There are some terrific jazz stations across the country that stream their broadcasts over the web, making it really simple for you to listen to great jazz from your computer while you work or play. You can listen to streaming audio through a variety of applications, the most common of which are Windows Media Player, RealAudio, iTunes, and WinAmp. To keep things simple, I will assume for the moment that you are on a Windows machine and wish to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player, which is a free application. For more information on the various alternatives, just click on one of the links above.
Three easy steps to streaming jazz.
1. Download the most recent version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player by clicking here. (If you are on a Mac, you'll need to use RealAudio and download the appropriate files for RealAudio from each site). Download and install the Media Player software.
2. Pick a station (or all of them!) There are lots of great stations to choose from, I have set out a few below:
3. Click on the "asx" link of the station you'd like to listen to. In some cases your browser may give you a warning prior to downloading. If you are comfortable downloading these files, click on the warning bar to allow the download. You'll be given the option of saving the file, click on save. Then open the file. Windows Media Player will automatically open and connect to that station. Drag the link to the station that is playing from your "Now Playing" pane to a playlist to save it for the future. Repeat for additional stations. Enjoy!
KPLU in Tacoma, Washington imbeds the player, making things a bit easier. Just open their stream at http://www2.allblues.org/whatson/embed_windows48.html