How do I start an internet radio station?

February 3, 2004 2:00 PM

How do I start an internet radio station? What kind of software and hosting do I need? Who do I have to pay for rights, and how much? What else do I need to know?
posted by timeistight to Law & Government (6 answers total)

There are a number of options. There are services -- Live365 is probably the best known -- that will host the programming and stream it for you, for a regular monthly fee.

Another option is Shoutcast, which allows you to stream from your PC and have the resulting programming distributed multicast from a Shoutcast server. This means you need a PC hooked up and running full-time, and bandwidth will end up being a concern if you are on a cable modem.

As well, you can set up something on your server or hosted Web account to stream your programming. The best thing I've seen is the Andromeda Streaming Jukebox, with both PHP and ASP versions. You host MP3s on your server and the software streams them to your visitors. There are also some Flash-based applications that will do this.
posted by tranquileye at 2:36 PM on February 3, 2004

related... great music. my favorite is indie pop rocks (128 stream).
posted by folktrash at 4:33 PM on February 3, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks, by tranquileye and folktrash.

Anyone know anything about licensing?
posted by timeistight at 8:17 PM on February 3, 2004

If you use Live365 you won't have to worry about licensing because they'll do it for you. It's the best option for your purposes.

Otherwise for licensing you should check out ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SoundExchange
posted by skylar at 2:22 AM on February 4, 2004

Yes, Live365 is the way to go if you don't want to deal with the outrageous licensing fees. I've been broadcasting through L365 for several years now and am quite happy with them.
posted by litlnemo at 4:12 AM on February 4, 2004

If I had a technical head, and understood this whole streaming thing, I'd look at peerCast. As far as I can tell, it uses a peer-to-peer model for broadcasting, so even when you get past 10 listeners, you don't have to worry about bandwidth. I haven't had any luck making it work though.
posted by seanyboy at 5:37 AM on February 4, 2004