I've been thinking about starting streaming my station. I've been asked about this several times. My response pretty much has been I'm operating a radio station, not an internet stream. But I've started to think about it now. Looking for ideas what's involved and what's needed to do so. Any idea's?
@ Roy Roy, you have come to the right place to get information about setting up a streaming internet station. There are two choices to begin with... you can sign up with a paid streaming service that will provide all the software and instructions to get you going, or you can build it almost free of charge by using open source software.
If you will be streaming music there's the matter of signing up to pay all the rights and royalties to keep it legal.
@carl-blare It'll be a complete mirror of what the OTA station is doing. There's music in the schedule. What's some open source software? My searches haven't turned up much.
The heart of a streaming station is the SERVER which delivers the radio program stream to listeners.
The most used open-source server is
The version for Windows is the one I can talk about based on my experience.
The next item to be talked about is the ENCODER, which converts your audio stream to a Streaming Format. I will be back soon with more information.
While there are a myriad of technical issues in streaming, they all have solutions. Carl has made a good start on these.
Here are some of the other issues that are not often thought about.
First, copyright. If you are streaming, you need to pay licensing fees for any copyrighted material. I'm assuming that you have permission to use the shows you are broadcasting, but the music, both included in these shows and separate from the shows is a different matter. If you're going to run your own server, you'll need to get a license from the appropriate body in the U.S. There are aggregators that will carry your stream, and take care of your licensing fees, but they usually insert commercials to pay for it.
Continuing along the same line, you may need to supply the aggregator with the appropriate metadata of the music you're streaming - song title, artist, writers, etc. I know that at least one sort of aggregator, MixCloud, claims to be able to automatically recognize the music you're playing, and pay the appropriate licensing. But their main claim to fame is demand streaming. I have to admit I haven't researched this issue recently, but it is something to be concerned about. Of course, if you run your own server, you'll have to supply the licensing body with the information they need so you can pay the fees.
Here in Canada, Artisan Radio is licensed as a non commercial radio station. As such, we pay a fixed price yearly for the right to stream, based on our operating expenses (which are, due to the nature of the beast, quite low). I don't think you're quite as lucky in the U.S.
The second thing to be concerned about is network connectivity.
You'll need either a static IP (one that doesn't change) address, or you'll have to use one of the services that provides a link to your dynamic IP. These services, such as no-ip, provide you software that automatically updates their servers if your dynamic IP address changes. So, for example, you access Artisan Radio with artisanradio.hopto.org. We also have artisanradio.com linked to artisanradio.hopto.org.
Next, you'll have to worry about network capacity and the speed of each streaming link (they're related). If, for example, you stream at 128kbps stereo, you'll need 1Mbps upload speed for 8 users, and probably more due to overhead. If you look at your internet link, you'll see that upload capacity is usually much lower than download capacity. If you have 50Mbps download speed, for example, it's likely that your upload speed is 5Mbps. That means you could support 40 users max, probably less. And that's at full out saturation.
I stream at 64kbps mp3 mono (which is what most of my source programming is). mp3 because it's still the most common format, and the bitrate is pretty transparent (close to the source material in quality) for mono.
To even add more to the mix, some internet providers don't allow you to run servers unless you purchase a business package (which, of course, is much more expensive). If you are on a residential plan, and ask for a static IP, you probably won't get one and will be asked to purchase a business plan.
And finally, there are the security issues to consider about letting the world into your computer system. You'll have to open ports on your router, 8000 is usually used for IceCast. But there are all sorts of bad actors out there and opening up ports is risky.
I try to mitigate that risk by geoblocking ip addresses on my server. I have a set of rules in the computer firewall that will reject all users other than the countries I want to have access, i.e., the U.S. and Canada. You can find lists of ip addresses per country on the internet; some are free, and in the form that can be used to add firewall rules. Good ones to block include Iran, North Korea, Russia and China (sorry to all the good actors in those countries).
Of course there are ways to get around the geoblocking, but at least it makes it more difficult; there are a lot more easy targets out there.
Don't let these issues dissuade you; you just need to be aware of them.
@ Roy Assuming that you already use your computer to supply program audio to your part 15 transmitter, you need to open a branch of that audio to send your programming to the internet stream. Extremely valuable tools for patching audio along the pathway are called Virtual Audio Cables (VAC)
This is a paid software, doesn't cost much, and it's what I use. There are free versions, but I don't use them and do not have information about them.
@ Roy Now the all important ENCODER that translates your program audio to streaming format.
(Broadcast Using This Tool)
Thanks to you both. Very good and useful information. As I consider streaming I now have a good idea of what's needed.
@ Roy When we pick it up again we will talk about the vast topic of audio processing which is handled differently for streaming than for either AM or FM transmitters, each of which is a special case. And there is the matter of getting listed on directories so listeners can find your stream. As a last thought we mention the matter of web sites. Do you need a web site to provide a stream?
I think that having your own server is a bit too complicated. There are lots of streaming services out there that are affordable and reliable. They also offer auto dj, which lets you run your station 24/7 without the need of having a computer always on.
@carl-blare No, if you use a streaming service, all you need are the links to the audio streaming for listening. But there will likely be no way for people to know about your station if you don't have a website.
@ Roy If your streaming service gets you listed on directories then listeners who scroll through directories looking for something to listen to can find you even when you don't have a website.
External audio streaming is expensive and intrusive (they insert ads into your stream). Even more expensive if you go the ad free route.
You also lose control of your stream (I don't know about you, but I don't want ads for viagra being inserted into the stream). There have also been plenty of issues surrounding these companies historically, including many of them not paying the licensing fees, or simply disappearing.
Some of the cheaper, less reputable ones operate within gray legal areas, with offshore servers. Similar to the offshore video streamers.
The bottom line is that it's difficult to justify paying a lot of money to an external streaming service when the typical Part 15 station doesn't generate any revenue. Or have many listeners in the first place.
You also lose control over your stream.
I view streaming as a way to extend my limited coverage area, and nothing more. I have no aspirations to be heard around the world (it does happen, although less frequently now than years ago, as there are so many more internet streams).
I also happen to reside in Canada, where I was able to convince the licensing body here that I was a non commercial radio station with virtually no operating expenses (and therefore, the streaming fees are miniscule, as they are a small percentage of those operating expenses).
If I were forced to go another route (and who knows how the licensing process will go in the future), I would switch over to a totally public domain programming model, and restrict the stream to Canada only with geo location. Canada's copyright laws are much more reasonable than those in the U.S., and there is plenty of public domain material available for streaming (historical classical recordings, vintage jazz, Old Time Radio, etc.).