TuneIn Brings the Radio to Your Phone
Smartphones can double as music players, capable of holding anywhere from a dozen to thousands of songs — but as wonderful as it is to have the songs of your choosing at your fingertips, sometimes you just want to turn on the radio and hear something new.
And of course, there’s a wide variety of ways you can simulate the experience of old-fashioned radio listening, from Spotify to Pandora. But as amazing as those apps are, they aren’t quite the same as discovering a gem on a local radio station. That’s where TuneIn comes in handy.
What’s the App
TuneIn is a streaming music superstar, hooked up to more than 70,000 radio stations around the world, not to mention 2 million on-demand programs. You can basically listen to every radio station you’ve ever heard of with this app, and a ton you haven’t. It’s available for free on Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows.
You’ll Want It If…
This is one of the very best, if not the absolute best, streaming music apps, so it’s a big win for anyone who likes to explore new music or get a handle on what a local music scene is like. If you recently moved and miss a local station, this app could be your new favorite thing. And for people tired of hearing the same few songs over and over again while flipping through stations on long commutes, this app gives you so many station options that you may never have to hear the same song twice.
In addition to those benefits, you can pause and rewind songs, making it simple to jam out to an old favorite on repeat. And you can search for your favorite artist to see if they’re playing at the moment — you probably won’t have to wait much time before tuning into current hits or classic tunes. And if you have iOS 4.2 you can hook it up to an AirPlay-compatible receiver, which is perfect for parties.
It’s Not My Thing — What Else Ya Got?
If you want to hear a song but you can’t remember its name or the artist, it might take a while to hunt it down using TuneIn. A better approach: download SoundHound to solve the mystery: you can play, sing or hum a song while the app is on and it will correctly identify the name of the song and the artist, which lets you search for it on TuneIn, download it on iTunes, or pick up the album in a real store old-fashioned style. And if you’re looking for sounds to help you drift off into sleep instead of get your groove on, something like White Noise might be a better fit: it plays a variety of ambient sounds, and it is available at Apple’s App Store for $2.