Thanks to internet radio literally a whole world of musical experiences has opened up for underground audiences poorly served by FM radio over the years. It's an especially brilliant way to hear new music - or at least music that's new to you.

Many streams are net-only enterprises run by fans for free and they survive on donation, such as Groovera and the iconic Soma FM . The larger operations often charge a modest subscription fee for access to their highest quality ad-free streams and among those are some very good ambient/downtempo channels with decent quality free streams such as Radio Io and Digitally Imported.

The worst of the commercial operators - like Radio Free Virgin and Live 365 - provide free low-quality streams that literally bombard you with cheesy ads for retailers and hard sell promos for themselves, until you either tune-out in disgust or part with your cash to gain ad-free subscription service. Ads are fine; but bad ads are intolerable. The sales model being used by such operators exploits this, assuming radio ads are bad by nature and thus using them as a negative tool to drive listeners to subscribe. They have clearly learnt nothing from the mistakes of advertising on free-to-air commercial radio. Not the future of webcasting, one hopes.

Some media players come with an extensive list of links to internet radio stations. The best example I can think of is Winamp. Download and install the full free player (avoid the Lite version) and you'll find a massive catalogue of radio streams already listed in its Media Library which is regularly updated. You just click on the station link you want and the player takes care of the rest.

It seems that in the first decades of the third millennium we are living in internet radio's golden age. The safe formulas, repetitiveness and celebrity obsessions of commercial radio are only a natural product of the demands of the mass audience it serves. That will never change. By comparison, standalone internet radio is young and remains a vibrant and relatively untamed medium.

Enjoy the ride!

STATION LIST A-Z

Bluemars: Bluemars - Home to three wonderful streams programmed by the mysterious Lone, based in southern France. The main Bluemars channel is exquisite ambient music for the space traveler, usually beaty but deep and airy too. Staples include Biosphere, The Orb and Jon Jenkins.

Bluemars: Cryosleep - The Cryosleep Channel is totally beatless and fairly melodic with staples including Liquid Mind, Steve Roach and Jonn Serrie.

Bluemars: Voices From Within - The Voices From Within channel plays exotic ambient vocals and chants from across the ages and around the world.

Buzzout Room - Streaming from Canada this is a smart blend of melodic, chilled downbeats mixing vocal numbers and instrumentals.

Chillside - Maintained by 3 Canadian DJ's and playing a fairly varied mix - ambient, downtempo, house, progressive trance and atmospheric drum 'n' bass.

Chill Zone One - Programmed by DJ Dot and part of the massive IAC internet radio collective that supports independent music.

D.I. FM Chillout - Digitally Imported is one of the most popular net-only radio services focused on electronica, club and club-related music. The Chillout channel is lush, melodic and mostly rhythmic with lots of psychedelic flavours grounded in trance, dub and classic Berlin-school ambient.

D.I. FM PsyChill - Similar downtempo to the Chillout channel but trippier, a little darker and with a narrower focus on chill flavoured by psytrance, dub and world music.

D.I. FM Ambient - The Ambient channel is more experimental, abstract and quieter than the Chillout channel, more "ambient" in the classic sense.

D.I. FM Space Dreams - Launched in 2009, the Space Dreams channel changed its name (from Spacemusic) and its style somewhat in 2011. Currently now mostly flowing, beatless ambient, very melodic but with some unwelcome moments of new age cheese.

D.I. FM Lounge - The Lounge channel plays songs and instrumentals on the house, dub, jazz-soul and Balearic tips.

Fluid Radio - Distinctive UK-based station devoted to "experimental frequencies" and playing "ambient, modern classical, experimental acoustic, folk and abstract".

Groovera - Net radio based in Seattle USA and streaming three channels. Audio Popsicle emphasises downtempo vocal tunes, Jet City Lounge mixes emphasises warm and loungey instrumentals, and Low Mercury emphasises spacey ambient techno, trance and bleepier sounds.

HBR.1 Dream Factory - Dancefloor-related ambience on the techy, psy-trance and electro tips, with plenty of long mixed DJ sets.

Monkey Radio - Excellent station with an emphasis on the funky end of downtempo - nu jazz, trip hop, lounge, etc - or as they like to describe it "grooving, sexy beats".

Radio Io Ambient - Intelligent downtempo with lots of exotic dub - not surprising seeing as it's hosted by Forest, founder of ambient dub label Waveform Records and producer of the long-running Musical Starstreams FM radio show. Warning: if you are a paid Io subscriber, streaming to your own player (eg. Winamp, iTunes, etc) has been inexplicably banned across all Radio Io channels since 2010. You now have to install and use their proprietary Flash player, or buy "Io approved" hardware devices. If you want more flexibility from a paid multi-channel service, check out DI.FM instead.

Radio Io Chill - This fine channel used to called Io Beat but now has a more suitable name for the sounds it plays. The format is pop and club-influenced downtempo.

Stillstream - Lots of ambient techno, environmental music and deep drifting sounds in the classic ambient vein. Among the long sections of uninterrupted music are some actual shows hosted by knowledgeable announcers.

Soma FM - More than a dozen fantastic ad-free channels in all, with Space Station Soma, Beat Blender, Groove Salad, Drone Zone, Illinois St Lounge and Secret Agent the ones of most interest to downtempo fans. The retro bachelor pad music of Illinois St Lounge is as camp as Christmas. Secret Agent is also hilarious with its selection of groovy retro lounge, soundtracks and nu jazz bridged with dialogue samples from James Bond films.

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