Four Internet Radio Apps for Your Vacation Soundtrack

Unlike on-demand streaming, Internet radio has been around for awhile, and has become a robust platform for listening and discovering new music. Here are four of our favorite services.

Slacker Radio

Along with Pandora, Slacker is one of the first Internet radio services that became popular back in the late 2000s. True to its name, Slacker Radio is a no-frills service that relies on a clean layout and simple feature set.

TuneIn Radio

Technically, this isn’t in the same class as Pandora and iHeartRadio. Rather than having a dedicated music section, TuneIn is about listening to actual radio stations and podcasts. There is even a nifty record timer function to save live radio for later, similar to a DVR.

iHeartRadio

It took a while, but Clear Channel entered the digital world with the release of their iHeartRadio app in 2008, consolidating their programs across the country on one platform. Today, it has grown to become one of the most robust Internet radio services available, boasting 20 million songs and 800 live radio stations.

Pandora

Pandora, the most popular of the bunch, owes its strength to the Music Genome Project, a music analysis system that categorizes 400 attributes of each track from a 1-million-song library. While that isn’t big compared to the other services, it covers all the major labels and you can’t beat the recommendation system.