iPhone and Internet Radio - A Match made in Heaven
Posted on 13. Mar, 2009 by Shawn in iPhone
If you’re like me, you’re sick of the playlist of songs that you have been listening to over and over again in the car. I mean you can only hear Kanye West’s “Heartless” so many times, right? Yeah, I frequent the iTunes store and buy a song here and there thanks to the iTunes gift card Grandma got me, but a week later its the same old story.
I’ve got hundreds of old CD’s that I occasionally toss in but they’re pretty old. I haven’t actually purchased a CD in the past two three years. FM is a joke where I live and rarely gets played in my truck, it’s all country around here and well that’s just not my thing. Sure, I’ve got satellite radio, XM Sirius or Sirius XM whatever they’re calling it now, but they like to send me a monthly bill.
I was looking for a free medium with lots of variety and at least a little bit of control. Since my niece singing “Umbrella…ella…ellla…aye…aye…” in the back seat wasn’t cutting it, I had to look for other options.
The iPhone stepped up to the plate and delivered. Internet radio is now being sent to my factory speakers through a little cable all thanks, to of all things, my phone. You’ve got to love technology. I always knew that we would end up with internet radio in our cars, I just didn’t think it would be this soon.
Unlike some of my friends, I can’t hook my iPhone directly to my car radio, so there was some expense involved in purchasing an FM modulator. I figured a one time fee of 20 bones was well worth getting some free music that I wasn’t sick of hearing. I’ll get that money back in no time after I cancel my $120 a year subscription to XM anyways.
So I’ve been using the iPhone to stream internet radio to the car for over 2 weeks now and absolutely love it. Rarely does it cut out, no more than my satellite radio does in the jungle of trees that I live in. I was a little bit skeptical about the quality of sound, but it has proven to be equal to if not better than the XM. I’ve tried a few apps out but hands down I’m in love with Pandora internet radio. I’ve always used the service on my computer, but to bring them with me on my 3 hour a day commute to work and back has been a blessing.
Here is the beauty of Pandora if you don’t know.
1. It knows you. Pick any song, artist, genre, year etc… and Pandora will deliver a myriad of music all in some way related to your choice. You won’t always get what you ask for right off the bat, for legal reasons, but you’ll almost certainly hear it within a few songs.
2. The ability to have control. If you don’t like the song choice you have two options, skip it or give it the thumbs down which tells Pandora to never play that song again. I recently had to give the thumbs down to “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Thanks to my hippy parents, I literally can’t listen to that song one more time. You’re only allowed to skip I think 6 songs an hour but you can change or create a new channel at your will.
3. Information. Pandora gives you artist and band info including how the band got started and which songs led them to fame, pretty cool.
4. NO DJ’s or commercials. That point speaks for itself.
Itunes offers several other apps that deliver internet radio… there is AOL Radio, Tuner Internet Radio, Slacker Radio and a whole host of others. Please don’t let my bias towards Pandora (hint hint) persuade you in anyway to not check out the other options.
To recap, if you have an iPhone I recommend that you at least look into streaming internet radio in your car as a viable option to satelite or FM radio. Youre already footing the 100 bucks a month, take advantage of all the freebies that the iPhone has to offer. We are in a recession people, time to pinch pennies.
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