Windows XP Hacks

Save Streaming Music to Your PC

Build up a digital music collection by saving files in MP3 format when you listen to Internet radio stations.

When I’m at my PC, I spend a fair amount of time listing to streaming Internet radio stations, such as you can find at http://www.shoutcast.com, http://www.live365.com, or the many radio stations available directly from Windows Media Player and MusicMatch Jukebox.

Tip

To listen to radio stations with Windows Media Player, first launch it by choosing Start → All Programs → Accessories → Entertainment → Windows Media Player, then click on the Radio Tuner button.

Often, I’ll want to listen to a particular song again after hearing it—for example, a pavan by the English Renaissance composer John Dowling that I don’t have on my CD collection. But because radio stations stream music to your PC, that music apparently can’t be called back up and listened to again. Same deal with sample clips on Amazon.com and other sellers of digital music—once you’ve listened to the clip, you can’t save it like other files.

However, there is a way to save streaming music or any streaming audio to your PC as a digital music file. Super MP3 Recorder (http://www.supermp3recorder.com) lets you capture streaming music in MP3 and WAV formats. It’s shareware and free to try, but if you continue to use it, you’re expected to pay $19.95, or $29.95 for the Professional version, which lets you do sound editing and lets you automatically start recording at preset times.

To record ...