As most are already aware of, pretty much every music download service offering music from the major labels cripple purchased music downloads with DRM.  However, what some may not realise is that most online streaming radio stations don't use any DRM, despite many playing hits from the major labels.  As a result, there are a handful of stream rippers available which pipe the received stream into a file, which can be later broken up into individual MP3's.

Interestingly, Nero has started up a promotion where customers who buy Nero 7 Premium Reloaded in Europe, the Middle East and Africa get a free copy of Radiotracker Special Edition.  This tool specialises in capturing radio streams and claims to scan over 14,000 of them, where consumers can build up an MP3 collection fairly rapidly, such as by leaving the tool run overnight.  Last December, we carried out a review of Radiotracker 3 Premium, which can be viewed here.

While Radiotracker claims this to be fully legal for personal use, it makes me wonder what the music industry would think.  On the other hand, radio-cassette recorders have been selling since the early days of cassette tapes and these did not prevent the consumers from taping music off the radio.  However, after XM getting sued for allowing a player to record off its broadcasts and some other digital radio makers also running into legal issues for letting its customers record radio broadcasts, this may explain why Nero's offer does not appear to be open to the US.

Further info can be read in this Nero Press Release.