A great program to practice "listening" and "understanding."
A couple of years ago, I downloaded a free open-source music editing program called Audacity. It is easy to use, and they have great tutorials. (Note: I certainly am not a professional music person, so "easy" is important to me!) I have used it to make workout music pieces, holiday compilations, etc.
About a year ago, I also subscribed to News in Slow Spanish, which I love. You can listen on-line or download the episodes so you can use it offline. NISS allows you to listen at the normal speed, 1.5x speed, and .8x speed. The .8x is still a bit fast for me.
Yesterday, I had a brainwave. Since the download is in MP3 format, I put it into Audacity. One of Audacity's editing tools is to change the tempo (the speed changes, but not the pitch of the voice or music). So I took three episodes and slowed them down to .75x.
What a help! It is slow enough that I can understand about 85% of what is being said. The only things I don't get are idiomatic phrases or words used in a different way from what I learned, which if you subscribe, NISS also shows you an interactive transcript so that if you click on the unfamiliar terms or phrases, the translation pops up.
So now, I can practice listening to native Spanish-speakers, and as I get better, I can increase the tempo.
If you have similar audio, in mp3 format (I'm not sure at this moment what other audio formats Audacity supports), you can adjust the tempo of the speech so that you can really understand what's being said.
The site is audacityteam.org . I am not affiliated at all with Audacity, I just use it. I hope others find it helpful. 
3 Answers
I finally went "wireless" about nine months ago (17.03.15). Prior to that my wired connection was in my basement office. I'm a big fan of talk programs in Spanish. My listening was restricted to my office. I cut the cord (metaphorically speaking) and bought an internet radio...then another... another...ad infinitum. Now I listen to programs from all over (Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, México, Argentina, Cuba (Yes, Cuba), Colombia, etc. It's all free, and I'm lovin' it. Of course, there are music stations. I like the different dialects. After listening to a particular station for a while, I get used the pronunciation and the cadence. I can't say that one or the other is easier to understand (on purpose, I leave out any Galician Station, although I'm getting better).
Of course, I always have my notepad open to write down words that I don't understand. And then I have my Spanishdict and the DRAE to look them up later. That is getting to be less and less (that I have to look something up).
Life is Great!
Now we just need to get people to slow down to .75 speed instead of the normal 1.5 speed.
Just kidding. This is a great idea.
Hey sounds awesome. I'm onto it. Thank you.
