We are all used to Spotify & co, but of course there is still such a thing as live radio. And you no longer need a physical box for that: streaming is a breeze.
Radio still exists and this form of media will undoubtedly survive the coming decades. The reason is simple. Spotify and other music streaming services are wonderful. But sometimes you also miss the 'human factor' in it. Furthermore, most radio stations have also moved away from endlessly dazzling DJs, they have become much more radio shows nowadays. And then there are news channels and talk radio. Perhaps competitors of podcasts, but when there is big news going on in our little country, Radio 1 or BNR often works a lot better. Most radio stations can now be listened to as a stream in excellent digital quality. This can be done directly from the browser. For example, pay a visit to Allradio and you can listen to your favorite station after a mouse click. The time-honoured Nederland FM is also an excellent starting point.
Software
The big advantage of listening to a radio stream via the browser is that the trick works everywhere. Also at work, for example, where you often cannot and are not allowed to install software and the like on your work system. The disadvantage is that a browser window must always be open. If you accidentally close that window or crash the browser, the stream will be gone too. Moreover, a running browser requires more resources than, for example, a simple radio player. The latter category of programs is available in the app stores of the various common operating systems. For example, for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, myTuner Radio Pro is an excellent choice. You can listen to radio streams from all over the world, as well as podcasts. There is both a free and paid version of this app available.
TuneIn
TuneIn is a very well-known player in the field of streaming radio. You will not only find this software for all known mobile operating systems, but also in various music players for the living room. Highly recommended for your smartphone or tablet. You can choose from an ad-sponsored free version and a paid pro version. The nice thing about the latter variant is that you can also record radio streams with it. Unfortunately, the recordings are encrypted and only available within the app. They can't even be exported. On the other hand: if you have really made a unique recording, nothing stands in the way of connecting your smartphone or tablet to the line input of your sound card via an audio cable and thus still make an unencrypted recording.
NAS
Some NAS - such as those from Synology - have a music player app. It also contains a 'receiver' for radio streams. You can listen to the streams with the accompanying mobile app on your equally mobile device, or again via any browser. It becomes even more fun if you plug in a USB digital-to-analog converter on the NAS. You can then connect the NAS to your amplifier or a set of active speakers via the DAC. And let it play independently. Additional advantage of this solution: you are not only tied to radio streams, but you can also play your entire music collection that is on your NAS in this way.
