Radio Gaga, music lovers' new best friend

Would you like to simultaneously record multiple Internet radio stations and rapidly increase the size of your iTunes library? Allow me to introduce Radio Gaga. It's essentially Snowtape on steroids, capable of recording dozens of stations simultaneously. Of course, it's great for just listening to Internet radio, but with multi-recording and scheduling features, track separation and tagging, and one-click export to iTunes, it's also a handy way to beef up your music collection. With the wealth of radio stations available on the 'net, you're guaranteed to find music you've never heard, but will probably dig.

You can set preferred bitrates and filter the listings (thousands built-in or add your own) based on bitrates or your own ratings. Search by keywords in titles and descriptions and narrow down the very general genre categories to your particular tastes. The built in player works with stations or tracks you've recorded, and has a minimized "Remote Control" view, easily triggered with a Command-2 shortcut. Optional Growl-like notifications keep you up-to-date on what's playing and what's recording.

You can organize your favorite stations and tracks with folders and playlists. When it comes to tracks, I'd much rather build an iTunes playlist, which is a simple matter of highlighting the tracks you want to keep and hitting the "Send to iTunes" button on the track page. You can set a preference to have tracks removed from the Radio Gaga folder and track listings when they've been added to iTunes. I'm unsure, as usual, about the legality of recording 'net radio in this fashion, and what implications it has for the stations themselves. I guess we'll see.

The program is polished and usable right now, but I'd love to see a few things improve: better keyboard navigation and configurable hotkeys, on-the-fly normalization, an option to save only full tracks, and a track/artist display in the mini-view when listening to live radio. Despite my nit-picking, the app is really impressive, and thanks to a special introductory rate at the MacUpdate Promo site, good through July 19th, I picked it up for $19.99US. It will be $39.99 after that, but you've got a few days to take advantage of the intro rate. A free trial is available, check it out.

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Source: http://www.gagafactory.com/radiogaga/index.html

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Would you like to simultaneously record multiple Internet radio stations and rapidly increase the size of your iTunes library? Allow me to...

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FlashGen

It looks to me like Radio GaGa sits somewhere between RadioShift and RadioLover. RadioShift supports various formats - so you can listen to the likes of BBC Radio 1 (as that is streamed over Real Player) and RadioLover, because you can stream and record multiple internet radio streams (ShoutCAST etc).

I downloaded the trial but because it is so tightly locked down in trial mode I'd be loathed to pay $40 for it. Plus I already own the two aforementioned applications so I was looking for something that would merge the two in to one. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case.

However, for those Radio GaGa owners out there, can you clarify whether it supports any streaming formats beyond MP3 / ShoutCAST; i.e. RAM, QT etc

August 03 2009 at 10:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

yarrow

One thing I like about Radioshift is that it allows me to search for a particular *show*, not just a genre or station. Do either Radio Gaga or Snowtape have this kind of search functionality?

July 14 2009 at 1:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jah

JD, If you think artists want to get paid on every time you listen to a song, you're showing your ignorance. If you buy a song, or an album, listen to it indefinitely. The reason radio stations pay a per-song royalty, is that they make money on advertising from playing those songs. You really have to look at things from an artist's point of view before you start spouting off. Artists don't want to squeeze people for money, they just want people to actually pay for what they spent time and money creating.

July 13 2009 at 6:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jim

JD, think before you type. Do other people resent the fact that you get paid to do your job? Songwriters don't sit around thinking about ways to gouge the public, or to keep them from enjoying our music. But the fact remains that the lion's share of our work is stolen. Additionally, the average songwriter isn't rolling in the kind of dough you obviously think we are. You sound like the drunk heckler in the back row.

I once walked up to my CD table after a gig, and two people were discussing in front of me how one would buy it and the other copy it. I suggested that he instead copy the other guy's money and then pay me. Counterfeiting is counterfeiting.

July 13 2009 at 5:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jim

Hey, no problem with ripping the songs straight from radio! We songwriters are glad to supply you pro bloggers and your readers with Free music. Why, after all, should we be expected to earn a cent on those hundreds of hours we put in composing lyrics, melodies, and recording?

You just go right ahead and plug this software, even if you're not sure of the legality. And the first time I have a chance to rifle through your silverware, or steal your computer, we'll be even.

July 13 2009 at 12:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Jim's comment

Brett Terpstra

First, I would assume that in the majority of cases there are
royalties or licensing involved in the radio station playing a song
to begin with. As stated, though, I don't have any depth of knowledge
in the area. Beyond that -- and I can't attest to absolutely anyone
else being like me -- I've already purchased several albums by
artists I probably would never had heard of had I not been able to so
quickly rifle through the music streaming on the net.

I understand the concern, and in many cases I'm sure it's a
legitimate one. I do think, however, that you can't underestimate the
increased exposure, even if its a moderate gain, especially
considering the fact that most people who would build a music library
entirely from ripped songs averaging 64k bitrates aren't buying a lot
of music to begin with.

If I'm off-base with any of this, I'd welcome further insight.

July 13 2009 at 1:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Thomas

I know it must also gall you each additional time we listen to an iTunes track we bought. Dangit, you songwriters must think, they should be paying on a per-listen basis! Why should someone who listens to something a thousand times have to only pay the same $1 (or wait, it's rarely $1 anymore, is it?) as someone who just bought it on a whim? We're all cheating you of your hard-earned money, just like when a radio station pays you a small-business-crushing per-song royalty, and then the listener rips that song and replays it.

I read some interesting research recently on detecting what song was stuck in your head ... now if we could just figure out a way to charge for that ...

July 13 2009 at 1:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joeystarr

Great !

Radio Gaga on my Mac and Vegas radio (vegasradioapp.com) for my iPhone are best apps for Music lovers...

July 13 2009 at 11:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jaroslav

I prefer Audio Hijack Pro for this, but maybe that's because I already know what streams I want to record, and I don't feel like I need software to seek out my favorite genres for me. I don't know. AHP does a lot, is cheap, and looks way better. I gotta say, the screenshots above look pretty tacky.

July 13 2009 at 10:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

will.ashley

After a few hours of playing around with Radio Gaga, I decided to register the product for the discounted $19.99 - have been listening to a collection of the Electronic and Ambient genre stations ever since - downloading about half of the content. Sending to iTunes works smooth as can be. The application also works well with Rougue Amoeba's Airfoil 3 for sending audio streams directly to AirTunes speakers. I would very much like to see a remote application for iPhone, being able to change stations, or record a track on the fly around the house would improve the product considerably.

July 13 2009 at 10:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bug

Radio Gaga payed lots of money to become red and a promo at MacUpdate (oh, have a look at the promo price: $39.99 (exp. 7/19, was: $39.99), lol!).

They now payed lots of money again to get on TUAW.

Okay, it may be a cool app but doesn't it show how these developers want to achieve attention?

July 13 2009 at 9:17 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mindmeld

I have to recommend snowtape instead worked much better in trial mode than radio gaga at least in sweden.

the thing i noticied is that radio gaga can capture more radio stations at a time , something i dont need .

http://www.snowtape.com/

Use this code to get a bit cheaper price if you wanna buy it from snowtapes webpage.
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/snowtape.com

July 13 2009 at 9:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply