Best Radio Players for Windows, Mac and Linux

Published 25 September 2026

On a computer, the best radio player is often the one you already have open: a browser. But there are good reasons to want something else — lower resource use, playing a stream you found elsewhere, or a player that lives in the dock. Here are the options, from nothing installed to a dedicated app.

In the browser

A web player needs no install, works the same on Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS, and keeps playing in a background tab.

• Radio Garden — the spinning globe, for discovery.
• SomaFM and Radio Paradise — hand-curated, listener-supported stations with their own players; Radio Paradise offers unusually high quality.
• TuneIn — the big directory, with adverts on the free tier.
• 72FM — the whole open directory, organised by genre, country, language and mood (more below).

In Chrome and Edge, a web player can also be installed as an app from the address bar or the menu — on 72FM, choose Install app in the sidebar. It then opens in its own window, from the dock or the Start menu, like any desktop program.

Dedicated players

VLC (Windows, Mac, Linux)

The free, open-source media player plays almost any radio stream. Copy a station's stream address, choose Media → Open Network Stream (on a Mac, File → Open Network), paste it in, and it plays — MP3, AAC, HLS or a PLS/M3U playlist. Every station page on 72FM shows its stream address, so any station you find can be played in VLC.

Apple's Music app (Mac)

The Radio tab plays broadcast radio and Apple's live-hosted stations such as Apple Music 1 without a subscription, though not every station is available in every country.

Shortwave (Linux)

A clean GNOME app built on the community-run Radio Browser directory, with casting to Chromecast-compatible speakers and song titles when a station broadcasts them. If you use GNOME, it is the obvious choice.

foobar2000 (Windows)

A lightweight audio player that also plays stream addresses — for people who already use it for their music library.

72FM, described plainly

This is our site, so here is the honest version. 72FM is a player over the open Radio Browser directory — around 30,000 stations from 200+ countries — organised by genre, country, language and mood, with themed collections and a view of what is on air right now around the world.

• No adverts and no tracking in the player, on every tier. Stations still broadcast their own commercials; nobody can remove those.
• No account to start. Open it and press play.
• One hour a day free, resetting at your local midnight. Premium lifts the limit — a single payment, not a subscription.
• Each station shows its bitrate, so you can see what a stream costs in data before you press play.

Sound quality on a computer

Computers are where bitrate is most audible, because desktop speakers and headphones are usually better than a phone's. A 128kbps MP3 and a 320kbps stream really do sound different at your desk: radio audio quality and bitrate explains what to look for.

The short answer

• Nothing installed: a browser player — and in Chrome or Edge, install it as an app.
• Any stream you found elsewhere: VLC.
• On a Mac, a few big stations: Apple's Music app.
• On Linux: Shortwave.

For phones, see the best radio apps for Android and iPhone, or the best radio apps across every platform.