Some people have Bandcamp wishlists with 400 items, follow labels you have never heard of, know which blogs to check for a particular regional scene, and will spend hours chasing down a song they heard in the background of someone’s Instagram story in 2019. They have spent a lifetime collecting albums, listening to the good and the bad, and developing a personal taste that most of us will never have the time to build.

I am not one of those people. I want to be, but I’m not. What I am is grateful that they have a platform to share it with me.

That platform is NTS, and I am proud to be a supporter.

What NTS Actually Is

NTS is a music discovery platform. It’s a 24/7 radio station with two live channels, no algorithms, no ads, and hundreds of thousands of hours of archived shows. Every host is exactly that person I described above: a committed obsessive who has spent years doing the work so you don’t have to.

Since 2011 they have been building what is effectively one of the world’s largest curated music archives, drawing from over 80 countries and every genre you can name and several you can’t. Afrobeat to J-pop. Highlife to hardcore. The philosophy is human curation first, always. No recommendation engine is going to play you a 1974 Ghanaian funk record followed by a forgotten French disco cut and then something from a bedroom producer in Nairobi. A great NTS host will.

They are free and ad-free, funded by listeners who choose to support them. You can listen at nts.live or through their app. You should.

Shows I Come Back To

These are the shows I have in regular rotation. Check nts.live for the current schedule — shows move occasionally and I am not responsible for you missing one.

The Extended Play Sessions w/ Mr. Pedro

Mr. Pedro is, in their own description, “a long time record collector and purveyor of fine musical flavours” who “cooks up a banquet of aural delights every other week.” That sentence is not overselling it. He plays fortnightly from London: afrobeat, funk, disco, highlife, balearic house, boogie, soul jazz, psychedelic rock — a range that shouldn’t hold together but absolutely does. He has the taste of someone who has been doing this for decades because he has.

Worth finding in the schedule and setting a reminder.

I am frequently in the NTS Discord when this one is on.

Club Coco w/ Coco María

Broadcasting weekly from Amsterdam, Coco María is described as a “globe-trotting vinyl hunter” sharing “joyous discoveries.” That tracks. She plays Latin jazz, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), bossa nova, samba, Afro-Cuban jazz, funk, salsa, classic disco, jazz fusion — music from across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world and beyond, always with energy and warmth.

If you have never spent an afternoon with a Coco María set running in the background, that is something to fix. Find her in the schedule.

Also frequently in the Discord for this one.

Radiant Life w/ Ruby Savage

Monthly from London, Ruby Savage runs “a mixed bag of goodies” that is the most accurate and least descriptive show tagline on the platform. What you actually get: soul, house, funk, reggae, dub, broken beat, spiritual jazz, contemporary jazz, classic disco, and balearic house — often in the same hour. It feels like the musical equivalent of a really good dinner party where everyone at the table is interesting.

Monthly means you have no excuse not to find it. It lands, you listen. Simple.

One-Offs Worth Going Back For

NTS keeps everything archived. These are three shows I would recommend to anyone, available to listen whenever.

Sounds on Screen: Paul Thomas Anderson

Sounds on Screen is a series built around the music of filmmakers and their films. The Paul Thomas Anderson episode is a trip through the sonic worlds of one of the best living American directors — oil prospectors, cult leaders, complicated Californians — all of it held together by scores from Jonny Greenwood and Jon Brion, and a supporting cast that includes Radiohead, The Beach Boys, Aimee Mann, and Supertramp. If you love Magnolia or There Will Be Blood even a little, this is for you.

Olivia Rodrigo

This aired on May 22, 2026, tied to the release of her album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and it is one of the best guest sets I have heard on NTS. She came in playing sad love songs and she was not kidding: Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, The Cure, Elliott Smith, The White Stripes, Tom Waits, Smashing Pumpkins — a masterclass in melancholy. It revealed a record collection I did not expect and made me like her considerably more as an artist. The set closes out with unreleased material.

Worth an hour of your time even if you are ambivalent about her pop work.

In Focus: Daryl Hall & John Oates

In Focus is a deep-dive series, and this one — mixed by Theo and Marc Schlossman — is a proper career retrospective of one of the most commercially successful duos of all time. It traces the arc from their Philadelphia soul roots through their immaculately produced 1980s peak, weaving in rock and new wave along the way. “Kiss On My List,” “Private Eyes,” “She’s Gone,” “Out of Touch” — the hits are all there, alongside album cuts, demos, a 1984 backstage interview, and a 2025 collaboration between Daryl Hall and Billy Corgan that I did not know existed and am glad I now do.

If you have ever dismissed Hall & Oates as a punchline, this will change your mind.

Just Go Listen

NTS is free. It has no ads. The archive is enormous and it is all human-curated by people who care more about music than almost anyone you will ever meet.

The record store obsessives are out there, doing the work. NTS has gathered them in one place and pointed a microphone at them. You do not need to spend a lifetime hunting for the gems when they are already doing it for you.

nts.live