VLC Media Player not only streams online video, but obviously, it is a great player for online audio streaming. Those online audio sources are generally from online radios. Most of the online radios come for free. To stream such radio stations to your favorite player, you just need to find the URL of the stream. It is actually fun to listen to online radio while browsing the internet or using your computer.
The broadcast URLs of online radios generally end in .m3u or .pls. Those are the public broadcast URLs of online radio stations. To get such station links, you have to search the websites and see whether they provide such urls. For example we will use the .pls link of BBC World Service which is: http://www.vpr.net/vpr_files/stream_playlists/vpr_bbc_mp3.pls.
Once you get hold of an .m3u or .pls broadcast link of your favorite radio station, follow these steps:
- From the menu bar of VLC Media Player click on Media > Open Network Stream [CTRL + N] is the shortcut.
- Paste your .m3u or .pls url in the “Please enter a network URL:” field.
- Click on the Play button or just hit enter.
- Your online radio will begin to stream and play live from VLC.
Some Suggested Online Radio Stations:
- BBC World Service News: http://www.vpr.net/vpr_files/stream_playlists/vpr_bbc_mp3.pls
- Amazing Smooth and Jazz: http://uk1.internet-radio.com:4086/listen.pls
- 181 FM: http://uplink.duplexfx.com:8022/listen.pls
- JPHiP Radio: http://radio.jphip.com:8800/listen.pls (KPOP)
- MastRadio: http://stream.mastradio.net:8000/listen.pls (Bollywood)
- Gold FM Radio: http://uk2.internet-radio.com:30092/listen.pls
- Full Vibes Underground Electronic Radio: http://radio.full-vibes.com:8023/listen.pls
- Party Vibe Radio: http://www.partyvibe.com:8000/listen.pls
- SomaFM: http://voxsc1.somafm.com:8802/listen.pls
- Just a Minute: http://stream.beatradar.no:8007/listen.pls (Comedy)
*There are literally hundreds of thousands of online streaming radios out there. The choices are huge. You just need to find the ones that you like.
VLC allowing radio streaming would be cool if it were true – it works for certain radios and not others, for reasons that are not clear.
For instance http://198.204.228.202:8160/flac works, http://rondo.iradio.fi:8000/klasupro.flac doesn’t, both working directly in a browser. Not so in VLC. In addition,.pls files are not common. They aren’t available for any of the radios I listen to (all high resolution).
Therefore promoting VLC as a being able to stream radio is a bit misleading IMO – users’ time is valuable.
I entered the pls file per those instructions and it does not work. Before I allowed VLC to download the newest version, everything worked fine. Now it doesn’t. It was updating that has caused this. And I don’t know how to get the older version back instead.
Is there a way to change the Title to something more user-friendly than, for example “WETAVLVAAC.aac” (which is what my URL gave me when I pasted it in)?
I think, this title is most likely decided on the broadcaster’s end?
how to download a certain blues station to vlc, what do you type in url?
The station should provide you the URL.
There are no .pls files I can find on my favorite station! How would this work? Can’t you make a kind of function that accepts the radio’s home page that scans it for radio URLS and plays them??? That would be the first thing I would do if I implemented a “open network stream” function.
If they don’t provide streaming URLs then you won’t be able to stream them.
Yes! When I googled, “How to find a streaming radio station’s URL it was like a rabbit hole of various downloads and apps. My friend walked me through the 4 step process of located the url starting with my download files. If the radio station didn’t have a link to play live, I never would have found it. My computer automatically tried to download the station, so the file went to downloads.
In Step 3, instead of the Play option, choose the Stream option and stream it to a file.
This does not answer the question: “how to save internet radio station in VLC”
Download the .pls file. Opening it will open the radio station.
However when you close VLC, you lose that station, so you need to redo it again
Drag the .pls file to the “Media Library” tab on the left and it’ll stay there after closing. It’s where I keep all my playlists and radio stations 🙂