Radio Tuna Review

Radio Tuna is a real-time radio search engine designed specifically for the iPhone. It allows iOS users to browse artists from a wide variety of genres and it puts thousands of radio stations at the tips of their fingers. However, its coolest feature is the ability to record and save streams for playback later.

Before users can start listening to music, it’s necessary to login through Facebook, Email, or a Radio Tuna account. Users can then begin scrolling through Tuna Staff Favorites, All Time Most Popular Hits, or search for a genre, artist, or station. The list of stations that pop up show what is currently playing. Users can then listen to, favorite, or share the station. It’s also possible to tap on the record button to save the station and to it listen later.

The recorded track is stored in the My Music tab. It appears that the recording stays inside the app. Recordings can be deleted at any time by tapping on the Edit button. Besides the option to record stations and tracks, users can also use Radio Tuna in the background. When the iPhone is turned off, the lock screen shows the current artist along with the accompanying album artwork.

Radio Tuna is a neat online radio player and it’s great for discovering new music. The ability to listen to radio stations in real-time and record stations for offline listening is pretty awesome. However, one of the downfalls to the free app is that users must deal with banner advertising. To remove this and the limit on recording time, it’s necessary to spend $1.99 on an in-app purchase.

With iTunes Radio coming to iOS 7 next week, it’s unclear how this app will compare. Additionally, there are other audio streaming apps that are comparable — although I haven’t seen the record option readily available in any of these. Those who are impatient, and anyone needing an alternative, may wish to give Radio Tuna a try. It’s rather responsive, fast, reliable, and well worth it, considering.