My online radio station....

[Evan]

Whatsup guys?

I recently created a streaming radio station and would be happy to show anyone on this forum how to start up your own streaming broadcast for free. One of my buddies showed me how to get mine up and running and I'm infinitely thankful! The service is 100% free too and ran by the same people who made Winamp (Nullsoft).

If anyone wants to tune in to my broadcasts...here are some instructions for doing so. These instructions will only work if I'm actually broadcasting. If I'm offline, you won't be able to access my Shoutcast page or listen.

I'm actually broadcasting live right now (9:22 PST, 7/17/06) in fact so if you are bored and want to listen to some great online rock radio (alternative, punk, new-wave, some 80's)...here is how to access my stream.

irst...download Winamp.

www.winamp.com

get the free unbundled version. There are several sweet Winamp skins that look way cooler than the classic or modern skins that come with the Winamp download and the other skins are more functional too.

I recommend going to Winamp.com clicking on "Skins" and downloading the skin called "EMP." You can find it by typing Emp in the search bar on the skins page.

anyway...once you have Winamp downloaded, installed, and customized to your liking, there are two ways to access my streaming radio broadcast.

Method A:

1) Open Winamp

2) Press Control + L

3) Enter this URL = http://67.120.150.136:8000/listen.pls

Method B :

1) In your internet browser, go here:

http://67.120.150.136:8000/

2) Click "Listen"

I hope you can tune in! I'm going to play a lot of cool tunes and if you let me know you are online (Myspace message or AIM works wonders), I will give you a shout out on the air.

-Evan

P.S = My AIM SN is Tryptonique

Edited July 18, 2006 by Evan

[Dismuke]

There are three difficulties that you will run into when broadcasting in the manner you are:

1. Your station can only have however many listeners the upload bandwidth your isp provides you with can support. Unless you have a T1, your DSL or cable provider is likely to have a lower limit on your upload bandwidth than the speed at which you can download. Once you start getting listeners, your Internet connection is likely to become quite slow - both for you and your listeners.

2. It will be very difficult for you to build up and keep an audience if you go off the air whenever you are not on your computer.

3. To be legal, you need to be licensed - especially if you are playing modern recordings as it sounds like you are. I play pre 1935 stuff on my station and POSSIBLY could get away with less licensing than I currently have - but I don't wish to risk it. To be legal, you will need to be licensed with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for the musical composition rights, depending on who licenses the songs you are playing and then you will also need to be licensed with SoundExchange to cover the playing of the sound recordings themselves. If you play only independent bands who have given you permission to play their recordings, you do not need to be licensed. Such licensing can make it a VERY expensive hobby if you go that route alone - plan for about three thousand dollars per year on up. That is, of course, assuming you wish to be legal. If you are content just to have a few friends listen in on occasion and publicize it only on places such as the OO Forum, I suspect the RIAA has bigger fish to fry than going after someone like you.

If you find that you enjoy broadcasting here are some recommendations that I have based on my experience. My station is not particularly huge compared with some of the Internet radio giants - but for a hobby it is pretty respectable. Last month I had over 14,000 streams launched and over 18,500 listening hours on one of the networks my station is carried on plus another 3,500 tune ins and 8,500 listening hours on another network the station is carried on. My numbers are usually higher in the fall, winter and spring months as Internet radio listenership tends to drop off during the summer time. Since I started the station in 2002, I have had over a half million tune ins and in about a month or so I will have had three quarters of a million listening hours. Considering that the format of my station is considered quite obscure in today's mainstream culture, I am fairly pleased with the numbers - though I obviously would like them to grow as the who point of the station is to promote the particular music I present to a wider, modern audience which is largely unaware that the genre even exists.

My first bit of advice is to look into Live 365. Their website is http://live365.com Their rates are very affordable considering that your station will be fully licensed and legal. If you are willing to use their automation system, you can simply upload your music files to their servers and they will stream 24 hours a day. You don't have to worry about your computer being down - nor will your listeners. Unless you are wishing to do special effects, the Live 365 automation system should be more than adequate for most beginners. If you do wish to broadcast live from your computer on occasion or even regularly, you can also do that with Live 365 - though the rates are higher depending on how many simultaneous listeners you wish to have. Even for those who do not wish to broadcast, I highly recommend the Live365 website as one can access thousands of Internet radio stations with any genre of music imaginable.

Another option if you do not wish to use Live 365's automation service and want to continue to broadcast from your computer but do so legally is a service called Loud City http://www.loudcity.com/ Unlike Live365, LoudCity does not provide streaming or automation - you are on your own with that. They are strictly a joint licensing service and enable small Internet stations to become licensed at rates below what it would cost to acquire the licenses themselves. One of the hassles of licensing is the paperwork that the broadcaster has to keep up with and file is a nightmare - and LoudCity takes care of all that.

I use both services as Live 365 is not going to be adequate for certain things I am planning to do with the station in the future. Because LoudCity does not provide streaming and the capacity of my dsl line is limited, I have signed up with a shoutcast hosting service. There are any number of such services out there on the Internet - just do a google search. The way they work is you stream your broadcast from the shoutcast server on your computer to the shoutcast server you purchase which then streams your broadcast to your listeners. Prices for streaming are very reasonable - with most services you pay so much per simultaneous listener with high bit rate streams costing more than lower bit rate streams. The service I use and have been very satisfied with is http://www.streamsolutions.co.uk/ Their CDS system is what powers my Radio Dismuke LoudCity stream as hosting the station at my house is too much of a hassle and subject to periodic outages of my dsl line.

Again, for anyone just getting started, the easiest and cheapest route to creating a legal broadcast is Live 365.

BTW - You and I are not the only Internet broadcasters on Objectivism Online. Vladimir Berkov, whose hobby is Eastern Front World War II reenacting, has created a very interesting Internet radio station on Live 365 which features popular 1930s and 1940s recordings from Russia. Some of it is quite nice - through the station I have become quite a fan of a 1930s Russian jazz band that was led by Alexander Varlamov, an artist I was previously unaware of. Since I don't understand Russian and am blissfully ignorant of the words, some of the the Stalinst propaganda songs are even enjoyable too. The URL is: http://www.early1900s.org/moscow/

Other Live 365 stations I highly recommend include: http://www.weimarrundfunk.com/

and: http://www.ragtimeradio.org/

Anyhow, best of luck with your station and what, for me, has proven to be a very fun and rewarding hobby.

Edited July 18, 2006 by Dismuke