OS X Mountain Lion Bible

Listening to Internet Radio

The web and iOS devices may well kill radio—who needs to listen to the endless blather and commercials on most stations, anyhow?—but it also may reinvent radio. That's because radio itself is moving to the web. Podcasts are one example of how radio is adapting to the web and to the iPod and iPhone. But radio also is available in its “live” form as streaming audio—instead of its signal coming to you over the radio, it comes to you over the Internet.

In the Sidebar, click Radio to get a list of genres. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of a genre to get a list of available streams. Now double-click the desired stream to hear what is currently playing. (Just like radio!)

Tip

If you have the URL for an Internet radio “station,” a quick way to listen to it in iTunes is to choose Advanced⇒Open Stream or press +U, paste the URL into the Open Stream dialog box that appears, and click OK.