iRATE radio is computer software that allows collaborative filtering of music downloads. An iRATE radio server holds a large database of music that is freely available on the World Wide Web. The client highlights music files that are under a Creative Commons license (which, depending on the license, may allow the creation of derivative works or commercial use).

Users rate tracks that they are sent on a scale from 1 to 4. The server correlates those ratings against those of other users to find other songs that the first user might enjoy. Music files are played in a semi-random order, with the rating of the tracks factored in. The amount of files that are to be downloaded can be adjusted in the program configuration.

Due to the fact that the initial tracks downloaded are the same for each user, the average download speed for these files can sometimes become very low, leading some new users to believe that the program is malfunctioning.

There is a very similar application called Gnomoradio for the GNOME desktop environment. The programs do, however, use different protocols and are not interoperable.

External links

• Development site
• Main site