Any help trying to start a radio station and using autoplay for continuous streaming?

[Gabriella Karillion]

I am looking to open a radio station inworld but I have no idea where to start or what direction to go.  I am looking for a stream that will continously play music and allow broadcasts as well that will hold a listener max of 400 people.  Something that is stable and reliable.  I also need to get a specific DNS (Domain Name System) for this radio station.  I know there are people out there that do this or have done this so I am reaching out for any possible help.  I also need to know what program would continously shuffle music or play content over the airwaves when there is not a live DJ present.  Thank you all so much in advance!

~Gabriella Karillion

Please keep in mind that I want to open my own station not use someone else's

[Rolig Loon]

Start at http://www.shoutcast.com/ .  Shoutcast will connect you to thousands of Internet radio stations.  All you need to do is pick one that you like.  Open it with your favorite audio program, grab its URL, and you're done.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Gabriellia,

I run and maintain an Internet Radio Station for use in SecondLife when I DJ and am contracted to play music. Creating your own Radio Station is exciting and fraught with many opportunities to trip & learn

The General Steps are as follows [ BTW - the details and how's & whys would fill 10 pages ] :

1) Create a fantastic Music Library on your PC. Generally, the music can be "Ripped" CDs or purchased music or public domain music  [Creative Commons Artists release licenses ] in the MP3 & WMA formats at the desired kbps you plan on broadcasting at or better. The music in my library is all available at 128 kbps to 320 kbps to lossless depending on the music.

2) Get a quality Radio Station Software package. I use a purchased copy SAM Broadcaster v4.9.4 installed using MySQL as the database backend because I have over 100,000 individual annotated songs. There are many other programs available some of which are free. http://spacial.com/  is the place to look for SAM. The free MySQL Community Server software can be downloaded for free from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/ - Yes! Do follow the installation directions carefully  if you go this route.

3) Obtain a Stream Relay service from a reliable and affordable provider. You can find services in SecondLife for up to 250 listeners at an affordable cost per week or month. You will get an IP address&port or a Domain-name& port assigned to you. I own 2 accounts which allow up to 150 listeners total. Note: Be sure the service allows for use at a continuous streaming relay service if you play on 24/7 availability. I only broadcast during a scheduled period of time. I also did not include any solution where your PC becomes the Relay Service/Server because of your need to stream to 400 listeners.

4) Get a stand-alone PC with plenty of disk space for your Music Library. Most Radio Station software works best when the music and database engine are on the same PC. A 4-core PC with 2 GB of memory is a great starter system. Graphics are not important. A quality sound card allows you to do the following 1) Listen locally to the immediate stream out feed; 2) Add your wonderful DJ Voice to the mix; 3) Record your voice over lead-in's and commercials. [ Optional: Get a separate PC to listen to / monitor your stream from the Relay Service which is usually delayed/offset from 10 - 45 seconds depending on internet traffic This way you can check the quality of the finished stream that the listener will be hearing.]

5) Put it all together. In my case for non-attended music streaming...

a) SAM 4.9.4 running using my scripted and programmed Clockwheel rotation Music selection criteria ---> b) Selecting MP3 & WMA encoded music from my 1 tb hard drive Music Library c) Streaming it out with the auto DJ mode with auto recovery using the lame (MP3) Encoder and Streamer ---> d) To my ShoutCast DNAS Relay Service accounts hosted with www.xtreamhotspotstreams.com ---> e) Relayed to my Internet listeners via my website http://RadioDivinity.yolasite.com and my in-world parcels stream IP+port addresses --> f) set up as the Land Audio URL addresses on the parcels I own and in the clubs I play and DJ at.

Feel free to take a listen of Radio Divinity at http://173.193.223.178:8346 

Those are the basics.

Additional Needs:

You may get your own Domain Name from many different Internet Registrar's. The trick is to get that domain name used at the reference URL for your Station Relay Service. Make sure that your Registrar has the ability to allow you to forward all requests to your domain name on the assigned port to the relay service you choose to use. Keeping these services separate is a wise thing because Relay Service Provider come and go. This way you can change relay service providers easily and keep your "brand" always.

Cautions:

When looking for Radio Station software know that looking for "Free Radio Station Software" will net you a ton of PC only solutions with no ability to encode and stream to a relay service. I'll update this post a bit later with a current list of Radio Station w/DJ software you might consider using.

 Download Sources for other Broadcast Software: [in Flight]

[ Remember, many of these solutions are self-promoting and take any claims of superiority over other broadcast systems with a large bag of salt - I'm not including any solutions that have not been actively updated since their introduction or that have had no updates for over 2 years.]

Purchased PC Based Solutions:

http://spacial.com/

http://rogueamoeba.com/nicecast/  <--- Nice Mac Solution

http://www.stationplaylist.com/index.html

http://www.nch.com.au/streaming/index.html

http://www.mixtime.com/index.html <-- Minimum Donation Based Solution

http://www.pirateradio.com/about/  <--- An Oldie but still around

Free PC Based Solutions:

http://www.winamp.com/  <-- Included out of nostalgia - It used to have a Broadcasting module that could encode to a Relay Service and with a dozen add-on's it was pretty good in it's day.

http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/release  <--- Solution for Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS or Debian Squeeze PCs

Subscription Solutions:

http://www.live365.com/web/components/content/broadcast/index.live

http://voscast.com/plans/

 

EVERYONE - If you are a SecondLife DJ,or Music Mixer,  what is your fave Broadcast Software? IM me in-world or email me at KarenMichelleLane@gmail.com and I'll add your solution to this list.