Have We Left Web Radio Behind?

Since my decision to #unplugTrump, I have consciously moved away from Spotify. Instead, I chose to use Navidrome as my personal music server combined with Symfonium as the client. This setup allowed me to rediscover my own MP3 collection — a treasure of gems I hadn’t listened to in years! And I can tell: I really enjoyed the feeling of reconnecting with my personal music library.

The Missing Element: New Music

Yet, there was something missing: the discovery of new music.

Without a system suggesting new bands or songs, I felt a little bit cut off or isolated in my own collection. Of course, I immediately considered returning to a streaming service and I almost chose this quickest and easiest solution.

A Rediscovery in Web Radio

But then I remembered, that during my initial setup of Navidrome, I had added a few channels of a Web Radio station. — I quickly added more channels from this Web Radio station (each addressing slightly different genres) and imported them into Symfonium with just a tap in the app.

During some housework, I listened to the web radio instead of my own collection — and quite soon I found myself hearing a couple of bands I hadn’t heard in quite some time! It really made me smile a couple of times listening to some bands that I hadn’t heard in years. I never heard them on Spotify because they often were a bit too far out of my bubble so that they were never suggested from the algorithm.

And I can fully admit: I had forgotten about web radio just as I had forgotten about my MP3 collection.

Reflecting on the Place of Web Radio Today

This made me wonder: in our world dominated by paid streaming services, have we in fact really forgotten about the existence — and value — of free web radio? Just like the Fediverse, web radio stations don’t have the marketing budgets to compete with the big streaming providers. Especially when they are backed by some heavy VCs.

Perhaps web radio deserves not to be forgotten

In a world where streaming giants dominate the way we discover and consume music, web radio still carries a quiet magic. It’s free, instantly accessible, and often shaped by real people with a passion for what they play.

You might get genuine surprises, hear forgotten favorites, and discover songs you’d never think to search for. Different stations bring their own character: local news, warm voices behind the mic, and playlists that shift with the time of day.

There’s no account to create, no subscription to manage, no hidden profiling watching in the background. And I even found it refreshingly human to occasionally hear a real voice between the songs — a live moderator sharing a short story, a bit of local news, or just a smile in words. Just music — direct, unfiltered, and refreshingly human.