How to record Internet radio (or any audio) on your computer

How to record Internet radio on your computer

By J.D. Lasica
Ourmedia

Several software programs will allow you to record any sound that comes out of your computer, including music. Some of these are free, some not.

On the free side there's StationRipper, which lets you record Internet radio stations and broadcasts. It also comes with two for-pay versions that offer more functionality.

Streamripper is an open source application that lets you record streaming mp3s to your hard drive, creating separate files for each track. It runs on Windows and Unix.

The best-known product for sale is Replay Radio from Applian Technologies (disclosure: Applian is a sponsor of Ourmedia). The $30 program lets you record about 1,000 shows and 1,300 Web radio stations sort of like a TiVo digital recorder for audio. You can give it a free test drive at replay-radio.com.

"This works great if you're only interested in hearing a show, as opposed to turning streaming music into MP3 file collections for use on mobile digital players," writes Jim Coates of the Chicago Tribune. "A large and growing number of commercially peddled programs handle that MP3-from-streaming audio but most of them are a bit weak on the scheduling aspect."

Applian also offers a more powerful program, for $50, called Replay A/V. It can create MP3 files of streaming music cuts, and you can tag each one with a song name, artist, genre and with other categories, as you see in iTunes.

Audio MP3 Sound Recorder, a $15 program from mp3-recorder.biz, lets you click an icon and turn streaming audio into MP3 files on the fly.

High Criteria's Total Recorder will let you record almost anything off your computer — streaming audio, mic input, line-in input as well as CDs and DVDs — and it's almost impervious to digital rights management. The $18 program can be downloaded here.

Ambrosia Software's WireTap Pro ($19) lets you capture any audio your Mac is playing. Fire it up, turn on capturing, then start playing the music or audio file. A free version lets you record AIFF files.

Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack ($16) and Audio Hijack Pro ($32) offer similar functionalities for your Mac.

iRecordMusic from Bitcartel for the Mac is a quasi-radio TiVo. The $25 program records streaming Internet radio feeds, whether they are served by RealPlayer, Windows Media Player or QuickTime. After one-click recording, the content is encoded as unprotected AAC (mp4), mp3, Ogg Vorbis, Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) or LAME mp3 and is suitable for playback on an iPod. Bitcartel also sells a $15 RadioLover recording program.

TimeTrax is an application that lets people record satellite radio streams.

Also, a $70 device from Griffin Technologies called the RadioShark lets you record your favorite traditional over-the-air AM and FM radio shows to your home computer and enjoy them later either from the desktop or a portable device. It doesn't record Internet radio, however.

Sources: Ourmedia; Jim Coates, Chicago Tribune

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