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Provides: Stream and record internet radio
Format: Download
Developer: Gaga Factory
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5+, 1GB RAM, Internet connection
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $29.99
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.0.2

Getting sick of your iTunes library in it’s current state? You have a few options. You could buy more CDs or MP3s, or you could download whatever you want, but that’s bad, so don’t. Another option you might find appealing, depending on your personal preferences, is internet radio. Radio Gaga brings free, quality internet radio to your Mac plus more.

Yes, you can listen to internet radio with iTunes, but can you record the songs?  I think not.  You can with Radio Gaga.  Not only does it offer you a beautiful interface, it also provides a relatively convenient way of recording the audio content you’re listening to directly inside the app at full quality.  And not only that, you can actually record more than one stream of content at a time.  It will record as many radio stations at once as your bandwidth can handle.  Content is recorded in MP3 format and is tagged appropriately.

The application comes with over 10,000 radio stations ready for you to listen to, separated out into genres.  Of course, this is a bit deceiving, as these vary in quality, and the counting method is a bit suspect.  But still, you can listen to tons of radio stations from all over the world, and add more if you like.  Just remember, not all radio stations broadcast 24/7, and they aren’t all at 256kbps.

There are a number of ways you can record stations using Radio Gaga.  You can simply record what you’re listening to at any time, but this is likely not optimal since you probably won’t have the beginning of the song or audio content using this method.  You can also set up a schedule to record a specific channel at a specific time.  This is great if you have a particular radio program or time slot you enjoy.  And finally, you can set Radio Gaga to record specific songs (content) from specific stations.  It’s like searching and waiting, and the key is that you have to know which channel the song you want will be playing on.  If you know this much, you’re set.

The program performs very well overall, provided you enjoy the radio experience.  If you don’t like radio, then this app won’t change you, unless you really really need free and legal songs.  I wish there was a better way to record specific songs by searching over a number of stations at once automatically, but I honestly can’t think of an easy way for them to implement such a feature, so I won’t hold it against them.  Even when restricted to you knowing which station might soon play the song you want, the feature is pretty cool.  Recorded content quality is directly proportional to the quality of the stream, so WYSIWYG.  Like radio?  Then you’ll love Radio Gaga.  Else, probably not.