, you leave FMSTREAM and play the stream with the basic HTML5 player in a browser tab. In this case I have observed that data still keeps loading after pausing.
Great choice, no tracking, no ads and direct access
| FMSTREAM.ORG | TuneIn | Streema | OnlineRadioBox | RadioSure/ radio-browser.info4 | vTuner | Shoutcast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| active stations | 112.000 checked active | 100.0001;6 incl. podcasts | 70.0001 | 65.0001 96.0007 | 55.000 | 3.5002 | 62.438+6 |
| active stream URLs | 195.000 | ||||||
| easy-to-use browser experience | + | (✔) (urges to download app) | + | + | (app for geeks, not a web-portal) | basic | mediocre |
| trackers3 | 0 | 54 | 6 | 3 | 1 (www) | 0 | 6 |
| stream access privacy | + | start/stop traced | start/stop traced | start traced | 1st start traced | start traced |
|
| switch between streams and bitrates | + | - | - | - | + | - | - |
| bitrate, samplerate profile and codec info | + | - | - | - | (✔) only codec/bitrate5 | - | - |
| HLS support | + | + | + | + | + | ||
| DASH support | + | + | |||||
| 100% non commercial | + | - | + | - | - |
The aim is to create a fast and easy radio stream player for the most common browsers and formats independent from any app or plugin. My motivation comes from the fact that most radio apps for Android (even the market leaders) only offer a limited choice of formats and stations. Usually you cannot select manually between stream sources of one station. So I have set up a large database focussing on the real stream sources, checking bitrates and sample rates. This allows to select a low bitrate stream if you have limited mobile bandwidth and to choose high quality when using Wifi. The compilation process also gave me some insights into the structures of some stream hosting providers.
FMSTREAM once started as the stream player for fmscan.org (FM/AM maps and signal predictions) with the FMLIST and MWLIST databases in the background, probably the most comprehensive sources for radio broadcast frequencies in the world. Since 2016, more links and functionality have been added continuously to fmstream.org and the database has become independent. In 2018 and 2019 the database grew to its current size.
Major updates appear every few months. There are always smaller improvements in data quality, layout and structure. Details about stream numbers, bitrates, codecs and server configuration can be found in the FMSTREAM statistics. Issues still need to be resolved: double entries and wrong merges, behaviour with unstable connections, audio buffer confusion, cryptic names and descriptions caused by automated text processing (UTF vs ANSI). It's a lot of work to identify and merge double entries, of which a small percentage still remains. Please be patient, it's a 100% spare time project.
trance neth (for Netherlands) or 648 caroline.
radiolondon for any station with Radio London in its name, whereas a search for radio london would produce ANY station with radio and london in its data.
mp3: audio-codec-name (mp3,aac,ogg,wma), streaming type or protocol (hls,mms,rtsp), link list type (m3u,pls) or 'web' for external sites. Mono is indicated, otherwise stereo.
Bitrate background color: Indicates if bitrate is sufficient for the given codec, channel number and sample rate (SR). High sample rates generally provide better quality. But this can be broken if the bitrate is lower than the sample rate per channel (AAC) or lower than 3/2 of the sample rate per channel (MP3), roughly speaking. For HE-AAC, the original sample rate (see below) must be taken.
Samplerate background color: Indicates the sample rate quality. 44.1 KHz (CD standard) and 48 KHz generally provide good quality. But in the case of HE-AAC (v1 and v2) the upper half of the spectrum is produced by SBR (spectral band replication). The original sample rate is only half of the shown figure. The background color takes this into account.
Channel color: HE-AACv2 uses very limited stereo data and adds the rest by simulation. This makes it possible to use very low bitrates for stereo - but it is not the 'real' thing.
Non-SSL streams appear with yellow codec names. After one click on them, FMSTREAM will change to non-SSL-mode. Click again and they will play.
Contains a play/pause button, a bitrate selector and volume control. It also shows the state of the stream (ready / offline / 0:01...). After a timeout (offline) you can still try to click on the direct link (underlined, violett) which will open a new tab with direct access. Last volume is stored in a cookie and restored if you come back to fmstream.org. You can toggle hide / display for the player with the symbol in the upper right corner.
FM 94.9 AM 648 DAB 13F
Only the four strongest frequencies of a network are shown. In many cases frequencies are clickable and link to FMSCAN.ORG where you can look at transmitter locations and network maps - seperately for FM, AM and DAB.
The Full Mode provides much more information but uses more space on the screen. You can switch any time. In "mini" mode only stations with at least one direct stream URL for the HTML5 player (mp3/aac etc) are shown. Favourites can only marked in full mode.
Can be selected and deselected by clicking on the star symbol in full mode. The star is filled ☆ if a favourite is selected. The favourite list appears by clicking on ★ FAV in the top menu. There are still a few cookie issues - so please do not compile a too comprehensive list. It might get lost some day.
HLS (Http Live Streaming) and DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) are not codecs but streaming concepts transferring chunks of MP3 or AAC files of a few seconds. The URLs of these chunks are usually provided by dynamic .m3u8 and .mpd files.
If the HLS or DASH stream does not work you can try to install the "Native MPEG-DASH and HLS playback" browser extension for Firefox or Chrome and then click on the direct URL link (blue and underlined) in the player control window.
First of all: Javascript must be enabled.
HTML5 theoretically simplifies audio embedding. But when it comes to streams instead of files, browsers behave differently.
The HTML5 players of Firefox 45+, Chrome 63+, Edge 42+ and Opera 43+ should all work with mp3/aac/ogg code (maybe also previous versions). Internet Explorer 11 will only play mp3. Rare MMS/RTMP/RTSP protocols are unsupported.
In March 2023, Firefox (from version 112 or a little earlier) started to block many streams with the console error
Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: The media resource indicated by the src attribute or assigned media provider object was not suitable.
It seems that the browser has become stricter when audio servers are poorly configured.
This can be overridden by typing about:config in the address bar and set the browser.opaqueResponseBlocking to false. Unfortunately exceptions for individual websites like FMSTREAM cannot be added. If you want to avoid security issues, better use another browser for FMSTREAM.
Other streams will be blocked by the browser because some domains are reported to carry malware. However, afaik an audio stream cannot harm your system. If the stream won't start, you can click on the link symbol right to the URL in the player and "accept the risk". All URLs from that domain/port will be accepted afterwards. In a professional office environment it can still happen that system admins block ports / IP ranges or blacklist URLs.
If a stream is blocked because an SSL issue, you can set network.stricttransportsecurity.preloadlist in Firefox about:config to false.
mp3/aac/ogg checked successfully with Firefox and Chrome for Android since 2018. Compatibility can also depend on the device's hardware.
Apple devices came late but in mid 2018 I've succesfully tested mp3/aac on iPhone 6+ and iPads.
This site does not use any personal data apart from anonymous statistics. No data is transferred to third parties. The server automatically stores a logfile including all IP addresses with their requests.
Once a page is loaded, there will be no additional communication with the fmstream server. FMSTREAM does not receive any data when you switch between stations and toggle play/pause and cannot monitor for how long you listen.
Cookies are used to store your favourites and last-listened stations/streams locally on your device. When "favourites" or "last-listened" are selected in the menu, a request to list these stations will be sent to the fmstream.org server. The cookies will not be used for anything else.
CAUTION: There is no guarantee that the audio player stops loading data from the audio stream when pausing or stopped, even though the fmstream-script tries to prevent this. If you have a limited amount of mobile data access, it is recommended to close the browser or fmstream-tab after usage. If you click on the audio stream link symbol in the player box , you leave FMSTREAM and play the stream with the basic HTML5 player in a browser tab. In this case I have observed that data still keeps loading after pausing.
In October 2024, FMSTREAM finally switched to SSL mode (with https) by default. This was a difficult decision. At that time, 43.000 streams still were without SSL encryption (with the HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP). 20.000 stations offered non-SSL streams only. Their share decreases but there are still many. My solution is a compromise: Once you click on the first non-SSL-stream, you will be redirected to nossl.fmstream.org and switch to no-SSL mode. The background: It is not only Google's announcement to downrank sites without SSL. In 2019, the Google Chrome browser started to block mixed content (SSL and non-SSL combinded), other browsers followed. This means that a HTTPS web site (which would be FMSTREAM) cannot load non-secure HTTP content (the audio streams) anymore. Until 9/2024, FMSTREAM had used a different concept with mixed SSL/non-SSL implemetation. But since most browsers now force https-redirects, this is not a practical solution anymore. When you leave the SSL environment, data traffic for search queries will be unencrypted. As far as I know, this is the only consequence. When you play HTML5 audio in a modern browser, this is always sandboxed. There is no way that data provided by an audio stream can trigger the execution of any malicious code.
If stream URLs have changed please send an e-mail. In FMSTREAM there is no form or edit tool for this purpose yet. Dead streams will be sorted out automatically every few months and re-checked for about one year. If homepages have a redirect in their meta data, they will be updated to the URL target.
Broadcasters are encouraged to register at FMLIST to access and update their station details there. FMSTREAM will check the FMLIST database about every third month if new direct stream data is available for the assigned stations. This also occurs for stations where no valid homepage can be found.
Are you a student or researcher? FMLIST receives regular data requests from academic projects. For this purpose you can check out their Academic Services at the Radio Data Center.
The database can be accessed for non-commercial use. If you agree to the conditions and apply for a free key, you can obtain limited query results in JSON format. More info here.
HLS javascript implementation is based on the hls.js project.
The DASH implementation is based on the dash.js project.
fmstream.org is not responsible for any content of the radio streams and links. fmstream.org does not host or produce any radio streams and does not use its server for stream routing. It is only a collection of links. The connection for the audio will be established directly between the user and the radio station's server without fmstream even knowing it. fmstream.org is a non-commercial service and does not insert any additional advertisements in the audio streams. The streams will not be modified. They will be played as they are in the client's browser built-in HTML5 player. fmstream.org does not disable geoblocking. The stations in the "Featured" list are chosen just because the editor likes them. None of the stations pays for inclusion. Station names and descriptions, cities, frequencies, styles and stream links may contain massive errors. If you use this site you agree with the experimental status of fmstream.
This service is only available at fmstream.org. It is not related to any other appearance of the name fmstream on the internet. fmstream.org is not affiliated with other fmstream domains.
Check out the Radio Portal Link Site.
Please contact me you are concerned about errors, copyright issues or problematic content.