2026 approaches with our bright-eyed resolutions in tow. If you spend any significant part of your day streaming music, 2025 may have left you rethinking those listening habits, especially if Spotify is your platform of choice.
Early this year, artists boycotted Spotify events over unfair pay structures. Then, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard joined a growing list of artists leaving the platform over CEO Daniel Ek’s investments in an AI military drone company.
There was also news of AI-generated music reaching the Billboard charts and ICE recruitment ads popping up on Spotify and other streaming services.
Then there are the trends that are harder to put into words. The feeling that music listening habits have become increasingly trite, passionless and automated in the years since music streaming has become popular.
It’s the way even the most anticipated records from our favorite artists seem to come and go within a few weeks, or how we’ve begun to struggle to make it past the 3-minute mark of a song. The excitement of discovering something special and the joy of sharing it with others has suddenly become “work” best left to an algorithm.
But there are silver linings too. Physical media is making a bit of a comeback, thanks to younger generations. That means some of us are craving more intentionality with our music. All over the internet, there are musicians, DJs and radio hosts holding the line when it comes to providing a music listening experience that is personal, human-centric and algorithm-free.
If you’re looking to diversify your music-listening habits in the new year, here’s a list of streaming platforms that you should check out:
Skip the music critics and go straight to the source. The students manning college radio stations across the U.S. are always some of the first to identify new music trends and spotlight rising acts. Hobby web developer Eric Lee launched Campus FM in 2022 as a one-stop shop for your college radio streaming needs.
The website lets you program up to 10 stations to toggle between, and there are dozens of stations to pick from. WXYC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and KVRX at the University of Texas at Austin are some of my favorites.
This one is for the crate-diggers and the music nerds. An offshoot of the Vintage Obscura subreddit, this platform shines a light on the records collecting dust in the back of someone’s closet. Nothing from the 21st century and nothing with more than 30,000 views on YouTube. You can tune into the livestream, plus you can see what songs have played recently.
KCHUNG formed in 2011 as an artist-run co-op broadcasting from above a pho restaurant in Los Angeles’ Chinatown neighborhood. There are two streams that make for a very balanced experience; one is still based in Chinatown, and another broadcasts out of a red shipping container at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
Apart from curating a great selection of music, the station also hosts art reviews, interviews, performances and social justice and political discourse.
The folks at this Mexico City-based internet radio station not only broadcast great tunes, but they’re also eager to help others start their own radio communities. As a way to make online radio more accessible, co-founder Diego Aguirre Fernández developed an open-source and low-cost transmitter, called mensajito, that can be easily replicated.
On the air, Radio Nopal amplifies music from Mexico and across Latin America, with a special focus on physical media and forgotten records.
This online radio station (pronounced “antennas”) operates out of Montreal, and it was founded by a group of students at Concordia University in 2016 alongside Sebastian Cowan, who co-founded Montreal label Arbutus Records.
N10.AS takes the cake in terms of website design. Their Y2K-inspired homepage features an AIM-style live chat room and a digital gallery with a rotating feature of visual artists. On any given day, you might tune in and hear hardcore techno, dub, experimental jazz and more accessible pop and rock sounds.
Do you ever wonder what people are tuning into in Córdoba, Spain? What about Dakar, Senegal? Reykjavík? Basically, anywhere on the planet? Radio Garden is an Amsterdam-based interactive app and desktop platform that started out in 2016 as an installation designed by Jonathan Puckey for the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Radio Garden allows users to literally roam the globe, scanning through over 40,000 radio stations. The “balloon ride” feature randomizes your selection, making your music-listening experience feel more like a globe-trotting adventure than an algorithmic slog.
This Paris-based website and app uses a similar interface to Radio Garden. Users span a virtual globe, tuning into music from different parts of the world. Users can submit music to Radiooooo for inclusion in the mix, with preference given to music from regions or time periods that are underrepresented. Head’s up: Free access is limited, and many of the site’s features require you to sign up for a paid premium account.
Broadcasting from Bethlehem since 2020, Radio Alhara features a sleek and simple interface. Inspired by their background in architecture, Yousef and Elias Anastas co-founded the online radio station with the intention of sharing music between friends. Since then, Radio Alhara has transformed into an international platform amplifying music and culture from the region, as well as local journalism, civil rights issues and messages of political resistance.
This London-based platform is perfect if you’re in an exploratory mood. Every time you tune into NTS, expect something completely different. NTS says about 40% of the music heard on its airwaves is unavailable on Spotify, according to The New York Times. They boast an extensive (and searchable) archive of shows hosted by DJs all over the world. It’s not uncommon to tune in and hear a big star on NTS — artists like Oklou, Sudan Archives and A.G. Cook have all guest hosted their own segments.
This Southern California terrestrial station is perfect if you’re looking to get a little weird with your radio. LOOKOUT broadcasts what they call “transmission art.” Programming ranges from experimental audio projects to field recordings, radio plays, serials and sound art of all kinds. This is a spot for active, thoughtful listening!
This online station, established and run by New York DJ Sheri Barclay, calls itself “the AM radio of the internet.” Since launching the station in 2015, KPISS has operated out of a shipping container, a pizza shop and an RV parked outside of a Brooklyn parking lot. Every time I tune into KPISS, it feels like a warm hug made up of smooth jazz, '60s pop, garage rock and psychedelic rock.
Established in 1990, dublab is the longest-running operation on this list. Some of its earliest shows are archived by the Smithsonian to help document the birth of online radio, and there’s no doubt that its creation helped inspire some of the other platforms on this list. The LA-based internet radio station has over 180 shows in its rotation, with contributions coming from all over the world.
Copyright 2025 XPN
