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I am useless without background music. A writer by day and an avid concertgoer by night, I relied for years on Spotify to provide my soundtrack and introduce me to new bands. I could throw on my Discover Weekly or a Daily Mix and find enough songs to fuel my creativity and bookmark a few to later explore the artist’s discography.
Then something shifted. In addition to the ethical questions raised by artists around Spotify’s business practices, the platform stopped working reliably to surface new music—or reached “enshittification,” if you will. No matter what I did, Spotify would regurgitate the same 15 songs per genre—tracks I enjoy or even love, but ones that began to grate on me after I heard them over and over and over again. My creative output felt hindered, my concert calendar stale.
When “Swinging Party,” by the Replacements, came on my shuffle for the millionth time, I knew I had to do something different.
And then, I remembered: the radio. The radio still exists. I already followed stations like KEXP and WFMU in one form or another, and knew they were more music-focused than my local WNYC station.* I figured they probably had an online stream of their programming that I could access through my web browser. I was right—and while they have great programming of their own, I decided to look around a little more. I live in Brooklyn, but most of my favorite artists of the past 10 years have emerged from the Philadelphia music scene. I had a feeling the city would have something good to offer. Turns out I was right. I Googled “Philadelphia public radio” and found WXPN, now my gold standard.
It was exactly what I had been looking for. The WXPN DJs regularly play songs I’ve never heard, songs by artists I love, and songs by artists I forgot I love. In any given hour you’re just as likely to hear still-emerging artists, like Jobi Riccio and Arlo Parks, as you are one-hit wonders like Harvey Danger or heavy hitters like Bob Dylan and Sly and the Family Stone, including their B-sides, live recordings, and rarities.
Songs might be chosen based around the theme “songs about boats,” or the color blue in honor of Blue Monday, or, in accordance with their dedicated genre programming, Highs in the 70s, The Blues Show, or Lost in the Aughts. Each time I tune in—which is every day now—it feels as if someone cooler than me is handing me a mixtape made with care, exactly how finding new music should feel. I’m pleasantly surprised by what I’m listening to instead of frustrated and bored.
The best part is that listening to WXPN is completely free, as are KEXP and WFMU. Anyone can access the stations via a browser or the mobile app each radio station now has. You don’t need to be in your car. You don’t need to live in a certain area to tune in to a particular station. You can even listen to the same station with friends and family who are geographically scattered.
I’ve since become a member of WXPN (both because I want to support its work and because I wanted the free mug), canceled my Spotify subscription, and bought tickets to see Arlo Parks in October. I’m never looking back.
Correction, April 12, 2026: This piece originally misidentified the radio station KEXP as WKEXP.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source slate.com ’
