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Audio Sites
Last checked 3/1/2024

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  • Microsoft's Media Player In Windows 10 - how to install it.
  • Microsoft's Media Player Windows 11
  • VLC The best, free audio and video player. It can recognize almost every file type.
  • Audacity This audio recording software is free and very powerful especially if you want to transfer CDs and records to digital file formats.
  • Media Jukebox is a free, do-it-all audio player and recorder.
  • Media Jukebox Wiki has a lot of good help for using Media Jukebox.
  • RealAudio The RealPlayer is pretty old but is still a good audio and video player. It is most useful if you want to download and save videos that you watch in Facebook, TikTok, etc.
  • Internet Archive - is a collection of copyright-free audio and video material. A great collection of live music recordings, podcasts, lectures, etc.
  • Free Music Archive is full of free music downloads. Not a lot to get excited about but good surfing.
  • Free Audio Archive is full of free audio recordings including narrated books, music, podcasts, sermons, speeches, etc.
  • 7Digital ($) sells downloads of albums in a variety of formats including high def and FLAC.
  • Audio File Magazine has reviews of recorded books as well as narrators.
  • WavSource has a variety of sound clips from movies, TV, speeches, etc.
  • SoundSnap is a collection of audio sound effects and sound loops. Users rate the sound.
  • Movie Sounds has many sound clips from movies.
  • Historical Speeches - recordings from History.com.
  • US History and Politics Out Loud includes a lot of recordings of political speeches and conversations among politicians.
  • TinFoil has samples of ancient tin and wax recordings.
  • Radio Garden has radio stations from all over the world. You can select a station by navigating to a location on the world map.
  • Steam Music With These Free Apps is a 2020 MakeUseOf article which reviews free music apps.
  • Sounddog - various sound recordings and short phrases - mp3 format.
  • MP3 has free music - not updated since early 2015.
  • Audio Review - audio reviews including home theatre, car audio, stereo, etc - includes a bulletin board service and chat room.
  • Audio/Visual Science Forum - is a heavy traffic forum for audio/visual stuff including high-def, DVD, CD, etc.
  • Real Music Guide is all about RealPlayer and Real Media.
  • Eminent Technology's Multimedia Speaker test Tests your audio system for phasing and frequency response.
  • Sound and Vision has reviews of audio and TV equipment. Used to be more generous with its online offerings - no more.
  • Sound Stories has a collection of interviews with crusty folks. Very interesting documentary stuff.
  • Internet Museum of Flexi-records Are you old enough to remember the plastic records that you got for free in cereal boxes and magazines? Well, there here and you can listen to them.
  • McFadden's CD, CD-R, CD-RW FAQ has good info on the difference between CD-R and CD-RW, differences in blank CD's, etc. This site has not been updated since 2010.
  • ecoustics has info on home electronics, mostly hi-fi stuff. Very large collection of links to sites related to CD, DVD, audio, TV, etc.
  • ecoustics DVD Reviews has a long list of DVD reviews sorted by year.
  • DVD FAQ as good as McFadden's CD FAQ
  • Library of Congress Recorded Sound Reference Center has an archive of sounds from motion pictures, broadcasts, and other recorded sources.
  • Film Sound is about movie sounds and how they are made.
  • Find Sounds searches for recordings of sound effects and other short audio files.
  • Global Music Network has recorded performances available for viewing or download, mostly jazz and classical.
  • One Minute Vacation has a collection of 60 second sound segments from various parts of the world.
  • MetaCritic gathers reviews of movies, DVD's, music, games, etc. , and consolidates them into a one stop source.
  • ASoftMurmur - free audio background when you want something soothing.
  • Digital Audio Quality Test This is a quick test of your audio system if you are thinking about getting expensive, high res equipment. There are 6 recordings with three levels of quality - you pick the one that sounds best in each case.
  • Dreaming With Jeff Meditative music created by Jeff Bridges (yes, that one). Weird thing is you can't buy the album but you can hear the entire thing on this site.
  • Podcast Alley - has information about podcasting as well as downloadable material.
  • NPR Morning Edition is a daily international news podcast from NPR.
  • Podcasts for Geeks is a collection of periodic podcasts that are relavent to those who like the techy side of things.
  • CNN Podcasts
  • The Guardian's Science Weekly Podcast
  • Comedy Bang Bang - comedy podcasts including interviews of comedians.
  • Mentalpod - aka "The Mental Illness Happy Hour" is a collection of podcasts about mental issues usually presented with a lighter side.
  • Bloomberg Advantage - podcasts around business and technology issues with interviews of the movers and shakers.
  • Fresh Air is the Terry Gross NPR podcast.
  • NPR One is collection of podcasts sponsored by NPR.
  • NPR Podcasts
  • Best DIY Home Improvement Podcasts according to LifeHacker (2023).
  • Stuff You Missed In History Class is a podcast about historical events you probably never heard of but are very interesting.
  • Monkey See aka Pop Culture Happy Hour, is a podcast from NPR about trending stuff in pop culture.
  • Serial5 stars is a great daily podcast the presents true stories as serials with a different half-hour episode each day.
  • PCMag List of Podcasts (2019)
  • Switched on Pop is a podcast that dissects pop music and discusses the artistic, creative, and theoretical underpinings.
  • Internet Archive Live- recordings of live musical events, most by bands you never heard of but excellent quality.
  • Internet Archive 78 RPM - collects old 78 rpm recordings that you can listen to.
  • How to Use Audacity to rip CD's, record ring tones, etc.
  • Last.fm requires their own player software. The site asks for your favorite artist and they suggest others that you might want to listen to.
  • Audio Extracter has free software that extracts and saves the audio portion of a variety of audio and video formatted files.
  • How to Transfer Cassette Tapes to Computer
  • PMP Network has interviews with stars of various media: Mitch Ryder (Detroit Wheels), Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders), Peter Funt (Candid Camera), etc.
  • 10 Neuroscience Podcast Sites - from MakeUseOf.
  • Brain Boosting Podcasts - mostly aimed at kids but the rest of us who don't read Scientific American will probably enjoy these also.
  • Comedy Podcasts - as reported by the MakeUseOf folks.
  • 12 Podcasts to Warm Your Mind, Body, and Soul - according to LifeHacker (2023).
  • RealAudio
Radio

  • ABC Radio Net where you can listen to the news updated every hour.
  • RadioLocator finds radio stations by zip. Radio-locator search results includes an indication of signal strength based on distance to selected zip code. Also finds radio stations on the Web.
  • ReelRadio is the Top 40 Radio Repository. "You can listen to bits of American Forces Vietnam Network from 1969, the Morning Zoo from 1985, Alan Freed from 1955--just amazing stuff, collected from all over the country from DJs and fans."
  • BRS Web Radio has links to live radio broadcasts over the Internet.
  • ESPN
  • 3WK has live, all day broadcast alternative music. Very alternative.
  • National Public Radio has music as well as news and talk shows.
  • Public Radio Fan has all kinds of information, including program guides and links, on public radio shows available over the Web.
  • Classical Webcast has only classical music.
  • WebTalk Guys - Web talk radio show - listen to short presentations on topics related to the Web including reviews of sites.
  • Pandora - you enter a music group or artist and they suggest a bunch of songs that you can listen to as Internet radio.
  • Pitchfork - has reviews of albums and some free MP3's - interesting stuff usually.
  • Jazz Radio.com lets you listen to a very nice collection of jazz tunes that have been arranged into a variety of categories.
  • Best Internet Radio Stations is a Techhive article (2020).
  • WQXR is classical music from New York.


  • Live Broadcasts from Local Stations:
    • WMMR rock music from Philly based station.
    • WRTI - classical and jazz music from Temple University.
    • WMGK Magic is Philly's classic hits music station.
    • WHYY live broadcast.
    • WXPN live broadcast.
MP3

  • Winamp has a nice MP3 player.
  • Emusic has some free MP3 files but is mostly commercial.
  • MP3 - This is the home site of MP3 where you can get info about MP3 as well as recordings.
  • Yesterday USA has MP3 recordings of old TV shows.
  • MP3 Juice will help you find MP3 music.
  • Google Play Music (used to be Songza) lets you search for an artist or their music and then finds online MP3 streams that you can listen to or save.

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