Music apps. There's about as many of them as there are radio stations around the world. From simple local radio apps, to media centers to control all of your MP3s and such. Hell, my droid devices are the first time I've ever paid any attention to PODcasts... so here's me making the giant leap into the 1990s...sigh.
When I got my droid phone, I shoved the 2GB SD from my old Palm phone into the well-concealed slot on my Photon. I deleted all of the folders my Palm made, which were empty anyway (stupid Palm). I loaded the SD with music, and YAY! Then I found Podcasts on my built-in media player, found I didn't like my media player's playlists, and went app hunting. Oh look, an app for Pandora! Another for LastFM! That would be cool, but I never really cared for the limitations of each. Radio this...MP3 me that....cloud music this-n-that... unfrickinbelievable. TuneIn ...heh... reminds me of that thing with the nipples as radio dials. Wait, get live radio stations from all around the world for free?
First thing I did after installing was browse stations by location. Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe, North America, South America. HEY! Where the hell is Russia?! Oh, it's considered part of Europe now? OK. Browse Russia by city, and Moscow gives me 63 radio stations. That's JUST Moscow! A lot of 80s and techno/dance, but there's some damn good Russian pop/rock, and some nice folk stations with the old gravel-voiced guys and their balalaikas. Just Moscow. Can I understand the DJs? Who cares?! I have learned recently that music is music, and if it's
your kind of music, it will move you no matter what language it is.
So, I'm giving a huge thumbs up
to 'TuneIn' which is so far free, and has (guessing) tens of thousands of radio stations. I signed up this evening so it would save my presets, and still so far free, and I also found out you can sign in to the website with the same info. I was able to browse all local radio stations based on the phone's GPS, and to my presets I added 2 of my favorite local stations. I then searched, not by genre (which you can), but by keyword (which made me happy, as 'steampunk' is not yet considered a REAL genre). So I searched steampunk, listened to some stations, and added to my presets: Radio Chaos (Gothic), Second Shifters Radio (Rock), and Radio Riel--Steampunk. I think those 3 are internet radio stations, but they still play music so YAY! I would have added the "official" Pagan radio station had they not been playing some Enya sounding stuff when I sampled them...logo is a big pentacle with the goat/demon head in fiery red, and then it's playing whispers on the breeze.....No.
As a last note, there really is too much in this app to explain it all. It has a DAMN nice car mode, which makes the only really used buttons HUGE so there's no confusion. If you want to learn more at the website,
Tunein, which I haven't checked yet, but will be going there next. And before anyone goes balls out with excitement, there's only ONE radio station available in Antarctica...and it's folk...sorry.
