I’m not the sort to promote commercial enterprises, usually, but as a subscriber to Spotify at less than £5 a month (free if you can put up with the annoying adverts), I find it an ideal way to assist in surviving France. However much a Francophile one might be it is impossible to deny one’s upbringing if you’re British and good childhood memories from radio of the 20th century are often helpful in bringing present day happiness.
Apart from literally millions of music tracks, of all genres, from Classical to Pop there is a vast store of the sort of recorded radio show that most of us will recall from our younger days. A short list is:
The Billy Cotton Bandshow
The Carry On Series – sketches and songs
Music Hall variety – every British stage artist you could think
Worker’s Playtime
ITMA
Flanagan and Allen
The Goon Show (almost all the shows ever recorded)
Frankie Howerd
Max Miller
There is a pretty good search engine, it might need a little detective work to find what you want but believe me, they’re all there.
I love Spotify - I use it in the car via my parrot, at home via Sonos and I use it at my kids group using a portable speaker. Its brilliant. I have premium (cost of one CD a month but so worth it) and i can use it offline which is good for when the internet is down or i'm in the car. I have created lots of playlists, the kids have their own playlists too. I like the 'radio' feature so for example if I like Adele, I can choose Adele Radio and it not only includes Adele songs but also songs which they think I'll like because I like Adele. Through this I discover new music, new artists. I also like searching through other peoples playlists for example a favourite is soundtrack to Greys Anatomy. There are a lot of these where someone has built then shared a playlist. Like in the old days when you made a tape or CD for a friend...only now its global. I introduce Spotify to anyone who hasn't heard of it...it's part of my every day and imo well worth the money.
Yes... its very good... and totally free if you can put up with a short advert every 10 or 15 minutes. Very useful if you want to buy a recording - just listen to it first on Spotify to see if you like it enough... though not sure if I will be searching for old "Wakey Waaaaaakeee".