Once you got that install the software. You might notice the Winamp Plugin which is probably the better way of saving Internet Radio tracks because you can use it from within Winamp that way. Since I’m not using Winamp I favor the command line option. Another option would be to install Winamp and use it just for the purpose of downloading Internet Radio tracks.

Streamripper can save track information, like artist and album, if the Radio Station is sending those information. This is great because you will end up with correctly named and tagged tracks. If no information are send you will end up with one huge mp3 file in the end.

I assume you have installed Streamripper and are ready to go. The first thing that we need to do is locate a Internet Radio stream. You can use shoutcast for this for instance which is a directory that contains hundreds, if not thousands, of Internet Radio stations that can be listened to directly with the click of the mouse.

What you need to do to find out the stream url is the following. Right-click the tune in button on the Shoutcast website and select Save Link As from the menu. This will download a .pls file that contains the information that we need. Open the Playlist file in a text editor and locate the line beginning with File1=. The stream url is located in that line.

Now open the Windows command line (Windows R, cmd, enter) and navigate to the directory where Streamripper was installed to. It is located by default in the streamripper folder in program files.

cd c:\program files\streamripper

The command to start saving songs from Internet Radio stations is a basic one, it is.

streamripper url

Enter the stream url that you found earlier and Streamripper will automatically begin to download songs to your hard drive. One useful parameter is the -d parameter which defines the directory where the music is saved into.

streamripper url -d e:\music\new\

This would save all songs in e:\music\new\. The major benefit of running Streamripper in command line mode is that you do not need to listen to the music while ripping. It’s a bit more complicated than using Winamp or XMPlay but it’s probably worth a shot if you have none of these players installed.

If you want to save two streams at the same time you simply open another command line window and use the command with the second url again.

It supports scheduled recordings which is great if you listen regularly to stations that offer music that you would always like to record even if you are not at home. This alone is a feature that I have not seen in another software that is able to record Internet radio.

Another unique feature that is worth to mention is the support for Winamp audio plugins and a cover album downloader that tries to download the correct cover for the song that is currently playing.

Several other feature set it apart as well from other online music recorders. Those are station favorites, the ability to browse the shoutcast directory, selecting random stations, recording size limitations and hundreds of preselected radio stations that can be sorted by country, genre and network.

Probably the best online radio recorder in existence.

Tun3r is a web service that steps into this niche and provides a way to tune into hundreds of radio stations from their website and load the playlist into your mp3 player once you found a station that fits the profile.

Tun3r basically offers two methods of finding a radio station. The first is to perform a search for an artist, a song, a genre, a language or homepage and the second is to simply tune into the radio stations and listen to the music they are playing on the Tun3r website.

The second method reminds me a lot of the way one would tune into classic radios by changing the frequencys which is beautifully visualized on the main page of Tun3r.

Besides listening to the current song you see a selection of songs that have been played on the station plus additional informaton such as homepage and stream links and a description of the station.

I really like the way Tun3r is handling that many radio stations and prefer it over websites such as shoutcast who simply list hundreds of radio stations on one page.