I want to start up my own radio station here on SL

[LEWWolfDen]

Since I am a RL full time DJ and Internet Radio Host

 I want to start up my own radio station here on SL and run things the way I so choose.
People who become VIPS will be MY VIPs, My platform will be as follows 

Music

Country Both Radio and LIVE Versions 

Oldies

Rock

Classic Rock

Alternative  With Some Live Performances 

Celtic / Irish

Pagan Folk

Reggae 

Along With Replays Of My Podcasts 

There are certain clubs I will remain at where I do like the people who run the sims,  what I am going to start requesting is that if people have issues with some content then they need to come to ME directly!  

Over the years here on SL when I have come across people who enjoy creating drama with DJs I voice my opinions and let it be known that I do NOT like being talked about behind my back and if that starts up I am going to have issues with it!  What I am getting at is that input and good feedback is what I want and request from people.

Doing a radio station will be much different from running a club and is something that I can run the way I want.

I just need to find out how to go about doing this 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rolig Loon]

Start here >>>> https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Disc_Jockey

[LEWWolfDen]

That is just a wiki  thing 

 I already know all of it I have been here in SL for 5 Yrs 

I am just trying to figure out if I have ot buy My own sim for this or what 

[Rolig Loon]

Your station is hosted on your own server in RL.  Landowners ought to be able to enter its URL into About Land for their parcels anywhere in SL.  I'm sure experienced broadcasters will chime in here soon.  @Cisop Sixpence?

[Aethelwine]

I can't think of any reason to buy your own sim for it.

The icecast\shoutcast server will either be on your computer or for 24/7 probably better to find a host on the internet for it and the music that you will be playing. The technicalities in how to set that up are beyond me, I don't understand the Icecast documentation when you read it.

You can find places in SL that will host streams and let you upload music to store on them to be used in random plays and set hourly adverts or whatever. I have done so in the past but my experience was not an especially good one, the person running it has sort of gone Awol. But I am sure other hosts can be found that are reliable will offer a full service without you needing to set everything up yourself..

Once you have set the servers up and playlists and got them running then the only land you might want is for advertising.

Editted to add:

Look on marketplace under services and search for icecast or shoutcast and have a sort through and talk with the product salespeople to check what they offer will suit you, something with 5GB of upload space is probably enough to run a 24/7 station.

Edited July 17 by Aethelwine

[Cisop Sixpence]

Thanks for the mention, @Rolig Loon

Hey @LEWWolfDen, I operate two Internet Radio Stations that are heard in several places in Second Life. No need to have your own SIM for this. For Second Life venues, I rent a stream for each station through a Second Life vendor https://secondstreaming.com/, but the sims could also listen to my stations through LIVE365 https://live365.com/ like the rest of the RL world listens to them.

One of my stations is a tribute to an FM station that existed and I was lucky enough for the staff of that station to make available the jingles they used and even do some voice overs for me. For the other station I spent a hefty sum of money and bought a Jingle package from Jam Jingles http://jingles.com/. There are cheaper places to get jingles, sweepers and such, just Google (Bing, Yahoo!, or your favorite search engine) the phrase "Cheap Radio Jingles" and you'll get a list of sources to check out.

For automation (24x7x365) I use two programs, StationPlaylist Studio Pro and StationPlaylist Creator Pro https://stationplaylist.com/. This is a professional suite of programs that Internet Radio stations use along with some terrestrial radio stations. Of course you could opt for some a lot cheaper like MIXXX https://mixxx.org/download/, but I think for a full time operation it might be limited in capabilities.

I wish you well in your adventure in to the world of Internet Radio. Having fun is the important part. Make sure that is top on your To Do list. ツ

 

Edited July 18 by Cisop Sixpence

[Zalificent Corvinus]

9 hours ago, LEWWolfDen said:

My platform will be as follows 

Music

Country Both Radio and LIVE Versions 

Oldies

Rock

Classic Rock

Alternative  With Some Live Performances 

Celtic / Irish

Pagan Folk

Reggae 

Along With Replays Of My Podcasts 

I don't suppose it's occurred to you that people who like one or two of those genre's will HATE one or two of the others, and just go pick a music stream that NEVER plays the stuff they hate, rather than your "play everything please nobody" selection.

 

[animats]

It's kind of neat if your radio station has an in-world location, but it doesn't have to.

I liked Radio Riel,  which had a radio station and a ballroom in New Babbage.

Does anyone have a radio station in-world hooked up to SL voice so that people can come into the station and be interviewed?

[Madi Melodious]

If you want to start your own radio station or streaming service  you want to use two types of software.  You want to use icecast for your server software.  It lets you use urls instead of ports.  So, so you can assign multiple genre to the same port.  Also, it supports dynamic allocation of new stations, so you don't have to manually reconfigure it each time you have a steam.  I have 6 streams coming off my icecast server.

Now then, you have to pick your client software.  There is many out there for both windows and linux.  Some of the most popular include VirtualDj and RadioDJ.   I used RadioDJ for a few years and its very powerful.  Let's you set up play rotations, schedule events and even broadcast live over a radio stream at the same time.  But like all windows shoutcast based software can only do one station per install.  If you want to run seveal stations with windows you will need one machine for each station.  

Eventually I got tired of the limitations of shoutcast based client software and wrote my own using a language called LiquidSoap.   My station runs on a i5-9600k and sources up to 6 stations using a single script.

Questions?

 

[Harper Held]

8 minutes ago, Madi Melodious said:

Questions?

 

How do people get around licensing costs -or do they?

How much should expect to pay to keep the RIAA off of one's back-side?

[Madi Melodious]

12 minutes ago, Harper Held said:

How do people get around licensing costs -or do they?

How much should expect to pay to keep the RIAA off of one's back-side?

It all depends on the number of listeners you are expected to have.  There is a site you can go to, to get a dj license.    They really don't' cost that much but general the RIAA no longer cares about small time operations.   I feed the music for our estate and I think I might have a dozen listeners at one time.   My other streams are private streams so maybe 2 or 3 listeners at the most. 

Oh, and if you are  making money off it.

Edited July 19 by Madi Melodious

[Harper Held]

46 minutes ago, Madi Melodious said:

It all depends on the number of listeners you are expected to have.  There is a site you can go to, to get a dj license.    They really don't' cost that much but general the RIAA no longer cares about small time operations.   I feed the music for our estate and I think I might have a dozen listeners at one time.   My other streams are private streams so maybe 2 or 3 listeners at the most. 

Oh, and if you are  making money off it.

Cool, and thank you! I ask because having a streaming 'radio station' is something I've kicked around myself a few times and one of the reasons I never did was potential expense.

[GoSpeed Racer]

Having run a station in SL since 2007 I have thoughts.

Persistence is key because inertia and apathy are prevalent everywhere. While you may stream quality content people are not actively searching for it. Invariably they settle for a generic off-world source. You may get people to try your stream, but if one person objects to a song you play they'll switch back to their 'safe' option.

Promotion is key. SL Media is not well developed so getting the word out is difficult. Word of mouth often is the best approach. For me, DJing is a breath way to get visibility.

Licensing. Let's face it, most streamers in SL are "Pirates". I pay my royalties via Tornotcast.com.

RadioDJ is the broadcast software I use, Easy to configure and has never crashed.