Direct to you from Australia, Spike Radio takes the award for the streaming platform most likely to be copied in the coming year. There are goodies galore on this station, which favors the mainstream-alternative and club genres. To wit: a breakout console that includes a customized QuickTime player with sci-fi-style skin, volume control and links to archives, requests and live audio streams. Add to this a core page that features a program schedule with an international timeline, archived interviews, multimedia reviews and an animated comic book, and voilà--Raygun with a restraining bolt. You'll keep coming back for the Flash-generated letterhead, attitude-ridden interviews (hello, Noel Gallagher!) and stellar stream. Some advice: If you run too many programs on your desktop when Spike is open, it'll be sluggish.
Streamer: QuickTime

The Pipeline Network
tpln.net

Pipeline, which broadcasts at least two shows every night except Friday (when you shouldn't be home anyway), is the net source for underground hip-hop. With an interface that's loosely modeled on a Technics turntable, the site streams the best of the old (early Eazy-E) and the new (Pharoahe Monch, Kardinall Offishall). Includes downloadable archives of most shows and a rudimentary history of hip-hop--just in case you didn't already know it.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Atomic Radio
atomicpop.com/radiobrain

Former CBS Records head Al Teller put his net label, Atomic Pop, on the map last year with the web-first release of Public Enemy's There's a Poison Goin' On. It remains there with a radio portal that includes links to Chuck D's Bring the Noise and Dublab, a Flashed-out site that specializes in drum and bass, rare groove, dub and trip-hop.
Streamers: RealPlayer, Windows Media Player

Beta Lounge
betalounge.com

As the net's longest-running live electronic-music site, San Francisco-based Beta Lounge owns a peerless archive of DJ sets. Highlights include Mark Farina, Richie Hawtin (BL is affiliated with his record label, minus) and an exclusive set per- formed by Roni Size, DJ Die and MC Dynamite that catches them at the peak of their 1998 New Forms tour. Vital.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Netmix
netmix.com

Placing the emphasis on the downbeat, Netmix offers six genre-specific stations worth raving about: house, hip-hop, techno, trance, jungle and turntablism. Equal parts portal and platform, the site's core page links to featured artists and resident DJs. Hear sneak previews from Carl Cox, Sasha, Josh Wink, Goldie and others, or check out Aerosol Addiction, the street-graffiti gallery. What Mixmag online should have been.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Underground Radio 3wk
3wk.com

Good morning, Missouri! The unofficial headquarters of the college-rock vanguard plays old alternative (The Clash), new rock (Radiohead), anything Guided By Voices and pretty much anyone who's ever been signed to Matador (because who doesn't love Liz Phair?). So down to earth, the main page may as well be rendered in plaid.
Streamer: RealPlayer

BBC Online: Radio 1
bbc.co.uk/radio1

Easily the classiest live-feed online radio site, Radio 1 goes well beyond studiocam streaming by offering loads of original content. Promoting the Beeb's holy trinity of alternative, club and pop, the site's links to news, interviews and on-demand programming are refreshed daily. Artist pedigree: overwhelmingly British (Primal Scream, Underworld), with North American flirtations (Madonna).
Streamer: RealPlayer

Pseudo
pseudo.com
– koolout.com
– ssound.pseudo.com
– 88hiphop.com

If you're hungry for beat streaming, Pseudo is the one. Its three radio sites cannibalize each other visually, but musically, they couldn't be more different. Koolout is heavy on soul, world and reggae (Lauryn Hill, Enigma); Streetsound is all about electronica (John Acquaviva, Daft Punk); and 88HipHop's focus is on underground hip-hop (Cocoa Brovaz, Canibus).
Streamers: RealPlayer, Windows Media Player

Live365
live365.com

Radio revolution for the masses. Live365 invites listeners to build their own radio stations, providing free bandwidth and server space to anyone with a load of MP3s to share. The homegrown programs--ranging from Redneck Underground to Grateful Dread to Resurrection Radio--are neatly indexed into three-dozen musical genres. In February, Live365 raised its profile by partnering with Road Runner, the giant broadband network.
Streamers: RealPlayer, Audion, Macast, SoundJam MP, Winamp

Digitalnoise
digitalnoise.com

The East Coast's answer to Beta Lounge. Digitalnoise, the Platform Network's most electrocentric member, offers live feeds (often with video) of the best in jungle, house, techno and hip-hop. Can't-miss performances include the Jungle Brothers at New York's Bowery Ballroom (hosted by Afrika Bambaataa) and a night in D.C. with Moby and Derrick May. The one drawback: no fast-forwarding through the archives.
Streamer: RealPlayer

RadioSpy
radiospy.com

Not quite as illicit as its name suggests, RadioSpy is essentially a well-designed MP3 download platform, whose six custom "spycast" stations--alternative, rock, classical, jazz/blues, pop, techno--stream both indie and mainstream acts. The site is worth visiting for its unofficial seventh station, Review Radio, which features tracks from current on-site CD reviews, allowing you to contrast what you hear with what they say. Bonus: The review meter goes up to eleven.
Streamers: Winamp, RealPlayer, ShoutCast, Windows Media Player

Spinner
spinner.com

This portal literally spells out your options. With links to more than 120 online radio stations, Spinner breaks it down first by genre (modern rock, classical, country, folk, urban, world), then alphabetically by station name. In other words, there's something here for everyone, as you'll see in the Now Playing feature, which lists who's spinning what. Doubly sweet: The links provide breakout consoles, so you can fish while you're streaming.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Open Radio Archive Network Group
orang.org

Part of Germany's Radio International City--an art project that provides an outlet for amateur and professional musicians--Orang invites DJs, broadcasters and producers to post music on its massive archive (twenty-seven days' worth of content and counting). Listeners then comb through dozens of categories--from dub to klezmer to jazz--to build and save playlists on the site's server. The result: your own radio station, wherever and whenever you want it.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Streambox
streambox.com

Less a portal than a barometer, Streambox's radio arm has a nose for what's hot and what's not in online radio. Bookmark this baby for the "sweet" stream of the week (recent feature: a 1969 April Fool's Day prank call by college radio DJ David Letterman), the "stinky" stream of the week ("Dolphin Rapes Man") or the always refreshing "stale" streams section (utterly nonessential: alien abductee-cum-AM-radio DJ Art Bell's Dreamland broadcasts out of Pahrump, Nevada(http://www.artbell.com/).
Streamer: RealPlayer

Groovetech
groovetech.com

Perhaps a touch too earnest--"In late 1996, we saw the opportunity to provide an invaluable service to a global audience… [of] dance-music lovers"--but still delightful. Groovetech's house-heavy broadcast schedule, running from ten a.m. to midnight PST, seven days a week, is tighter than TV Guide. It's augmented by an online music store and a club archive that features the site's indisputable highlight: an oddly intoxicating DJ set by the Pet Shop Boys.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Scour Radio
scour.net/Radio

A search engine for online radio, Scour helps you find stations by genre (there are twenty), city, region or webcaster (Radio.SonicNet, Spinner and independent). It also provides links to streaming MP3 stations. Add it all up and you've got a portal the size of Texas. If it's online and streaming, odds are Scour can find it.
Streamers: RealPlayer, Winamp

Media Bureau Networks
mediabureau.com

It's not much to look at--microscopic text and a color scheme only Betsey Johnson could love--but MBN is solid in all the right places. The emphasis here is on reggae, funk and hip-hop (especially old school). And if the message board is any indication, the mix seems to be working: "You guys are terrible. Why don't you pay homage to the real pioneers, like DMX, Puff Daddy and Mase?" Ha ha.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Radio.SonicNet
radio.sonicnet.com

Radio.SonicNet was one of the first sites to allow listeners to create their own net radio stations--and definitely the first to do it well. With dozens of straightforward category/genre streams, plus all the core magazine-type trappings, you can be all things to all music fans--which is to say, the edgiest mainstream streamer out there. Bonus: Prominent pop stars program their own streams for public consumption (Radio Britney Spears, anyone?).
Streamers: RealPlayer, Windows Media Player

Transmissions from Venus
transmissionsfromvenus.com

Where might you find Korn, Kraftwerk and Kruder & Dorfmeister sharing airtime? At Transmissions from Venus, the only net radio site that switches effortlessly between rockabilly, classical and pretty much everything else. The station has a mandate to play only music with "emotion," though it sometimes leans a little heavy or a little lite, making it good for a jolt and fine for relaxing. In keeping with its pro-indie ethic, the site also has a great page of zine links.
Streamers: Winamp, Sonique, RealPlayer

Astralwerks
astralwerks.com

At Astralwerks, you take the cool (Horace Andy, Adam F., Luke Vibert and B.J. Cole) with the popular (Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers). A breakout window pumps out five streams of music by artists signed to both the label and its subsidiaries, Melankolic and Source. The core page also includes archived DJ sets and videos, including that Fatboy Slim one with the dancing.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Indie Pop Radio
indiepopradio.com

If it's obscure, Indie Pop Radio will program it for you. Notable for pilfering a page from Suck and providing thoroughly interesting, tangential topic links in its News section (REM's Man on the Moon soundtrack got us to the much more rewarding unofficial Andy Kaufman homepage). The anti-MP3.com.
Streamers: Winamp, Sonique, Mpg123, Freeamp, Xmms (PC), Macast

Antenna Internet Radio
antennaradio.com

Antenna's lineup, which mixes Japanese pop with punk, experimental rock and classical music, is among the web's most eclectic. Each of its nine shows comes with a must-read annotated playlist; don't miss the notes for Otis F. Odder's "Friendly Persuasion," in which he recently described having sixteen teeth extracted in preparation for a set of dentures. (Odder, incidentally, is one of the few DJs brave enough to play tracks by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in the same hour-long set.)
Streamer: RealPlayer

WFMU
wfmu.org

WFMU is a free-form station, meaning management lets the DJs play whatever they want. Although it dishes lots of talk between songs, the beats (carried online by Broadcast.com) are worth waiting for. A recent listing of the station's heavy airplay includes albums by Mos Def, Sammy Davis Jr. and the Afro Cuban All Stars. The really great thing about WFMU: You're likely to hear tracks from all three consecutively.
Streamer: RealPlayer

Nothing Radio
nothingradio.net

There's likely more to your music collection than the thirteen bands on Trent Reznor's industrial-pop label, Nothing Records, home to Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails and Plaid, among others. Still, this fan-designed station captures the essence of all things Nothing so successfully that you'll swear it's the label's official streamer.
Streamers: Winamp, Macast

Deadshow.com
deadshow.com

Tape trading was an essential part of the Grateful Dead concert experience. Post-Jerry, Deadshow.com makes collecting ridiculously easy, giving every head with an ISP account access to a huge library of concerts (ninety shows and counting, most of them accompanied by set lists and comments on audio quality) for streaming or downloading. Nothing fancy, but still the zenith of niche net programming.
Streamer: RealPlayer