Online Radio Guides
Practical, plain-language guides to getting more from online radio: how to get started, how to use radio to learn a language or stay in touch with home, what to do when something goes wrong, and how the technology and licensing behind it work.
Getting started
How to Listen to Online Radio
What you need and how to find stations by country, language and genre.
Read the guide →Radio Genres Explained
What to expect from pop, rock, jazz, classical, talk, community radio and world music.
Read the guide →Radio Stream Not Playing?
Ten fixes that usually work when a station will not start or keeps buffering.
Read the guide →Make the most of radio
Learn a Language with Online Radio
Choose stations for your level, follow a simple listening routine and avoid common mistakes.
Read the guide →Listen to Your Home Country's Radio from Abroad
Find the right stations, handle time zones and regional blocks, and stay in touch with home.
Read the guide →Streaming Quality and Data Usage
A clear table of how many megabytes each bitrate uses per hour, with monthly examples.
Read the guide →How radio works
What Is Internet Radio?
How a live broadcast travels from a studio to your browser, and what codecs, bitrates and buffering mean.
Read the guide →FM, AM, DAB and Internet Radio Compared
Coverage, sound quality, cost and reliability, and which one suits each situation.
Read the guide →Why Some Stations Are Blocked Abroad
How music, advertising and sports rights lead to country restrictions, and what you can do.
Read the guide →Radio and Streaming Glossary
Forty radio and streaming terms explained in plain language.
Read the glossary →For broadcasters
How to Get Your Radio Station Listed
What to prepare, how to submit to the Radio-Browser directory, and how to fix common stream problems.
Read the guide →How We List and Rank Stations
Where our data comes from, what we filter out, and our editorial standards.
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