can park the mini controller anywhere on your screen with full controls for playing, pausing and recording.

Want to control Snowtape on your couch? You’re covered! Just download the Snowtape remote from iTunes (for iPhone and iPod Touch at $0.99). The remote is everything you would expect from Apple’s remote for iTunes. Play, pause, record, volume control, select radio stations, favorites etc.

Conclusion

For $29, Snowtape gives you maximum satisfaction on your music needs, digital radio style. Download it and give it a try, and if you decide to buy, take advantage of the 20% discount by using the coupon code – SUBERAPPS.

I hope you enjoy Snowtape as much as I do!

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