We all know it – nowadays, streaming is king. However, FM radio is not dead just yet. In fact, one could argue that FM radio is a lot better today than it ever was thanks to the Internet which allows anyone from any place in the world to listen to pretty much any local or internet-based radio station.
If you don’t want to use the browser in order to satisfy your radio-listening needs, then you can choose one of numerous very nice, high-quality radio apps for Linux (i.e. Shortwave, GNOME Radio, Advanced Radio Player, etc.).
Tuner is one such app, a radio app for Linux built for elementary OS. Of course, you can install it on pretty much any Linux distribution you want, either by building it from source or more directly via Flathub.
All about discovering new stations
“Make listening to Internet radio stations fun again!” – this is the motto of Tuner, and it’s safe to say it manages to do just that. This is mostly thanks to its nice “Discover” section that serves as your welcome screen. In short, Tuner provides you with a new selection of stations from all over the world each time you click the Shuffle button.
If this is not your style, then you can try the “Trending,” and “Popular” sections. If you’re still looking for something more specific, you can manually search for stations via genres (such as Classical, Electronic, Jazz, Rock, etc.). Every station can be marked with a start, making it a lot easier to find afterward.
What about other features?
Tuner is not the simplest, not the most advanced radio app for Linux. It strikes a fair balance between features and ease of use. It’s not all that different from Shortwave, for instance, which is one of the most popular apps of this sort for Linux.
Other features include the ability to turn off the app’s tracking elements (disables sending usage info to radio-browser.org), the option to auto-play the last station, as well as two GUI themes (Light and Dark), and that’s about it.
Conclusion
elementary OS apps have somewhat of a reputation to be very good, and that’s definitely the case with Tuner. It’s a very functional, easy-to-use, and stylish little radio app for Linux that works exactly as intended.
