Lounge-Radio.comLounge-Radio.com

Thomas Zumbrunnen started this in January 2001 because ordinary radio was no use to him while he worked, too loud and too repetitive and forever wanting his attention back. What he built instead was a stream he could leave running, chosen for how one record moved into the next rather than for what was charting. Friends asked for the link, then strangers did, and a private fix turned into a public one. It runs out of Baden as LOUNGE-RADIO e.V., an association funded by listener donations rather than by anyone buying time on it.

The selection holds lounge, downtempo and chillout at its centre, with trip-hop, nu-jazz and a steady Brazilian thread running through it, and the tempo almost never climbs. Transitions matter more here than any single record does, which is why the same track can come round months apart without anyone minding. There are no presenters and no schedule, and that is the design rather than a shortage.