Remember the glory days of Napster and free MP3 music? Those days are gone and free music is more difficult to obtain today.
Or, is it? Internet radio stations are flourishing worldwide and number in the many thousands. Even iTunes has dozens of radio stations which are free to listen. But iTunes is missing a very important feature. The option to record internet radio.
Ripping Radio With Radio Ripper
When you think about it, there’s not much to internet radio. It’s a stream of sound distributed to your Mac and played by an app. iTunes Radio is a good example.
So, how difficult would it be to capture and record the streaming audio from an internet radio station?
Add Radio Ripper to your Mac and rip internet radio stations and save them to your Mac, drop the files into iTunes, and sync up to iPhone or iPad.
How does it work? Radio Ripper is a very simple app on the surface. The controls are straightforward. Enter an internet radio station’s URL, and select where on your Mac you want to save the recorded file.
Radio stations are saved and listed in the left Sidebar. Click on a station to reveal what music is being played, and begin the recording process.
Recorded tracks are lossless as the audio stream is recorded and saved direct to your Mac without conversion.
Files are also tagged with ID3 or ID2 tags automatically from the station’s stream metadata.
All you need to get started is the radio station’s URL or playlist file. What Radio Ripper could use, of course, are a few more user friendly options (and a few less bugs).
For example, there’s no option to record specific internet radio stations on a time schedule. Getting recorded tracks into iTunes is still a manual operation (though drag and drop is about as easy at it gets).
On the plus side, Radio Ripper will download and record multiple internet radio stations at the same time. In the end you get more radio and the option to listen when you’re offline.
