Music News & Analysis

You know what I miss? Listening to the radio.

I’ve always loved background music, which helps me focus. But modern music-streaming services can be distracting.

Yes, I enjoy having instant access to millions of songs with services like Spotify. But I find myself constantly fiddling—searching for the next song, hitting the forward button, and choosing new playlists.

Radio stations are a great alternative. You just hit the play button, and someone else makes the decisions.

Now, of course, Spotify and other such services offer radio-station-like options of their own. But there’s always that “next track” button tempting you to skip around. Plus, these options still don’t have that human touch.

That’s why I was so excited to find this classic-seeming radio gem—with a decidedly modern twist.

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So long, Spotify—hello, Radio Garden

➜ Meet ​Radio Garden​, a free website with apps available for ​Android​ and ​iPhone​. It marries a Google-Earth-style globe interface with streaming-radio audio.

With that one-two punch, ​Radio Garden​ helps you find and listen to radio stations from all over the world. A few quick clicks is all it takes to zoom into any city and start listening to its local stations. You can also browse and search for individual stations if there’s something specific you’re looking to find.

It’s a powerful Spotify alternative, and the exact experience you have will depend in large part on the specific station or stations you pick. For instance, many stations are terrestrial radio stations, which means they’ll have ads. But you can find quite a few curated radio stations that are ad-free, too.

Popping down to Miami, I found Chilltrax—a popular online-only channel that’s ad-free, independently owned and operated, and staffed by actual humans who are passionate about the music they’re playing.

Moving from there to San Francisco, I discovered ​SomaFM’s classic Groove Salad​ station—also free from any and all commercials. I was listening to that ambient station 20 years ago, so it was a nice surprise to see that it’s still up and running and available now ​here.

Those are great for focused work, but there’s so much you can explore within Radio Garden’s virtual walls. You could:

• Find a random city far away from you and listen to its regular radio stations for a bit of local flavor.
• Browse stations by genre and find something that fits your taste or current mood to play in the background.
• Create a list of your favorite stations to come back to.
• Or just listen to your own city’s local radio stations right on the Radio Garden website or app.

Listen on the go

Radio Garden is available on any device you’re using—on the web, for a computer, or via its official ​Android or ​iPhone apps on mobile.

The service itself is completely free. It does insert a few visual ads, but it doesn’t add in any audio advertising or other stream interruptions. (You can remove those visual ads with a $25-a-year premium subscription, if you want.)

Radio Garden doesn’t collect much personal data, either. It doesn’t even require an account or any sort of sign-in.

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