Last week, we have reviewed the top 5 best streaming audio shareware. They work perfectly to record music online from most music apps or local media players as long as you paid a few dollars to buy a personal license. After posing the review, I have received multiple questions from users such as is there a way to get the streaming recorder for free.
Well, there are multiple such freewares available online. The problem is that some of them combine lots adwares or viruses. If you don't pay much attention before you download them for free, your computer will risk being infectious easily.
How to Record Internet Radio on Mac/PC. AudFree Internet Radio Recorder is available for Mac and Windows OS. The following tutorial will guide you how to record audio from Internet radio stations on Mac and PC step by step. As the name depicts, Free Sound Recorder is a MP3 recorder free for both Mac and Windows users. This tool helps users capture sounds for streaming audio broadcasts, Skype, YouTube, and any other audio. Most conveniently, it allows you to schedule recording from any sources at any one given time. Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder. This program is an online Internet audio recorder that is free of charge. The mainly function of this audio grabber is to record any audio that you want by simply clicking the “Record” button. What makes it program outstanding is its user friendly interface perfectly fit for everyone to use.
To help you all pick up a superior free MP3 music recorder, I have tested almost every streaming media software in the market and generate the following list. Want to take a look at it? Just read on.
View also:Top 3 DRM Removal Freeware
No 1. Aktiv MP3 Recorder (Windows)
This is a fantastic tool for recording music for free from various sources such as CDs, DVDs, Tapes, TV, Internet radio, video games as well as other sound files which are playing on your computer. It supports various output formats such as MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA, VOX, AU and AIFF without using third party plugin like Lame encoder. Before converting, you can easily choose the bit rate, sample size, number of channels, frequency and volume of recording. Besides, it has the advanced features such as smart silence detection, schedule recording, system hot keys which makes it more user friendly and flexible to use.
Pros: 1. Easy to use. 2. Multiple output formats compatibility. 3. Advanced recording scheduler.
Cons: 1. The installer may contain some unwanted extra software, you can decline the offers during installing if you want them.
View also:How to Download Spotify Songs as MP3
No 2. QuickTime Player (Mac)
If you are an Apple Fan, this is the best free streaming media recorder for you. It comes with the Mac computers with 10.6 or later versions. Older Mac supports the built-in microphone and line-in from the 3.5mm jack while the new Mac only supports microphone. To start capturing songs, you just need to play them from your computer and click the 'File' > 'New Audio Recording' and choose the red 'Start' button. You can customize the quality settings for the output files too. If you want to balance the quality, file size and compatibility, you can choose 'High Quality' which records M4A files with variable bit rate using AAC codec. Else you can choose 'Maximum Quality' to export to AIFC files with PCM S24 codec. What is worth to mention is that this free tool also support to record screen video of your computer.
Pros: 1. It is readily available on Mac, no need to install. 2. Support to record music with maximum quality. 3. Support to record video as well.
Cons: 1. The microphone may record external sound noise around you during recording.
View also:VLC Media Player vs. QuickTime Player
No 3. Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder (Windows & Mac)
This free streaming music recorder works well on both Windows and Mac computer. It can directly and effectively record sound from your computer to MP3/OGG/WMA/WAV files. Weather you want to download songs from music websites like VEVO, Grooveshark, Jango or radio stations such as Pandora, BBC, VOA or voice chat on the Skype, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Apowersoft Free Audio Recorder will do that in a breeze. With the built-in ID3 system, it can automatically search and add the tag info, meta data to your songs after recording. Also, you can skip the silence passages in the process of recording, edit the recorded songs such as cutting out the unwanted parts. The converted songs will be compatible with almost any devices and players like Windows Media player, Chromebook, tablets and so on.
Pros: 1. Supports multiple output formats. 2. Automatically complete the ID3 tags for the saved songs. 3. Edit songs after capturing.
Cons: 1. Sometimes the recording sound is low. 2. Can't split tracks.
No 4. Free System Sound Recorder (Windows)
If you have Windows 7/8, this is a handy software to record voice playing online from your computer. You can use it for capturing the moment, recording presentations or just for fun. To use it, you can click 'Start' > 'All Programs' > 'Accessories' > Double click 'Sound Recorder'. You will see the tiny windows of with the main 'Start Recording' button. When it is done, you can click 'Stop Recording“ save it as .WMA Windows media files for playing on any players. It supports supports to do the recording from the command line too. On Windows 10, it doesn't come with this desktop program by default, but don't worry, you can download the app from the Microsoft Store online directly. What is even better is that with this free app, you can ask Cortana to do the song recording directly for you.
Record Audio From Internet Mac Free Online
Pros: 1. Easy to use and lightweight. 2. Support to record through command line. 3. The Windows 10 Sound Recorder works well with Cortana.
Cons: 1. Don't have any extra features like editing.
View also:How to Play Spotify Songs on Windows Media Player
No 5. Audacity (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Audacity is a free open source streaming recorder which record sound from both a microphone and computer playback. It is beloved by users who do voice recording for podcasts and similar endeavors for years. You can use it to make your own recordings, remove noise, cut voice clips, apply special effects and so on. The user interface looks beautiful. But don't let its simple appearance fool you. Under it, there are a bundle of arsenal features such as multi-track editing, smooth fading, labeling, syncing and more. Audacity can change frequencies with its equalization, bass, treble, high/low pass. Besides, it can help you easily remove any annoying humming or other backgrounds. The only drawback is that as a most powerful audio software, it takes a longer time for you to learn all the features well. But it is totally worth it if you are planning to do free recording for a long period.
Pros: 1. Support all kind of platforms. 2. Powerful sound editing features such as adding sound effects.
Cons: 1. It takes deep learning curve to use it.
Which Is the Best Free Audio Recorder
That is all about what are mainly want to talk today. Have you made a decision which free voice recorder works best for you? Actually there are still a lot other similar tools out there such as Streamosaur, Screamer Radio, iMusic, Wavosaur, The Kristal Audio Engine. But the ones we listed are better alternatives to them compared to the usability, features, performance and so on.
To sum up, if you don't want to install any extra packages to your computer, the QuickTime Player and Windows Sound Recorder will be best for you to use on Mac or PC. Else if you want more powerful free music recorder, you can try to download the Aktiv MP3 Recorder, Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder, Audacity.
By the way, though free tools can help you get the job done, it just doesn't have as high performance as other commercial software. If you are just seeking for more powerful tools, you can also refer to the top 5 streaming music converters which we have talked previously.
Music streaming service is becoming more and more popular in recent years. If you like listening to streaming music or audio, then you might have wondered if it is possible to have a copy of it or record it for future playback anytime, even offline. If you don’t want to miss a certain program or song, but there is something that you need to do, you may record it so you can still listen to it at any time.
Streaming audio recorder is an essential tool to record music from a music streaming service. It can be a Spotify music recorder, an Apple Music recorder, a Deezer music recorder, an Amazon Music recorder, a YouTube music recorder, ..., or an all-in-one music recorder. Here is a selection of the best streaming audio recorders that can record audio from the mainstreaming music service to create audio files in various audio formats.
Top 6 Streaming Audio Recorders
- No. 1 Sidify Music Converter
- No. 2 AudiCable Audio Recorder
- No. 3 Audials Tunebite Premium
- No. 4 Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder
- No. 5 Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder
- No. 6 Audacity
1. Sidify
Sidify is the most popular brand for converting Spotify music and Apple Music to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF with lossless quality for both Windows and Mac users.
The reason why we put Sidify in the first place in our top 6 is the fact that it's 100% clean & safe & easy-to-use. It keeps the highest audio quality and retains all important ID3 tags after conversion. Moreover, it can be used to convert your local music to a common format, burn music to CD, upload music to OneDrive and edit ID3 tags. It's cost-effective compared with other pieces of software in its price and feature range.
Audacity Record From Internet
#1:Sidify Music Converter, one of the best Spotify audio downloaders, with a simple & clear interface, enables users to handle it in seconds. Spotify uses can convert or download any Spotify song or playlist to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF with the best audio quality. Moreover, It keeps complete ID3 tags after conversion.
Pros:
- Record Spotify music as MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV or AIFF files;
- Keep up to 320kbps audio quality;
- Retain ID3 tags after conversion;
- 5X faster conversion speed (Win);
- Burn Spotify music to CD;
- Upload Spotify songs to OneDrive; Edit ID3 tags;
- Available on both Windows & Mac operating systems.
- Fully compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10 & macOS 10.11-11 Big Sur.
- Support up to 45 languages.
Free Trial Version:
Pros:
- Download Apple Music, iTunes M4P files & Audiobooks to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV or AIFF;
- Keep lossless audio quality;
- Retain ID3 tags after conversion;
- 10X faster conversion speed (Win);
- Burn Apple Music to CD;
- Upload Apple Music to OneDrive; Edit ID3 tags;
- Available on both Windows & Mac operating systems.
- Fully compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10 & macOS 10.11-11 Big Sur.
- Support up to 45 languages.
2. AudiCable Audio Recorder
AudiCable Audio Recorder is an all-in-one music recorder that can be used to download music from Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, Line, Pandora, YouTube, etc. It records and saves the music as MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC and AIFF files, keeping ID3 tags and high audio quality after conversion. It’s time-limited free and available on the Windows system.
Pros:
- Support multiple music streaming services.
- Convert music from different platforms to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF.
- Record with high audio quality.
- Keep ID3 tags after conversion.
- Time-limited free.
3. Audials Tunebite Premium
Audials Tunebite Platinum is a handy multimedia application for recording, downloading and converting audios and videos. It includes Streaming, Universal converter and Media center. With Audials Tunebite Platinum, you can record the protected music streams of all music services and also the audio streams of websites. It can copy DVDs and it sorts all of your music for you into a convenient and sortable library. Although it doesn't top our list, Audials is intriguing audio converter software. Moreover, if you are a fan of audiobooks, Audials Tunebite offers an audiobook mode that allows you to convert audiobook to .mp3 files at double speed easily.
Pros:
- Record everything from the Internet- audios and videos;
- Compatibility with many files format and fast conversion speed;
- Convert media files to more than 80 formats;
- Organize and manage your media collection easily.
Cons:
- The GUI needs to be improved, too much is put into a small area;
- Only four languages are supported;
- Only have Windows and iOS versions, without Mac version.
4. Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder
Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder is software that can detect and automatically download any audio source that’s playing on your computer. It can retrieve details such as artist, album and genre and then embed it into the music file. With Wondershare audio recorder, you can capture and download audio from over 500 popular radios and music streaming sites including Spotify, iTunes radio, BBC radio and much more.
Pros:
- Reliable and accurate recording of streaming audio;
- Supports keeping ID3 tags;
- Available in Mac and Windows version;
- Integrated ringtone maker that creates .M4r (iPhone) and MP3 ringtones.
Cons:
- Limited output formats;
- Cannot work on all sources;
- Limited to output 256kbps audio files.
5. Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder
Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder is a nice tool to record streaming audio from music sites, video platforms, radio stations or capture sound from audio chats. It can also deliver output files in a few formats like AAC, MP3. This tool not only functions being a good audio recorder, but also offers the purpose of a free audio editing tool, CD burner/ripper and audio converter. It even has its own built-in radio with over 35 different genres to choose from when using its streaming music recorder functions, so you can build your music library fast.
Pros:
- Support a variety of audio file formats such as WAV, OGG, AAC, MP3, FLAC, etc.
- Embedded player included.
- Keep ID3 tags.
- Provide a free trial version to convert 3 mins of each track.
Cons:
- It restricts its users to have 128 kbps recordings, which is on the low end of acceptable audio quality
- Don't support batch conversion: download 1 track each time.
6. Audacity
Audacity is a free, open-source, cross-platform digital audio editor for recording and editing sounds. You are allowed to rip Spotify songs in formats like MP3, WAV, AAC, etc. There is a large array of digital effects and plug-ins. But Audacity does not support 64-bit VST audio effect plug-ins and only MIDI files can be displayed. There are also file formats limitations, for instance, Audacity can't natively import or export WMA, AAC, ACS or other proprietary file formats requiring FFmpeg library. In addition, the quality of the sound recorded with Audacity is high but it also depends on your microphone specifications and that of your sound card.
Pros:
- It's freeware;
- It is a full-featured audio recording and editing software;
- Available for Windows, macOS, Linux and other operating systems.
Cons:
- Audacity can't support importing or exporting WMA, AAC, ACS, etc.;
- Multi-track functionality is limited and could be improved;
- Some operations aren't very intuitive.
Conclusion
With the rising popularity of live streaming services, most users’ need for a reliable stream recorder has understandably grown. Now you've learned the pros and cons among the top 6 streaming audio recorders - Sidify Music Converter, AudiCable Audio Recorder, Audials Tunebite Premium, Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder, Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder and Audacity. Just select the one that suits you most!
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