The two guides published in 2006 are obsolete now. They are both about software programs that are no longer available. This guide takes a look at a new and at the time of writing working method of downloading Pandora Radio to the PC. Even better, it uses a freeware application for that.

Head over to the Nirsoft website and download Video Cache View. Don’t let the name irritate you, it supports audio as well. The program basically scans web browser caches for media files and displays all files it finds in its interface.

The portable software scans for all media file formats in all browser caches. That may be a bit much and the first thing that we need to do after starting Video Cache View is to restrict the listing to audio. Click on Options in the menu and remove the checkmark next to show video files.

Now head over to the Pandora website and tune into a radio station there. I suggest you pick one of the top streams that are listed on the start page while testing. Make sure the radio streams music to your computer. When it does, switch back to Video Cache View and either wait until the program refreshes the listing automatically, or click on the refresh button manually to see the song that is now playing in the listing.

Chance is, you see multiple audio files in the listing. Use the following indicators to locate the correct one that Pandora sent to your computer. You can first sort by browser to limit the display. The file size should be more than 1 Megabyte and less than 5 Megabytes. The Pandora Radio music files usually show up as .tmp files without content type and download url. A right-click on a file and the selection of Play opens the file in the default media player on the system.

Once you have identified the song that is playing right now right-click it again and select the Copy selected files to option from the context menu.

Please note that cached music files are removed from the cache automatically when the song stops. This means that you need to save the Pandora song while it is playing. You will always download the full song though no matter when you start the downloading.

Is there an easier way to download Pandora Radio music to the computer? Probably. It would for instance be nice if the identification and download could be automated, or if the cached files would not be deleted right away after the music stops playing.

Know of a different way to rip Pandora streams? Let me know in the comments.

And instead of just recording one stream and thus one song at a time, you can use specialized programs like StreamWriter to download music from multiple stations at the same time.

StreamWriter has just been released in version 3. The multi-stream recorder is one of the most comfortable programs to record radio streams from the Internet. The program has come a long way since its first release which we reviewed in 2010 here on Ghacks.

The program’s core functionality was available back then as well. You could use it to record multiple radio stations at the same time and cut songs in the program, for instance to remove advertisement or moderators.

New features were added over time, like scheduled recordings to never miss your favorite radio show again or a wishlist of songs that get recorded when the songs are playing on one of the monitored radio stations.

StreamWriter 3.0 now improves the program further. The version is a culmination of previously released fixes and several new features, among them the ability to add already recorded songs to the ignore list to avoid recording them a second time, or the new per-stream ignore list.

Radio stations can be added via the playlist / stream url form directly, or from the radio station browser. Everything is well thought out and comfortable to use. To record radio, you simply double-click a station in the list. Everything else is handled automatically by the software. Back then I tested the recording capabilities and stopped at 15 simultaneous recordings. There does not seem to be a hard limit though.

The new version of StreamWriter improves the program further, making it one of the best, if not the best, applications for recording Internet radio on the PC.

The new version of StreamWriter can be downloaded from the official project website. It is available as a portable version and installer. You may also want to check out my Download Free Music Legally guide which offers more tips and program links.

StreamWriter is such an application. The program has a lot to offer: It can record music from multiple streams at the same time. Even better, it comes with a built-in auto-updating list of Internet radio stations that you just need to click on to start recording.

You are only limited by the available bandwidth and your computer’s processing powers. I had no problems recording ten different radio stations at once on my system.

Here is how it works in detail. You can copy and paste a playlist or stream url into the form at the top or use the radio station browser on the right to find suitable radio stations.

You can search for a specific station, or browse stations by genre, quality or file type.

A double-click on a station starts the recording right away. You can also right-click stations to play the stream in the streamWriter application first which is handy to check out the quality and music.

Additional options allow you to open the website of the radio station, play the station in an external player or save the station as a playlist file for later opening.

The program will record music for as long as you keep it open and running. You can at anytime stop the recording of an individual station or all stations that are currently being recorded.

Recorded songs are moved to the Saved songs tab where you can play them directly in the application. Another option is to cut recorded music which can be handy to cut off a dj or jingles that have been added to the recording.

You can also delete or remove songs again in case you are not happy with the recording or do not like the song.

Another interesting feature of streamWriter is located under Filters. Here it is possible to configure items for a wishlist and ignorelist. All previously recorded songs are for instance automatically added to the ignore list which blocks them from being recorded again.

The wish list does the opposite; Songs of the wish list will automatically be recorded if they are found on a stream.

You may also want to take a look under settings before you start recording Internet radio stations. You can configure file name patterns, post-processing settings and if the program should try to cut ads automatically.

StreamWriter is one of the most comfortable Internet Radio recording applications for the Windows operating system. You can increase the size of your music collection in no time, or use it to record only songs that you have added to the wishlist.

The program is available as a portable version and installer from the developer website.

Update: StreamWriter 3 has been released. You can read all about the new update by following the link above.

Recording music straight from Internet radio stations has never gotten the attention it deserves, as it offers an easy and convenient way of adding music to a collection.

Audials One is not only about music and recording Internet radio but it is a large part of the application. It offers a lot more than that, including unique features that make it a lot easier to find that one song that you have been wanting to have in your collection. How does Internet media recording, audio and video conversions and music collection organization sound?

Audials One Review

Audials One will scan the selected folder for music if the selection has been made during installation. The music is added to the database of the program so that it can be managed in the Organizer. Music is also listed on the right side of the interface with the ability to play and browse it directly there.

The two panes can be detached from each other, so that only the music player remains visible on the screen. That’s handy during recordings of music as the recordings are automatic and require no user interaction.

All recorded songs are automatically added to the playlist of the most recent songs with options to play, cut or remove files. Even better, Audials One automatically adds mp3 tags and cover art to the music if available.

The Radio tab is the default selection on startup. This screen can be used to record multiple radio stations at once. Radio stations can be selected by genre, e.g. Rock > Metal, Top 40 Charts or from one of the favorites lists that can be created by the user of the application.

The easiest way to download new music is to select a genre at the top, make a selection of the radio stations that should be recorded simultaneously (default 16) and start the recording by clicking on Start recording. A quick no-limits test on a 50 Mbit Internet connection allowed the recording of music from more than 80 stations simultaneously.

Audials One will automatically pull a list of radio stations from its database and start the recording of those stations. It is possible to switch to a bandwidth limit instead which is easier to handle for most users. Users on slow Internet connections may need to reduce the number of simultaneous recordings to avoid corrupt files.

Jobs can be created to record a certain number of tracks based on songs, data downloaded, total duration of songs or time of the day.

There is also an option to automatically convert music into mp3 format if the radio station streams it in a different format.

Lastly, it is possible to configure filters in the options. Filters range from preventing the saving of incomplete songs on the computer (or defining how much at the end and beginning may be missing), filtering radio station jingles, duplicates that are already in the database (unless they are of higher quality) and a so called hatelist that can be used to block specific artists or tracks so that they never get recorded.

Users who configure favorites have a far better option to customize the recording. It is possible to create multiple favorites, for instance for different genres. Favorites can be added and configured in the Manage Stations window. The very same window offers to manage all radio stations in the database, and offers an option to update the station listing and add stations manually to the application.

The station manager offers several filtering options. Stations can furthermore be sorted by various parameters including country, format or bitrate.

A right-click on a station displays options to record that radio station immediately, add it to the ban list, schedule recordings for that radio station, and to add it to the currently selected favorites. A link to the stations website is provided as well if available.

Audials One comes with a search that offers the user an option to find a specific song on radios or websites. The search is partly powered by plugins with the option to add new ones manually. The program links to a user forum of Audials One where users post their plugins. Preinstalled plugins include Amazon, Aol, Veoh, Youtube and Yahoo Music.

The results are excellent, especially with Youtube included in the mix. The converter will automatically convert selected songs into mp3 format, or another one of the available formats (like aac). Users may need to switch the conversion options from the default mp3 wmv to all to mp3, otherwise they end up with a video track if the source is video.

The search is an excellent option to find and download specific music from the Internet.

Another interesting related option is the ability to create wishlists which can then be fulfilled in the program. Fulfilled means that Audials One will search for the selected songs and download them if found. It is basically a batch version of the search feature with additional community features (e.g. to upload the wishlist).

Audials One supports podcasts and users can add podcast subscriptions to the application. A large selection of podcasts is available in the podcast directory. Users can pick a language, select if they want audio, video or audio and video podcasts. A right-click on a podcasts offers to subscribe, or auto subscribe to podcasts. The latter option starts the recording right away.

That’s still not everything offered by the program. The converter is used to convert files to the right format. One interesting option here is the ability to convert audio and video files from media as well. Audials One uses records the DVD while it is playing on the screen. Some countries have laws that prevent users from circumventing copy protections. This way the recording stays legal in those countries. The same is true for audiobooks, the second available option. Audials One can furthermore scan for files with DRM (digital rights management) and record them so that they become available without DRM.

It is naturally also possible to convert selected files that are stored on the local computer system.

Audials One offers two additional modules. The first is the capture module which can be used to record Internet media, the screen or sound.

The music organizer displays the current music collection. It offers options to search, reorganize and tag music. It is furthermore possible to sync music with another device easily.

Users should pay a visit to the program’s options. They find highly configurable settings here. Important are for instance the audio quality settings for recordings, the output folders and network settings.

Audials One Installation

The installation of the software is straightforward. It is possible to install it on a hard drive or on an USB storage device. Users will also see a prompt with an option to integrate the existing music collection into the application. That can be done during installation, or later on in the program as well. The import may take some time depending on the size of the local music collection. The actual scan of the selected folder is started on the first run if the integration option is activated during installation.

Verdict

Downloading music, lots of music, was never that easy. I have seen a lot of programs in the past that made it possible to download music from the Internet but not one was as sophisticated as Audials One. The ability to search for music, the automatic conversions, plugin system, creation of different favorite groups and the customization surrounding the recording of multiple Internet stations at once is superb. The software is ideal for users who want to grow their music collection, and for collectors who have a hard time finding music that they have been looking for a long time.

Giveaway

RapidSolution Software gave us ten Audials One licenses for this giveaway. The software retails for $79.90 and is currently available for $59.90. Users who are interested in the software can download a trial version directly from the developer’s site.

Please answer the following question for a chance to win one of the ten Audials One licenses: How big is your music collection on your computer?

But it has its drawbacks as well. Since it is only possible to select radio stations for recording, it is possible to end up with duplicate songs and songs that the recording user does not like.

We have reviewed many programs in the past that can be used to record Internet radio, from Streamripper over Streamrecorder to Radiosure, but none were that comfortable to use as streamWriter.

It takes less than a minute to record the first Internet radio station with streamWriter, thanks to its intuitive interface, and the fact that it is offered as a portable version and installer.

A radio station browser on the right offers filtering and search options to find suitable radio stations. The stations can be filtered by genre or quality (kbps), and searched for by name.

Users who have a favorite radio station can add the stream url to the application, to record that radio station as well.

A single click on any radio station in the station browser adds it to the list of stations that are recorded by streamWriter. All Internet radio stations added this way are displayed with their name, the current song title, the data received, the amount of songs recorded, the recording speed and the state.

recorded internet radio song listing

Recordings can be stopped and resumed at anytime. It is furthermore possible to listen to the stream or recorded songs and save the information in playlists.

Users who download the latest stable version of the radio recorder won’t see all features that the developer has implemented in the last month. One of the most interesting additions, besides from some layout changes, is the ability to cut mp3 right in the application. This can be handy to remove ads and other contents from the recorded songs.

The latest version of the program is offered as a download on the same page as the stable versions. I did not notice any stability or performance issues in that version.

StreamWriter is a comfortable easy to learn program to record multiple Internet radio streams at once. The program is Open Source and offered as a portable version and setup. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system, and available for download at the developer website.

Update: The developer has released StreamWriter 3, a new and improved version. You can read about StreamWriter 3.0 here.

Stream Harvester is a new program that has been released by the developer in an early stage of development. The program currently supports recording the playlist formats pls and m3u if they link to the media formats mp3, ogg or nsv. That covers most of the Internet radio streams on popular services like Shoutcast or Icecast.

The Internet radio recorder offers a semi-automatic approach. New radio stations need to be added to the program manually. One interesting option here is to select different storage locations for the recorded radio streams.

Every radio station that has been added this way is then listed in the program’s main interface which contains the options to manage the recordings.

It is here possible to start and stop the recording of individual radio stations. Stream Harvester can record multiple stations at once, the only limit is defined by the user’s Internet connection and PC.

One interesting feature is the relay option which can relay a stream so that it can be accessed by another application on the same computer system as well.

Stream Harvester is a simple program that can be used to easily record multiple Internet radio stations at once. The software program is compatible with Windows and Linux and can be downloaded from the Google Code project website.

The biggest plus over comparable products like Streamripper is the simplicity of the program. All it takes to start recording a radio station is to select it from the list of available stations.

These lists are sorted by popularity and genre. Each listed radio station features three icons that are used to add stations to the favorites, tune in and play a station or to record a station.

Multiple Internet radio stations can be recorded simultaneously by Radioget. All it takes to to that is to click on multiple recording icons in the radio station browser. There does not seem to be a maximum limit for the amount of radio stations that are recorded simultaneously. It all depends on the computer’s Internet connection.

It was for instance no problem to record 20 Internet radio stations at once with a 50 Mbit connection which probably would be able to record even more stations.

Another possibility to record Internet radio stations is the automatic recording options which will automatically record the configured number of stations in a selected folder upon program launch. This can for instance be used to record the ten favorite stations or the 5 most popular stations in a specific genre.

Radio stations that have not been added to the program yet can be added manually if they offer a pls file. This pls file needs to be downloaded and added to the program afterwards. An option to add the url directly would be nice but does not seem to be available.

Radioget tries to automatically discover tag related information like the artist’s name, album name or song name. If those values are provided by the radio station they will automatically be written as tags and in the filename to make identification easier.

The most recent songs that have been downloaded with the help of Radioget are listed in the program’s interface from where they can be played or deleted.

Another interesting option that Radioget provides is the ability to add artists to a filter list so that only songs of that artists will be downloaded while all other songs will be ignored by the program.

Radioget is a simplistic but effective Internet radio downloader for the Windows operating system. It does lack advanced features like the ability to add urls of radio station directly or settings like proxy support or changing the referrer.

Installation

Radioget is free if it is downloaded from the Giveaway of the Day website and installed on the computer today. The program is activated by clicking on the buy link in the left sidebar of the program after launching it.

The license information will be filled out automatically by the program. The program is fully licenses if the user clicks on the Finish button at the end of the buy screen.

The program and additional information are available at the developer’s website

The program uses three independent windows to control the recordings. Windows 1 is the start window with all options and configuration settings. The user can define the download path in here, load radio stations, change the skin, configure the build in Live365 support, change the default stream title format or generate a command line command for this preset which can then be used in batch files, loaded during startup or used in the Windows Task Scheduler.

Windows 2 lists all radio stations that have been added by the developer and user. It is possible to remove, add or edit the radio stations in the list.

The third and final window is the music player and recorder. It uses basic controls to play, record, pause and stop the music. The MP3 VCR tries to identify the name of the song so that it can save each tune with a descriptive file name. This is however only possible if the radio stations are including the title in the stream.

One interesting option is the ability to record radio stations for a certain time. This, in combination with the option to launch the program from the command line make it possible to record specific radio stations regularly.

The MP3 VCR can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system including Windows 7.

ESP is a software program that combines both concepts. It makes use of the Shoutcast directory of Internet Radios that the user can listen to online. It provides the means to record the active stream right away. Other applications that handle this well are Streamripper, Musicy and several music players like AIMP2 or XMPlay.

ESP would not be special in this regard if it would not offer a more or less unique feature in addition to being able to record Internet Radio. The software can automatically search for music that has been publicly made available by the artist or the record company. The developers say that ESP looks only for music that has been uploaded by the artist to social networking websites. The software itself will not display the source of the music download which could be reason enough for cautious users to not use the feature. Tests revealed that it pulled songs from websites like MySpace.

ESP is available for most Windows operating systems including Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The first step is to find an Internet radio station. The Shoutcast directory should provide something for every music taste on the planet. A simple click on Tune In should load the stream in AIMP2 if it is configured to play the playlist files of Internet radio. Since we have to configure one setting in the music player’s option anyway I show you how to make AIMP2 the default player for the playlist files first. Once that is done we are going to configure the options to save Internet radio in a proper format and select a directory on the hard drive.

Pressing [CTRL P] after starting AIMP2 will open the player’s options. Selecting the Associations entry under System will bring up the various compatible file types the player can play. If AIMP2 is your default player you can simple click on the Enable All button to associate all file types with AIMP2. The important file type for Internet radio is .pls which you find at the bottom.

AIMP2 should now start playing the Internet radio whenever you click on a link that leads to an Internet radio playlist. Now head over to the Streaming menu under Player.

You have to pick a folder where the music from the Internet radio station will be saved in. A directory of the data will automatically be added in the root directory. The second option is about the format of the recorded music. The default is wave which takes up lots of space on the hard drive. A better option would be to select mp3 as the format. Either 192 or 256 Kbit should be good choices. Other choices are ogg or flac.

Now that the settings have been made it is time to start the recording. The recording option is only available in the main client and not in the minimal client. You can start the recording by clicking on Radio Cap on the left side of the player. A blinking text indicates that the player is recoding the music.

Users who would like to record more than one station at a time might want to take a look at Streamripper instead.

Stripper is a Java frontend for Streamripper that offers and easy to use interface with the option to add and record multiple Internet Radio stations simultaneously. Both applications are available for a variety of operating systems including Windows and Linux.

I would begin by installing Streamripper on the system. Stripper itself is a JAR file that can be executed without installation if the Java Runtime Environment is installed on the system. It asks for a few preferences at start, most notably the path to streamripper.exe and the path where the music should be saved in.

It’s only a matter of finding a few Internet Radio stations where the moderators are not forced to talk into every song to prevent the clean recording. A good start is the Shoutcast directory which lists thousands of Internet Radio stations sorted by popularity and music genre.

The urls of the streams ending with .pls usually have to be copied and added as a new Stream in Stripper. A click on the record button starts the recording of that Internet Radio station.

I tested it with six simultaneous stations and it worked nicely. The limit seems to be the capacity of the user’s Internet connection more than anything else.

The frontend provides stream specific settings. Users can change settings like the User Agent, proxy servers, the maximum file sizes and length of recordings and even schedule recordings to record their favorite radio show. Tags and other information are saved by default if the stream is sending those information.

Thus, all those Internet Radio saving applications like Raima Radio, Stationripper or Phonostar have not made it into the final round. I also did not want to use huge media clients such as Windows Media Player that would simply suck up to many resources. What I wanted was a lightweight music player with the capability of recording Internet Radio streams.

I did find it. XMPlay is the client that is lightweight and is able to record Internet Radio streams. XMPlay uses just 6.8 Megabytes of Ram when playing high-quality Internet Radio which is as lightweight as it can get.

The function to record Internet Radio is already implemented and can be accessed by simply right-clicking the stream url in the music player and selecting ‘Write to Disk’ from the menu. This saves the stream from that point on until you stop the recording.

It is possible to record the stream as one huge mp3 file or save individual tracks which is probably the better and organized way to record Internet Radio.

The only reason why I would choose another application would be if I wanted to schedule a recording or record more than one station at a time. Raima Radio would be the software of my choice if I wanted to do any of the above mentioned tasks.

Read More:

XMPlay
Raima Radio

The tools main features are:

Record Shoutcast Audio and Video streams, and Podcasts
Records up to 600 streams at one time
Auto-download Album art

Integrate with iTunes – auto-generate iTunes playlists of songs recorded.
Keeps track of the songs you’ve already recorded, only keeping the songs you don’t already have.

Lots more on the official homepage that I posted above. The authors claim that they´ve been able to download more than 2000 songs in a period of 3,5 hours recording multiple streams at once. Just add your favorite stations from shoutcast.com and give it a try.

[tags]record, audio streams, shoucast, podcast, mp3 stream, save audio stream, rip, ripper, streamripper, stationripper[/tags]

[tags]mp3, ogg, wma, record radio, internet radio, live streams, streams[/tags]