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There are plenty of applications on Android Market for music nuts. Lots of them allow you to stream music and plenty allow you to download podcasts – like Google Listen – so you can tune in even without a data connection. But one thing missing from many Android phones is an FM transmitte, something that seems more prevalent abroad. But the folks at Clear Channel, who own more radio stations than you probably knew existed, want to make sure you get your radio on the go and they’re way of getting it to you is iheartradio.
While iheartradio has been available on the iPhone and BlackBerry for awhile, it was just recently made available for Android. All you need is a compatible device and a data or Wi-Fi connection. It’ll even stream over 3G which is pretty cool and an advantage over other apps.
And don’t forget about how many radio stations Clear Channel owns and operates. Wikipedia, which isn’t “official” by any means, says they currently run 900+ stations. They do a whole lot more than radio… but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.
[iheartradio via Lifehacker]
I downloaded it a few days ago but found that the station list wasn’t that great and it interferes with Mobile Defense so I deleted it after a day of use. Pandora is still the Android gold standard for streaming music.
Might want to fix the headline so it reads i*heart*radio.
This is a SOLID app, and one that I’m happy I didn’t have to leave behind with my BlackBerry. Many stations, loads pretty quickly, and streams effortlessly over 3G. Absolutely beautiful. Now I just have to wait for Nobex Radio Companion to droid it out so I can have my favorite station on my Droid too.
Needs UK support.
Plus alot of comments on the Market say it has lots of issues.
I tried it on a myTouch 3G and found it didn’t work all that well. It loaded up a list of stations but was not able to connect to any of them.
Never connected for me either, sorry once over wifi but it lagged every 2 seconds. Pretty worthless
Did you play with the app before you posted this Rob?
I live in San Francisco and a lot of our local stations do work out here….searching around the country I found that a lot have connection problems….GREAT app…but will take a little work to make perfect. Works well for me now though…
I installed it a couple days ago on my Sprint Hero, and I’ve had no problems except a couple force quits. I was able to bookmark my favorite sports talk station from Minneapolis and listen to it on the bus here in Seattle.
Sorry application sucks. gets only one station. no options.
Couldn’t open it on the droid eris. Force close.
Anybody looking for UK support with this turd is going to be dissapointed clear channel does not own one UK radio station. clear channel is a US radio corp. iloveradio is thier big gimic to try to make up for lossing radio listeners due to thier crappy cookie cutter radio formulas.
rigamrts:
You have no idea how much you’re right. I love me some Android apps, but this is one app I could easily live without. Clear Channel, CBS Radio and ABC/Citadel are strongly responsible for radio becoming the crapfest it has become now and this is just their way to try to continue their stranglehold. It’s up to the Pandoras, Slackers and independent companies to steer a path to the future.
im in new jersey….instant force close when trying to open this with my G1. Guess i’ll have to wait to get my hands on the nexus1
I installed it on my Sprint HTC Hero, and it works GREAT!
KFOX out of San Jose streamed great!
KTLK out of Minneapolis worked great!
Works with my G1 on over a “G” (GPRS) wireless network. it does take a while for the stations to load however.
Finally Lex and Terry!
The application eats up battery life like no other. Besides ClearChannel is an evil company.
I found “Cherry RPlayer” to be a good one as well. I was streaming over my EVDO signal for two hours straight, with absolutely no interruption nor buffer freezes.
Love this app. I have it on my iPod Touch and had been waiting for it to appear on android. Let’s me listen to my local favorites no matter where I travel to.
yeah yeah, they are ‘evil.’ Whatever.
Glad they finally got this app to Android, but it still needs some serious work. Searching for local stations does not work. Manually found the one I want and after that it works ok.
Requires GPS turned onto be even start the app even though no location services even seem to work properly. (force closes on startup otherwise). And then after closing it, it bugs the GPS so it won’t turn off. Starting up another app that uses GPS seems to fix it, otherwise you have to reboot.
Looks to be a good app to give a wider audience to a major US radio carrier. They just need to get some better people working on it.
I downloaded it on my droid and have had no issues whatsoever with this app. It finds the local stations and streams them without any problems so far.
@Shinzakura Amen brotha
Clear Channel? No thanks.
Works flawlessly on my DROID. An app I’ve been waiting for after switching over from BlackBerry.
I keep my apps on my hero to a minimum to avoid conflicting apps. I have no issues with the Iheartradio app on my sprint hero except if you close it down (minimize lag) it doesn’t save favorites.
I’m sorry clearchannel exists but as long as a few of it’s stations allow programming that the corporate media doesn’t in general it works for me. KTLK1150 is a good example.
Clear Channel is one of the most evil corporations in existence. I would rather live in a silent world than be responsible for giving these Neo-con morons a dime of revenue. Yes, the app is free, but they make money on the advertising.
IF YOU APPRECIATE MUSIC, FREE SPEECH, OR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP.
I’ll add to the anarchy.
Works great on my Eris. A couple force stops and some rare buffering, but now I can listen to Bob&Tom at work while out smoking!
Why, Rob, why? Why is it so hard to include a QR code with your articles about apps? You take the time to do a really nice write up, why not take the extra minute to generate a QR code for us and make it easy for everyone to try out that app? Please!
being an unabashed “neo con” and proud of it, i tried it but all i got was “forced close” – could never get it to open
but now that i know clearchannel is a neo con company, guess i’ll have to try it again
Works great on the Sprint Hero!
I really wanted this app to work as I listen to a lot of country stations that Clear Channel produces, however, on the Droid this app drains the battery excessively and worse than that it ruins the MultiMedia station dock for the droid. Instead of going into dock mode the droids screen will turn black and do nothing. Uninstall the app and all works fine.
Of the 3 stations I listen to in my area, it listed one. Thankfully it was the one I listen to the most of the three. Also, it worked flawlessly with my stereo bluetooth headset. Hrm, I have yet to try Pandora with bluetooth…
What is with all these goddam apps that really NEED to be working in Landscape Orientation or arean’t orientation aware when THEY NEED TO BE – useless as a help-me-sleep app in the dock. Talk about yer crap fests.
Good app OTHERWISE, but not where it counts in a device that can be held upside down in GoogleSky and work flawlessly – it’s not like the hardware can’t handle it people!
Let’s code this bitch.
And iHeartRadio would be actually REALLY awesome IF it also dragged up Digital Radio Broadcasts of the local stations – fails in that.
BTW, had Wifi off the whole time, and streaming is NOT an issue IF you have also EVDO – WILL be an issue if you have EDGE. With EDGE, you NEED Wifi on for streaming iHeartRadio
And BTW, thanks to the iHeartRadio for interrupting me to watch AustinCityLimits – Arcade Fire – wow, good band. And those vilon/harp player chicks are HOT. Yes, want some. Arcade Fire (actually reminds me of a thickly produced Zep from the 1st 4 with a little Bruce thrown in).
Ya know, I could have waited a while to put all this in, but no edit facility, ya gotta expect that. Ok, now Arcade Fire sounds like Talking Heads + B-52s + Edith Piaff + Bjork – I love that.
And of course there’s the stage combat and bondage. Oh, wait , we were talking about techy things like Droids and stuff. Sorry.
Any rock band that travels with and uses a PIPE ORGAN is my kind of band. Now, technically, I wonder if its keyboard is midi-fitted? I’ll ask.
Where is the QR code?
I am so amazed at the many many options we have on Droid. No complaints there, but I am wondering if anyone is having trouble with the time out. Mine keeps reverting back to 15 seconds, which is becoming quite aggravating. Any advice?
FM radio is my LAST resort, though there’s much fewer independent alternatives since the RIAA jacked up the royalty rates for internet radio to well above what terrestrial stations have to pay. Our democracy in action. IMHO somafm.com has the best shoutcast stations – I find most of my new music via Indie Pop Rocks, and Cherry RPlayer is a great streaming app.
#17Jim is right about clear channel.
Not to mention the DRM (http://xkcd.com/488/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0FAaah8jgY ) that is included with this app that provides MAINSTREAM radio that is still censored by the FCC.
You are better off installing PANDORA. (I would suggest Last.fm and imeem, but Last.fm is owned by CBS and imeem was recently snatched up by News Corp. You can’t really be an internet corporation if you are owned by a Mainstream Media corporation. (see http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90psr_mediaopoly_news ))
You are better off installing A Online Radio ( http://aor.leadapps.com/ ): Streaming audio, none of the coporate evil.
F%#k clear channel!! I’d rather use streamfurious or one of the others to find my favorite talk shows.
I love my Droid!! Only one concern is how quickly it times out. Even when I reset it to 10 minutes it resorts back to 15 seconds. Is this a normal or an isolated problem with my phone?
Why are all of the conservative talk stations filtered out in Los Angeles? The only one I find is KFI. However, other stations that are huge in this market are not there (e.g.: KABC). Is ClearChannel a “liberal” corp that not really liberal but restrictive?
I live in San Francisco and like to tune in to the extreme right-wing stations every now and then…just to keep up with things on the Glenn Beck fringes. This is GREAT
Works great on the droid….but…..really drains battery even when not listing to the radio.
Before iheartradio I could go for 3 days without charging.
After installing iheartradio only 3/4 day before I had to recharge.
Uninstalled iheartradio now I’m back to 3 days.
Would be curious to know what else the app is actually doing in the background.
The iHeartRadio 2.2 android app consistently fails to perform on my brand new Samsung Galaxy S using either 3G and wireless connectivity. I always get “Connnecting” followed by “Buffering”, followed by “Connnecting”, followed by “Buffering”, on and on and on. For comparison, I have found the Any Radio application performs very well under similar conditions. I can only hope that ClearChannel is working to fix this very serious performance problem.
Junk. I would love to use it daily, but it constantly buffers, reconnects, and force closes. Comments on Android Market say the same. Can’t believe they don’t pull it until they can make it actually work.