XStreamRipper is a GUI for streamripper for the Mac. The application allows you to rip music from radio stations, like those available in iTunes. It taps into the radio stream, detects what song is being played and gives you MP3 files with no DRM protection, so that you can play them on any device.
There are a few different ways in which this app can be used. You can either drag and drop the radio station links from iTunes or other web pages or use the tuner menu on the menubar. I found that the easiest way to download music was to find a good radio station on iTunes and then simply drag and drop the link to XStreamRipper. Then, on the menubar, I clicked on "Rip Stream", which started the process. I used one of those "Best of" radio stations. This application automatically detected the songs being played and it saved them to MP3 files, with very accurate filenames. It even sorted songs by complete and incomplete. If you start ripping a radio station while a song is being played, that one won't be ripped fully.
One of the great things about this app is that you don't necessarily have to be listening to the radio station to rip it. Songs will continue ripping even if you quit iTunes.
In short, this is a great app to download music from iTunes radio stations and other stations on the web. I only tried it with iTunes, and it works like a charm.
Comments (1)
Seriously, I downloaded it because it seems to be the only recorder that should let you record a radio station while you don't have to listen to it. All other recorders seem to have a flaw where if you pause the output audio it stops recording and the only way you can silence output and still record is to turn off speakers but then you can't hear anything else.
XStreamRipper is supposed to be a solution but there is no instruction guide and its manufacturer, has no customer support.
I did figure out that I can drag a station from iTunes' playlist into the box but then when I click on the speaker button it begins to play a random song from my library instead of the station.