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Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To … promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; …
U.S. Constitution, Article I
I believe in the benefits of copyrights. This Web page (and most of my other Web pages) is copyrighted. However, the current state of intellectual law is unacceptable. Extending copyright coverage to 90 years (Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998) violates the concept of "limited Times". The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) stifles innovation instead of promoting it. And the primary beneficiaries of these laws are not "Authors and Inventors" but corporate publishers, movie studios, and record companies who reap the bounty of others' creativity. If you agree that this situation is intolerable, tell your representatives and senators in Congress.
23 September 2003
Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.William Congreve
I have enjoyed listening to classical music as long as I can remember. I bought my first vinyl LPs in the 1950s. They were monaural; stereo systems were still quite rare.
Today, I have an eclectic collection of LPs, cassettes, and CDs. The composers cover the alphabet from Adson ("Two Ayres for Cornetts and Sagbuts") to Ziehrer (the "Wiener Bürger" waltz). Genres include Baroque trumpet suites; Broadway shows with original casts and the off-Broadway original cast recording of "Hair"; Balinese gamelans and Indian ragas; Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; Barbara Streisand; all nine Beethoven symphonies; Bach, Bach, and more Bach; ditto Tchaikovsky; Bobby McFerrin with Yo-Yo Ma, Placido Domingo with John Denver, and Itzhak Perlman with Andre Previn; ragtime; French hunting horn calls; Shaker hymns; American, English, Irish, and Jewish folk songs; Dixieland jazz; French and Italian operas; big band and swing; and various concert performances of all the music from Disney's "Fantasia".
Music and information about music can be found on the Web at the following:
Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of links to music on the Web. But each of the links above points to even more links. Part of the fun of surfing the Web is the search; you really do not want everything handed to you.
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.
Duke Ellington
Streaming is a technology that allows PCs, Macs, and UNIX platforms to play a audio clip while it is still downloading. By extension, this allows for an infinite clip. A radio station can feed into a streaming server. I connect to the server through the Internet and play that stream of data while it downloads without storing it on my hard disc. (There is also streaming video.)
RealNetworks®, Inc distributes RealPlayer®, both in a freeware version and a more elegant for-purchase version.
Warning: RealPlayer has its own cookies.txt file, separate from any cookies.txt file used by your Web browser. Cookies are set relative to advertisement clips that download and play prior to an actual connection to a streaming broadcast; cookies might be set for other reasons. RealPlayer has an option to disable the use of cookies. From the menu bar, select [Tools > Preferences]. Under Category on the left side of the Preferences window, select [Connection > Internet/Privacy]. On the Internet/Privacy pane, clear the checkbox for Enable Cookies to remove the checkmark. For additional information, see About Those Cookies….
Winamp® is another streaming broadcast player available in both freeware and for-purchase versions. Winamp is developed and distributed by Nullsoft®, Inc. (a unit of AOL®, Inc.).
Windows Media Player® is a Microsoft® product. (The latest versions can be downloaded only on systems verified to have official versions of Windows.)
Warning: Use of Media Player from a Web browser may interfere with additional browsing. Since Media Player cannot be completely removed from a Windows PC, the best way to avoid such interference is to disable any Media Player plugins within your browser; removing the plugins will not help because Windows will immediately reinstall them. Any broadcast stream type that can be played by Media Player can also be played by either RealPlayer or Winamp.
My daughter is very fond of iTunes® developed by Apple®, Inc. I have not installed it, so I cannot comment on its capabilities. However, my daughter says that it can play any streaming broadcast that can be played by any of the other three applications described here.
All of these can play both audio and video streams. There are also other streaming broadcast players.
Indicated trademarks belong to RealNetworks, Inc.; AOL, Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; and Apple, Inc. The trademarks apply to the names of the applications, their logos, and the companies.
Radio stations with streaming Internet broadcasts may be found on such Web pages as
Note that these may also list links to playable clips that are not live broadcasts. Some of these clips may even be downloaded and saved as files. Often, however, the clips are merely advertisements.
Below are listed streaming broadcast stations to which I listen. Most also broadcast over the air.
The links for the speaker icons lead directly to the broadcasts. Selecting one of these links should launch RealPlayer or Winamp (as indicated by the adjacent icon), connect to the broadcast server, and begin playing. However, I have noticed that many of these URLs keep changing. If any of these links are broken, try the station's Web site or one of the Web pages listed above.
This icon indicates a Web site that contains a page from which a broadcast may launch through an application embedded in the page without first asking if the user wants to hear the broadcast. The result might be overlaid on top of music from an external Web application (e.g., RealPlayer, Winamp), even over a different broadcast. Such broadcasts will terminate if the Web browser is terminated or even if a different Web page is viewed. This problem is often associated with streaming broadcasts intended to be played by Windows Media Player or by Flash. To avoid such problems, only launch broadcasts from this page by selecting the speaker icon;
for broadcasts from other Web sites, avoid the use of Windows Media Player.
NOTE: Because of extortionate royalty demands by record companies (not necessarily supported by the performers and composers), many online broadcasters have either reduced the number of allowed connections, reduced the hours of connection, or ceased Internet broadcasting entirely. I call those demands extortionate because the recording companies are demanding a higher payment per listener from the online broadcasters than from the radio broadcasters. These demands are being made by the same four companies that destroyed competition in the recorded music industry by engaging in a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions. They suppressed Napster, sponsored the hated Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and want to extend copyrights indefinitely. These companies hold performers in long-term contracts that constitute indentured servitude and then engage in "creative bookkeeping" to deny them their fair share of the royalties they demand. If you are half as outraged as I am, write to your Representative and Senators. In the meantime, the list below is now shorter than it used to be.
In the listing below, the icons indicate which application I generally use for listening. Some stations, however, also provide streaming broadcasts for more than one application. Stations that broadcast only via applications embedded within a Web page are omitted because their broadcasts require dedicating a Web browser rather than a separate application, thus interfering with using the browser. Note that some of these Internet broadcasters require broadband connections; others support both dial-up and broadband.
Please let me know if any of these links are broken or if you want to suggest additional music links (both Web and broadcast).
Last updated 23 December 2010
