How to create an internet radio station
If you’ve ever wondered how internet radio stations work and/or wanted to create your own, this tutorial will show you how. It is actually very easy, and you can set up your own radio station and begin broadcasting songs in about 10 minutes.
First of all, let me give you a quick rundown on how it works. You have your music player (I will use Winamp, get it if you don’t have it) and you play your music as you normally would. You probably need a fast internet connection so you can broadcast without buffering occuring. Through a plugin (which you will download and install), Winamp will send the music you play to the broadcasting server (which can be on your PC or on another one with a larger connection), and the server sends the music to the listeners, reencoding it to a better format, if you are so inclined. Note that the amount of listeners you will be able to support is limited by your outgoing bandwidth and the bitrate of the song you are streaming, so if you’re streaming at 128 kbps and you have 256 kbps upload bandwidth, you’ll obviously be able to support 256/128 = 2 listeners.
The programs I use are Winamp for playing, oddcast DSP for broadcasting to the server and Icecast for serving. You can use Winamp’s own Shoutcast plugin and server, but I prefer to broadcast in Vorbis because it’s smaller and has much better quality than MP3.
Let’s get started, then. Download Icecast from this page (you presumably want the Windows version) and install it. Run it and click “Edit configuration” in the “Configuration” menu. A notepad window will pop up with various configuration options. My configuration is this:
<limits>
<clients>100</clients>
<sources>2</sources>
<threadpool>5</threadpool>
<queue-size>524288</queue-size>
<client-timeout>30</client-timeout>
<header-timeout>15</header-timeout>
<source-timeout>10</source-timeout>
<burst-on-connect>1</burst-on-connect>
<burst-size>65535</burst-size>
</limits>
<authentication>
<source-password>hackme</source-password>
<relay-password>hackme</relay-password>
<admin-user>admin</admin-user>
<admin-password>hackme</admin-password>
</authentication>
<hostname>localhost</hostname>
<listen-socket>
<port>8000</port>
</listen-socket>
<fileserve>1</fileserve>
<paths>
<basedir>./</basedir>
<logdir>./logs</logdir>
<webroot>./web</webroot>
<adminroot>./admin</adminroot>
<alias source="/" dest="/status.xsl"/>
</paths>
<logging>
<accesslog>access.log</accesslog>
<errorlog>error.log</errorlog>
<loglevel>4</loglevel> <!-- 4 Debug, 3 Info, 2 Warn, 1 Error -->
<logsize>10000</logsize> <!-- Max size of a logfile -->
</logging>
<security>
<chroot>0</chroot>
</security>
</icecast>
You can copy it and paste it in the open notepad window (the one with the configuration), but make sure you change “hackme” to more secure passwords. Once you have done this, save the file and close the window. Click the “Start server” button and the listboxes below should be populated with various information, like this:
Your server is now ready for people to connect to it, but there’s no music playing, so let’s tend to that. Download oddcast for Winamp from this page and install it. Now, run Winamp, go to the “DSP/Effect” section of the preferences and click on “oddcast DSP v3”. You should see the oddcast window pop up, looking something like this:
Click on “Add encoder” and a new encoder will be added in the box below. Right-click on it and select “configure”. A dialog will pop up, asking for various information. For “Encoder type” select “OggVorbis” (or MP3, if you are so inclined), this will make you stream in Vorbis. Some people might not be able to have the available codecs if they’re running a very old version of their player (all newer players worth their salt support Vorbis).
For “Quality” I have entered -2, it is the lowest quality, giving you about 30 kbps bitrate and very acceptable quality. You can experiment with 0 or 2, going over 6 is overkill in my opinion (since 6 is what I use to archive music from my CDs), and you will be able to support more listeners if you have lower bitrate for the song.
For “Server IP” enter the IP of the server you’re running Icecast on (it’s “localhost” if you’re running it on your own PC). “Server port” is whatever you entered in the configuration, 8000 if you used mine, and “Encoder password” is hopefully something other than “hackme”. I also use mono, because my connection only has 128 available upstream bandwidth and it doesn’t sound too bad. It should now look like this:
Click OK here and then click “Connect”. If you did everything right, the encoder should now connect to Icecast and begin streaming, like so:
If you want to do a voiceover (speak in your radio) just click the Live Recording button and it will broadcast anything that you say in the microphone (or whatever you enter as the input device). Click on it again to return to your normal music (I haven’t actually tested this, if there are any problems just comment here).
The “Source Level Stats” section of Icecast should also change to include your stream, and will look something like this:
Try connecting with another player (not the one playing the songs) to http://localhost:8000/stream.ogg (e.g. for Winamp click Open URL). If that connects and plays, everything is set up correctly. You can now tell people to connect with Winamp or whatever player they use (and NOT WITH AN INTERNET BROWSER) to http://[yourip]:8000/stream.ogg (if you don’t know your IP, visit http://www.whatismyip.com/, or see the “Client address” in the “Details” tab of your Local Area Connection if you want to stream on a LAN) with their players, and that’s all there was to it.
If you get a permission error under Vista, swamplingman suggested that you give your user full permissions for the Icecast and Winamp folders. That should solve the error.
Note: Before you broadcast any music, make sure you have the right to do so, otherwise you could be breaking the law of your country. Also, if you are having connection problems, you are probably behind a NAT or a firewall that does not allow other people to connect to your computer. To clarify, you (from your internal network) can only connect to your station using your internal IP (192.168.0.1 or whatever) and people from the internet can only connect to you using the IP from whatismyip.com and only if you have forwarded port 8000 corrrectly. Ask your network administrator or visit www.portforward.com for help, as these problems are outside the scope of this tutorial.
ok i have a router and i would like to kno if i would use the ip that goes into my router or would i use the ip my router gives me to connect to it? and if this isnt clear pls explain how i would set this up on a router
Submitted by Annoyed (not verified) on Sat, 30/09/2006 - 04:11.When I change the IP's to 'localhost', everything works 100%... When I change to my WAN IP, Oddcast can't resolve the port to Icecast... Although, I have ports 8000 and 8001 opened... Any suggestions?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 02/10/2006 - 05:13.Hi all
i wanna to know HOW i can publish my Radio station on the net?
i have buy domain for my station and wanna to know how to put winamp on it to let it work?
Any ideas will be good
Regards,
Submitted by xtremee on Sun, 08/10/2006 - 01:17.Xtremee
there is no "oddcast DSP v3" in the options.What must i do?
Submitted by mgmmaster on Wed, 11/10/2006 - 18:00.That you have Winamp LITE version?
Submitted by svana on Sun, 15/10/2006 - 16:50.Everything fixed, (deleted my problemp)
Submitted by svana on Mon, 16/10/2006 - 12:59.well what it is i can open the station on my dads computer but he is in my home network but nobody outave been looking forward to it but theres no point if its only my dad that can listen to itside that network can seem to get it. y is that have i done something rong. its the ip thing that im getting stuck on i think & i dont no the url to the station can any1 help please
Submitted by duncan (not verified) on Thu, 19/10/2006 - 03:37.everytime i enter what i'm recording from it disconnects and tries to reconnect
Submitted by Nes (not verified) on Thu, 19/10/2006 - 22:44.Can anyone help because it comes up UNABLE TO CONNECT TO SOCKET
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 19/11/2006 - 11:33.How big is the file that you have to download once that you got your station on the air?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 27/11/2006 - 22:31.hi
nice tut.
but whenever i try to connect after configuring encoder its disconnects.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 13/04/2007 - 10:00.so plzz look into this.
thanks
i have tried to install odd sock LOL :P but it wont let me get into it
Submitted by lachy34 on Tue, 28/11/2006 - 08:42.Hey!
Thanks for the guide man, I still got a problem though..
It keeps telling that it cant connect to socket, in OddcastV3.
What should I do now??
Submitted by Dave (not verified) on Tue, 28/11/2006 - 15:25.WHEN I CONNECT ON OUTCAST IT CONNECTS DISSCONNECTS AND COUNTS DOWN AND REPEATS ETC.
Submitted by lachy34 on Wed, 29/11/2006 - 04:54.You got to change the reconnect seconds to 0.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 02/12/2006 - 16:42.How do i find my station is it in winamp lol were is it cuzz i got everything working i just can find were my station is and the name of my station is Blainer Hill?
Submitted by blainer hill (not verified) on Thu, 30/11/2006 - 01:11.my peak meter isnt showin wht its supposed to n ppl cnt connect with their players.plz help
Submitted by nikhil dhar (not verified) on Sat, 02/12/2006 - 13:02.Hi
I have installed everything and configured correctly (or so it seems). I am using mp3s to stream to people and got that lame_enc.dll installed also.
IN the configuration list there is only "MP3 LAME" not "oggmp3" am I right in selection the mp3 lame?
When i go back to icecast and click on the /stream.ogg, there is no song file in there.
Oddcastv3 is playing the tracks i am using and the eq bar is going up and down.
I have used your configuration and opened port 8000 in my firewall settings. I have also given both ip versions out to let people connect...with both "/stream.ogg" at the end and without it....it just says connecting to them and never actually gets through. any ideas on what i may have missed?
Submitted by chico (not verified) on Wed, 06/12/2006 - 03:23.Hey,a couple of days now I'm trying to make my internet radio station and I followed all your instructions. The thing is that oddcast can not connect to the server it's disconnecting instantly every time I click Connect. What is the problem?
Submitted by MIRYANSKI (not verified) on Wed, 06/12/2006 - 04:00.Do I have to run any additional servers to make it work or the icecast is the only server that I need?
Please let me know what's going on?
Thanks
OK i have done all now when i add a encore on oddcast and set it up and click to connect it just says unable to connect to socket...Do know what is prom i have some prob with net i use wirelss connection but i have broke anten and im on dial till new anten come could u plz help me or add me on MNS and explain me darioklopic@hotmail.com TY!!!
Submitted by Tatica (not verified) on Wed, 06/12/2006 - 14:32.Guys i have done all those stuff and now when some1 wanna to connect to my station it just keep connecting...Do u know what is prob my Msn darioklopic@hotmail.com Sry cous im boring
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/12/2006 - 23:17.I've set it all up any every thing,
Submitted by Tommi (not verified) on Thu, 07/12/2006 - 20:38.I went on http://[yourip]:8000/stream.ogg
I put my i.p in the yourip place, duh.
And it just goes internet explorer can not display this page..
Please Reply thnkx
It works from firefox for me. But I guess it is using quicktime for this.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/12/2006 - 21:49.IE and WMP does not work.
i have done evrything and oddcast and icecast are working fine together!!but no1 can lisen....what can be wrong??it is like it not public
Submitted by shockwave (not verified) on Mon, 11/12/2006 - 06:38.WHEN I TRY TO PLAY SONG ITS KEEP CONNECTING AND DISCONNECTING WHEN I STOP MUSIC IS CONNECTED WHAT IS PROBLEM HERE??
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 20/12/2006 - 17:06.ok i do everything you said to configure the Icecad and everything but when I send the URL is like something is wrong cause nobody can conect to my radio. I think is a host problem, is right if it say: LOCALHOST or i need to put a IP there.
PLZ!!!! HELP!!!
Submitted by MATISYAHU (not verified) on Fri, 22/12/2006 - 14:39.when i connect to my stream.ogg http://60.51.33.118:8000/stream.ogg it plays just a sec and stopped. my bowser's status bar said: Transferring data from 60.51.33.118... I wait so long... but still the same...
Submitted by budin (not verified) on Sat, 23/12/2006 - 13:59.I have same problem as Michael.
Question 1: Ice cast is connected but as soon as I start playing a file goes to disconnets and tries to re-connect after xx seconds looping in this. what is wrong?
Question 2: As it was explained I also went to "file" and "open url" but what must I type there?
Question 3: is said to place lane.dll in the winamp main dir but what i got as filename is lane_enc.dll. Must I rename it to lane.dll ??
congratulstions for th nice tutorial and thanks for the help.
Submitted by akis on Sun, 24/12/2006 - 11:07.Akis
My oddcast already connected.. my icecast server is also running.. but No Value..The source level stat is also empty,... plz help me...
Submitted by budin (not verified) on Sun, 24/12/2006 - 15:52.Hey thanks for all the help with this site. but I can't seem to get the rest of this. How do I list on win amp or this server?
Submitted by 2 TOKE MINIMUM on Thu, 28/12/2006 - 11:22.when i go into ice cast => source level stats it doesnt come up like the image above. and i dont know how 2 make it PLEASE HELP!
Laura
Submitted by laura (not verified) on Tue, 02/01/2007 - 21:44.After going back a few thousand times lol! I got it to work but I can't get others to hear it and I can't get it to play on a different computer.
Yes I have http://my ip address:8000/
but still no luck. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Submitted by JBoogie (not verified) on Wed, 03/01/2007 - 15:01.My radio adress is http://127.0.0.1:8000/stream.ogg , but noone cant here it??? all is connected and dooo aright that you say.... why it is????? please answer......... Thanks!!!
Submitted by JAnis (not verified) on Thu, 04/01/2007 - 09:06.hey i got everything workin apart from oddcast ,everytime i try to open it ,it dosent open .what can i do ?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/01/2007 - 14:30.I have a few questions.
1. with the code did i only have to change the password?
Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Tue, 16/01/2007 - 00:04.2. It seems to b working fine but my friends cant connect to it...
hey i got everything working but the page for people to listen can't be displayed ca you help me jordguy40@hotmail.com is my email
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 19/01/2007 - 18:42.i need to know 2 things .. one . y if someone tries to stream my radio station its a huge file . 2 , is there a code to make it smaller or redirected to any players like itunes , realplayer , windows media player instead of downloading it? and if there is please let me know thanx
Submitted by telz (not verified) on Sat, 20/01/2007 - 04:25.Hi there :)
Thanks for this great information about how to make a radio station
but,,
mt Icecast couldn't connect to the server for resons i don't know!
so please help ^_^
and I have a question about the info file
I changed the password should I change the admin user and the socekt to ?
this part which I could not understand..
:)
sorry for all the long talk lol
:p
hope to get an answer so soon
:)
Submitted by dorseeva on Sat, 20/01/2007 - 13:33.Mr Poromenos...Your setup is doesn't my friend and you just leave ppl here alone....No server/No Music/No streaming...Better remove this tutorial quick ;)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 18:14.doesn't work.I've tried the whole trick of setup thousdand & thousand times (oddcast/dsp/ip/winamp) and the msg is just the same. "Unbale to connect to sockets"If you have sum free time,check again the file and give us light.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 21:13.I just checked everything again, it works fine. Try to connect to your own PC (it's the localhost deal at the end of the tutorial). If that works, the station is fine, check your connection.
Submitted by Stavros on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 22:25.---
Vidi, Vici, Veni.
No, you only need to change the "hackme"s. The connection thing is probably your router's fault, check its manual. If you can connect from the pc on which you run the server to http://localhost:8000/stream.ogg but other people can't connect to you, your station is fine, but your internet connection needs tuning.
Submitted by Stavros on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 22:22.---
Vidi, Vici, Veni.
hi, for some reason when i check icecast source level stats it does not show anything up yet on odd cast it shows that a song is on and connected, it shows on icecast just about serve connections ie 1 connected. what is wrong
Submitted by Matthew (not verified) on Thu, 25/01/2007 - 06:50.Thx for help. I couldnt done it without this great tutorial.
Submitted by Petar_Serbia (not verified) on Tue, 30/01/2007 - 01:41.i want to know if i can put my radio on a website some how
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/06/2007 - 07:49.i installed oddcast it said some thing about oddcast and directed me were to go i then downloaded it and addde it were it was supposed to go but it still dosent work can you help me
Submitted by Craig (not verified) on Thu, 01/02/2007 - 01:31.i have done it all rite to the last step then it went wrong..... it doesn't show anything in source lvl stats it doesn't say /stream.ogg what do i do ????????
Submitted by ben (not verified) on Sat, 03/02/2007 - 20:59.No one cam hear my broadcast although everything is working fine...even when I opened amother instance of winamp and checked http://localhost:8000/stream.ogg...it worked!
...But When I exchange [localhost] for my IP Address ...and I try to connect through another player using htttp://[myipaddress]:8000/stream.ogg....there is no connection at all
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/02/2007 - 19:55.how do i embed the radio into my website for easy access, and if i can't, how can others access it?
Plz reply, Har
Submitted by Har (not verified) on Sun, 11/02/2007 - 17:08.godd tutorial, however i have done everything that it says but will not open the URL. please right back with any solutions
Submitted by Grant (not verified) on Sun, 11/02/2007 - 19:32.