Inworld Radio

Some people bring their own music with them when in virtual worlds but I’m one of those who likes to listen to inworld or “parcel music.” I like to hear what the owner of that place wanted me to hear. To me, it’s part of the experience of being in a particular virtual place just as the building or interior decor or outside plant life are.

When I’m in my own place, my home or office or pub, I always have a radio and it’s always on. But keeping up with the ever-changing urls for these radio stations or music streams is not easy. I update my inworld radio a couple of times a year. It seems to be a more difficult task each time as stations go from one distributor to another and the policies on how one may listen seem to change often and without consistency. How come one url from this site works inworld and another doesn’t?

I have used both iTunes and Shoutcast in the past to get urls for use inworld but lately have had very little luck with either. They give you a place to listen online and sometimes they give you a url that works inworld but lately, more often than not, they don’t. Anybody got another good source that gives you the url you need to listen inworld? I know there are a lot of other streaming services and I’ve used others and know some of them have worked inworld in the past but a lot of these sites have changed the way they do things. So don’t tell me about one that worked for you last year, I need current info.

I used to have a great inworld radio for searching for internet stations but the person who made it left SL and the service stopped working quite some time ago. You could just enter a genre like jazz and a list of up to 50 jazz stations would build in local chat. Copy and paste the urls into your inworld radio or directly to your About Land window and you were all set. Love to find something like that again.

There have been attempts over the years at creating actual inworld stations and I wish we had a few of those today, serving the Metaverse. Not just with music but with news of virtual worlds as well. I know there are still some attempts at this here and there but I’m unaware of a station that covers the whole Metaverse and not just one world. If you know of one, please turn me on to it.

As for music-only stations actually in the virtual world, Radio Riel is the absolute star and an amazing success story. It’s programmed with the virtual world – or at least Second Life – in mind and its sponsors are inworld merchants and service providers.

My own personal favorite station to listen to inworld these days – for the last eight months or so in fact – is Americana Nirvana. It’s a great mix of folk-rock, country, classic rock, blues and country blues. My second choice is a station with a similar name and format. Radio Free Americana plays rock, blues, power pop, country and folk. Still another in the same vein is BiPolar Radio, playing folk, rock, classic rock, blues, jazz and adult alternative.

The two internet radio stations or music streams that I have listened to inworld for what seems like – and probably is – my entire virtual life have been Folk Alley and Radio Paradise. But RP recently changed its longtime url ~~and I haven’t found a replacement. Listening online is easy but I haven’t had any luck in finding a way to listen inworld and the usual places I go to get such urls have not been helpful.~~ (* update below)

I like country music too, mostly classic country. I have several stations I turn to for this genre. One interesting niche station is Boot Liquor, which plays a few classics but is more likely to be playing some offbeat country tunes that you are unlikely to hear anywhere else. Regrettably they also changed urls recently and I’m still looking for an inworld version.

Let’s talk about the blues. I gotta have it. I have several urls I use often.

I also like jazz and used to listen to KSAN from San Francisco quite a bit but have lost touch with them. KCSM of San Francisco is still working on my radio and I have several other jazz stations.

I always have a classical and New Age station handy though at present I don’t have a particular favorite. If you combine those two genre with medieval and other related music, there is Radio Reverie from the Radio Riel group which is sort of the default national station of Winterfell, where I live. Reverie is a regular listen for me.

Speaking of Radio Riel, one station from its roster I miss is Radio New Toulouse, the former home music stream for the SL estate of the same name. That station concentrated on a wide variety of music that had New Orleans as the thread that held the format together.

A station I used to love to listen to but hated keeping up with all their url changes was Green Mist Radio. They played a great mix of Celtic, folk-rock and roots rock. That’s definitely the station I miss the most.

Off and on over the years I have been a regular listener of Live Ireland and Highlander but these stations change frequencies (urls) at annoyingly short intervals and it seems every time I update my inworld radios, I must update these. Highlander is another one I don’t have at the moment.

From time to time I tune in to All Beatles Radio. Other than that, I don’t listen to ’50s or ’60s pop hits much anymore though if I could find a good inworld stream that played Motown and the Atlantic Records R&B/Soul artists of the ’60s and early ’70s, I would love to add that to my playlist.

Here are the urls for some of the stations I mentioned above and a few more. All of these urls were working inworld as of July 1 but, as always with internet stations, you may find any one of them silent from time to time for anything from a couple of minutes to a couple of days. That’s just the nature of the beast I guess.

Happy listening.

* update new url for Radio Paradise – http://stream-sd.radioparadise.com:8056

Americana Nirvana – http://sc7.shoutcaststreaming.us:8020

Radio Free Americana – http://sc9.shoutcaststreaming.us:9526

BiPolar Radio – http://216.249.101.242:8019/bipolaradio

Folk Alley – http://66.225.205.8:8000

Classic Folk – http://173.244.215.163:8520

Live Ireland – http://66.90.73.250:8080

Irish Folk – http://stream.laut.fm/irish-folk

Classic Country – http://205.164.62.22:7806

Root Hog – http://67.212.165.106:8095

New Orleans Blues – http://184.154.151.202:8036