Musika

Frequently asked questions

What Musika costs, what it collects, and how the parts people ask about most — Android Auto, Chromecast, the sleep timer and the home screen widget — actually work.

Is Musika really free?

Yes. Musika is free on Android with no ads, no in-app purchases and no account to create. There is no paid tier, no trial that expires and no feature held back — everything described on this site is in the app, for everyone.

Does Musika track me or collect my data?

The Android app does not. It contains no analytics, no advertising and no crash-reporting service, and it never asks you to sign in, so there is no account for anything to be attached to. Your favourites, custom stations, listening history and settings are stored on your device and are never sent to us.

This website is a separate matter: it uses Google Analytics to count visitors. The privacy policy describes both in full, including what the stations you play can see.

Does Musika work with Android Auto?

Yes — Android Auto support is built in rather than bolted on. Your favourites, your custom stations and search are all browsable from the car's display, playback controls work from the wheel and the head unit, you can skip to the next or previous station in the list you started from, and station artwork appears in Now Playing.

Does Musika support Chromecast?

Yes. Tap the cast button to send whatever is playing to any Chromecast device or cast-enabled speaker on the same network. Skipping to the next or previous station keeps working while you are casting, so you can carry on browsing the list from your phone.

How do I find new radio stations?

Search by station name, or browse without knowing what you are looking for: popular stations, top-rated stations, and stations by country. There is a curated genre list to start from, and you can narrow any search by genre, country or language. Recent searches are remembered, so you can pick one back up.

Can I save my favourite stations?

Yes. Favourite any station and it lands in your own list, which you can drag into whatever order you like or view A–Z. Switching to A–Z does not overwrite the order you arranged by hand — switch back and it is exactly as you left it.

Can I add my own radio stations?

Yes. If you have a direct stream URL for a station, you can add it as a custom station and it behaves like any other — favourite it, cast it, play it in the car. Playlist links such as .pls and .m3u files are resolved to the underlying stream for you, so the URL a station is listed under usually just works.

Does Musika have a sleep timer?

Yes, with a choice of 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes. The audio fades out rather than cutting off abruptly, and the timer counts down where you can see it.

Does Musika show what track is playing?

Where the station broadcasts it, yes. Musika reads the track metadata that Shoutcast and Icecast streams send, and the ID3 metadata used by HLS streams. The Now Playing screen also keeps a list of the tracks you have heard, which you can clear whenever you like. Stations that send nothing simply show their own name — that is the station's choice, not a fault in the app.

Is there a home screen widget?

Yes. The home screen widget shows what is playing with its artwork and gives you playback controls without opening the app. There is also a Quick Settings tile, so you can start your last station straight from the notification shade.

What version of Android does Musika need?

Android 8.0 Oreo or newer. Android Auto and Chromecast additionally depend on your car and your cast device rather than on Musika.

How is Musika different from other radio apps?

Mostly by what is not there. Plenty of internet radio apps are free in the sense that you pay with advertising, an account, or data collected about your listening. Musika has none of those: no ads, no sign-up, and no tracking in the app.

What is there is the part people actually use — search that finds stations, favourites you can arrange, Android Auto and Chromecast that work properly, a widget, and a sleep timer — rather than a social feed, a podcast directory and a store bolted onto a radio player. If you want the longer version, the features page goes through it section by section.

Where do the radio stations come from?

From Radio Browser, a free community-run directory of internet radio stations from around the world. Musika does not host or broadcast anything itself — when you play a station, your device connects to that station's own server.

I found a problem or have feedback — how do I get in touch?

Email support@musikaradio.com. Bug reports, stations that will not play and feature requests are all welcome. Saying which station and which Android version you are on makes a stream problem much faster to track down.