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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As a designer/developer, I constantly have many applications opened at the same time, like Photoshop, Safari or/and Firefox, Coda, iTunes, Mail etc, and when nearly all memory are consumed, my machine performs slower. At this point of time I will have to close iTunes and other applications. iTunes is one of those apps that I will close first as it is very memory consuming, by closing it it means I don’t have music playing in the background (which I absolutely hate!).

Wouldn’t it be great if you can still have your iTunes music playing without having iTunes opened?

Here’s when Everplay comes in!

Everplay

Everplay is a new lightweight standalone music player that plays your iTunes library without having to open iTunes to keep the music playing. From the makers of Coverstream, Snarb – Everplay shares almost the same UI with some slight color differences. The difference between Coverstream and Eveplay is that Coverstream is iTunes controller, it does need iTunes to be opened for it to be useful.

User Interface

Everplay spots a gorgeous Coverflow style UI, lets you browse albums, launch in fullscreen, use keyboard shortcuts for various music controls, integrates with last.fm and Apple Remote!

Browse Albums & Playlists Too

Not only can you browse albums using the default Coverflow UI, quickly select a playlist to play by clicking the button at the top right.

Queue Songs

Don’t like the default order in which your music is playing? Queue songs instead! Just navigate to any albums, right click on any song and select “Queue Song”. Your songs will be added to a list accessible via the menu bar where you can even drag to arrange the list!

Keyboard Shortcuts

For keyboard shortcuts lovers, there is a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for you to customize, eg. play/pause, stop, next/previous, find music, increase/decrease volume etc. Very handy.

Last.fm

Not sure how many of you are last.fm users, but if you are you’ll love the ease of scrobbling on last.fm.

Conclusion

Overall, the unique selling point of Everplay is that it plays iTunes music independent of iTunes. This is a huge plus for people who need the system memory for other more useful things.

Pricing

Everplay cost $19.95, you’ll get free updates for life. If you previously purchased Coverstream, you’re entitled to a 50% discount of $9.95 ($10 savings).

I’m still evaluating the app and comparing this with Ecoute, another awesome standalone iTunes music player too. You can read about Ecoute on Macstories.

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