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[jballi]

If you missed part 1, you can find it here. This is not really part 2, just another take on the same subject: XM Radio For Free.

Background
OK, let me break it down for you...

A few of the popular XM Radio channels are available for free from AOL Radio. In part 1, I told you about the AOL Radio player, a small web applet that allows you to play AOL Radio stations. The player has changed in time from a small pop-up window (hated it) to just another web page (better). In order to play their content, the web site uses software (AOLMediaPlaybackControl.exe), that must be downloaded/installed if you don't have it already.

Although this service has been available for a couple of years, the software/implementation/services has gone though a number of changes; i.e. they are still working on it. The AOL Radio web page is still labeled as BETA.


Winamp
A while back, AOL Radio content was offered via the Winamp media player. Just in case you didn't know, AOL purchased Nullsoft (the makers of Winamp) in 1999.

Although Winamp is my media player of choice, I foolishly resisted using it because I wanted to keep the player as small as possible and AOL Radio is only available if you have the "Online Services" plug-in installed. The "Online Services" plug-in is installed by default with most versions (Full, Bundled, Pro, etc) of Winamp. When I downloaded the latest version of Winamp, I decided to take the plunge and now I'm hooked!

All of the stations available from the AOL Radio web site are available on Winamp. Just open the "Media Library" window if it is not already open, go to the "Online Services" section and then click on "AOL Radio with XM". In addition to the 20 XM Radio stations, there are more than 200 AOL radio stations to choose from.

Want more on-line radio stations? Go go to the "Online Services" section and then click on "SHOUTcast Radio". There are more than 21,000 online radio station to choose from.

The radio stations can be bookmarked so that you can create a list of favorites. My advice: Use the bookmarks. Who has the time to search through 21,000+ stations to find your favorites? Also, the bookmark name usually contain extraneous information. Rename (shorten) them. You'll thank me later.


Links

Winamp Media Player
http://www.winamp.com/

If you don't want install Winamp, you can still to listen to AOL Radio from here:
http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb

...and SHOUTcast Radio from here:
http://shoutcast.com/

[majkinetor]

[Rhys]

Agreed - WinAmp used to be a must-have app for me, but it's gone way downhill.
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[jballi]

I've been listening to my own music recently so it took me almost 3 weeks to notice that as of May 1, 2008, AOL Radio is no longer carrying any XM Radio channels. Here's one article I found with more information: http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/aol-radio-to-drop-xm-feed/

Well it was good while it lasted...

The good news (I guess it's good news?) is that AOL Radio has 200 channels to choose from and they have always had an alternative channel for most of the popular XM Radio channels. For example, instead of XM's "Flight 26: Mix of modern hits from the '90s and today" you can listen to AOL's "Pop Mix: Best of the '90s and today". AOL also has a bunch of specialty stations like "1-Hit Wonders", "All Madonna", "All Green Day", "All Metallica", etc., etc.

Like XM Radio, some of the AOL Radio channels are commercial-free but I've noticed there are a few more channels with commercials on AOL Radio. As I've mentioned in the past, the number of commercials per hour is nothing as compared to broadcast radio. If a channel has any commercials at all, it may have 1 or 2 minutes of commercials per hour as compared to the 12 to 16 minutes of commercials per hour on broadcast radio.

Of course if you want totally commercial-free radio channels, there is always SHOUTcast Radio (link in the top post) with more than 24,000 channels and growing as well as the thousands of other on-line radio stations available on the web.

Them be my thoughts. Keep listening...

[k3ph]

just a little note: you don't need winamp to listen to shoutcast radio.

lightweight alternative:
http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html