FStream: Lightweight Streaming Radio
Of the many features of iTunes, one that is constantly overlooked (even by Apple itself) is its streaming web radio capabilities. The number of stations available far surpasses 1,000 (that’s right, a thousand!) and it’s a great way to discover music the old-fashioned(ish) way. However, since iTunes is a pretty large application to simply use for web radio, FStream, a tiny, lightweight application, comes to the rescue and allows you to listen to internet radio and a teensy bit more.
Downloading FStream is simple; it’s under 4 MB and it works just like any OS X app. Once it’s ready and installed, FStream opens up as a tiny window, obviously taking a design cue from iTunes.
The two buttons on the right allow you to control volume or access the features shown in the screenshot. You can choose a previously-listened station or instert the URL of a stream to add it and start listening. FStream can also float above all other windows so it can fit neatly into the areas of free space to the sides of your dock.
FStream can also be skinned and even made semi-transparent. Undearneath the hood, FStream is compatible with the Apple Remote, Growl, and Apple’s text-to-speech software. Finally, pressing shift while using FStream allows you to record the current radio stream that you’re listening to and save it as an AAC file. What more can you ask for?
The iTunes’s web radio list is an excellent place to start looking for radio streams. FStream can be downloaded for free from the French site SourceMac. (English translation)
cool, I’ll check it out
Awesome application, thanks for the heads up!
Love this app. A little Applescript and iCal and I’ve got a radio-VCR to record some great CBC shows.
The developer responded very quickly and fixed a bug that I submitted. This thing is great.
Very, very cool little gadget. I like to listen to music while I work, but I do a lot of graphics work and have multiple applications open all the time, so I don’t want iTunes open at the same time. I have been listening to music from my iPod, but this is really nice, especially the Growl notifications and the Apple remote operation!
Sweet!
Love this application, but…
…can it stream wirelessly to my Airport Express to play on my stereo system like iTunes can? I haven’t figured out a way to do it with this, so if anyone knows, tell me!
Use Airfoil.
Hmm. $25.00? There must be a better way….
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOf the many features of iTunes, one that is constantly overlooked (even by Apple itself) is its streaming web radio capabilities. The number of stations available far surpasses 1000 (that’s right, a thousand! … [...]
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptand it’sa great way to discover music the old-fashioned(ish) way. However, since iTunes is a pretty large application to simply use for web radio, FStream, a tiny, lightweight application, comes to the rescue and allows you to listen to … [...]
Great little app ; simple, straightforward and easy to configure. Great choice to listen to radios on the internet.
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So how do I get from the Itunes radio list to Fstream? I can play the station in iTunes but iTunes doesnt give me a url or anything that I can copy – in fact it doesnt let me create a favorites list even within the radio section (. So again, how do I get a radio staton into Fstream from itunes? THANKS
Winston, just go cmd-I on a radio station and at the bottom of the summary pane, you’ll see the URL. Copy it.
Thanks Rick,
I was running iTunes on Windows though – ill try out your suggestion on my Macbook and see if it works differently than Windows (CTRL-L on Windows does nothing as far as I can see)
…BUT I just noticed and clicked the “PRESET” button on Fstream (on the ipod) and wham all of the itunes stations are ALREADY there on FSTREAM – this is GREAT!
One LAST comment just in case anyone else wanted the answer. Turns out that you can’t modify the list of stations in the RADIO folder as it is maintained by Apple – BUT, if you create a play list say MYRADIO then you can DRAG any of the radio stations from the RADIO folder into your playlist and if you go into the playlist and any of the entries you can view or edit them INCLUDING the URL for the stream.
I have the URL of a station I like how do you find the format and bitrate? Thanks, Glenn
I was wondering where can I get some new skins for Fstream?