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I still listen to several of these types of stations (even ran one for a few years in the early/mid 2000's). Mine was essentially just an unlicensed stream of

I still listen to several of these types of stations (even ran one for a few years in the early/mid 2000's). Mine was essentially just an unlicensed stream of whatever I'd put into a huge Winamp Playlist, but I also had some friends from an online forum and we would put together silly jingles and "station ID" clips to sprinkle throughout the day as well. Hosting was provided by a friend who worked for a small ISP/hosting company and he just gave me free access, saying that nothing I could use would make a dent in their available bandwidth (and he would let me know if that changed). It was pretty fun and I even went "live" on the mic occasionally if I knew there were people listening, but eventually I started looking into going "legit". For a while it was looking like I could actually afford the basic ASCAP/BMI/etc. license with hobby money but that changed when laws were changed to require you to pay royalties per-song-per-listener (unlike terrestrial radio). Ran it unlicensed for a little while after that but eventually shut it off as it got to be a hassle and I had too many other things going on in life. Still, it was cool to get emails from people around the world thanking me for my stream. At a time when friends were paying monthly subscriptions for XM radio, I plugged my little Palm Treo into the car stereo and had my own station to listen to all day. Before commercial streaming, there weren't many similar options but a good set of Shoutcast/Icecast bookmarks gave me the best radio dial I could imagine...without the subscription! I still listen to several of these stations when I'm not listening to something in my own library or the local NPR affiliate. There's something to be said for real human-programmed playlists from people who love music. I know Spotify playlists serve this purpose for many folks, but I haven't really gotten into that since I have so many options.

natural20s 8y ago
"For a while it was looking like I could actually afford the basic ASCAP/BMI/etc. license with hobby money but that changed when laws were changed to require you to pay royalties per-song-per-listener (unlike terrestrial radio)." ^^^ This is what really killed hobby streaming. The fear of getting popular and reported had a serious chilling effect on this scene. Coupled with the rise of streaming services that changed the music paradigm from ownership to on-demand access. Yes the platforms had a bit of a learning curve... hand editing icecast config.xml beyond basic settings could be daunting. But I still run icecast and shoutcast servers on digitalocean for $10/month with an autodj randomly cycling through my mp3 collection... comes in handy when entertaining and need my own music etc. It is still possible to find great niche streaming stations using directories: [0] https://www.streamfinder.com https://www.streamfinder.com [1] http://www.radio-browser.info http://www.radio-browser.info As a side-note - Nullsoft (shoutcast developer) was purchased by AOL and languished. Recently a French company radionomy purchased shoutcast from AOL and has relaunched it. They have a pretty mature radio broadcasting platform built on it. (I don't work there just admire their product)
- themodelplumber 8y ago
  That was really cool to read and I appreciate the links. Can you talk more about your setup on DO? Why are both icecast and shoutcast servers needed? And did you transfer all of your music to DO? Thanks!
  - natural20s 8y ago
    I run shoutcast on :8000 and icecast on :9090 (iirc). Running both b/c I was just experimenting - both are not needed. Uploaded all of my tracks and stored them on DO. Ran a script to create a text playlist file. Configured icecast to be "fed" by ices (https://icecast.org/ices/docs/ices-2.0.2/basic.html https://icecast.org/ices/docs/ices-2.0.2/basic.html) Pointed ices to that file and have it feeding icecast. Created a startup bash script to fire up all both servers on restarts so "it just works". Maybe I should create a tutorial?
    - themodelplumber 8y ago
      Thanks, that made intuitive sense to me. A tutorial is always appreciated though. :-)
      - natural20s 8y ago
        Instead of reinventing the wheel - here is a tutorial I found helpful: https://www.howtoforge.com/linux_webradio_with_icecast2_ices2 https://www.howtoforge.com/linux_webradio_with_icecast2_ices...
- plussed_reader 8y ago
  echoplex.xyz runs a very similar setup; the autoDJ is 24hrs active, with live shows bumping in on a scheduled basis. KXStudio/IceCast/DigitalOcean

natural20s 8y ago

"For a while it was looking like I could actually afford the basic ASCAP/BMI/etc. license with hobby money but that changed when laws were changed to require you to pay royalties per-song-per-listener (unlike terrestrial radio)." ^^^ This is what really killed hobby streaming. The fear of getting popular and reported had a serious chilling effect on this scene. Coupled with the rise of streaming services that changed the music paradigm from ownership to on-demand access. Yes the platforms had a bit of a learning curve... hand editing icecast config.xml beyond basic settings could be daunting. But I still run icecast and shoutcast servers on digitalocean for $10/month with an autodj randomly cycling through my mp3 collection... comes in handy when entertaining and need my own music etc. It is still possible to find great niche streaming stations using directories: [0] https://www.streamfinder.com https://www.streamfinder.com [1] http://www.radio-browser.info http://www.radio-browser.info As a side-note - Nullsoft (shoutcast developer) was purchased by AOL and languished. Recently a French company radionomy purchased shoutcast from AOL and has relaunched it. They have a pretty mature radio broadcasting platform built on it. (I don't work there just admire their product)

themodelplumber 8y ago
That was really cool to read and I appreciate the links. Can you talk more about your setup on DO? Why are both icecast and shoutcast servers needed? And did you transfer all of your music to DO? Thanks!
- natural20s 8y ago
  I run shoutcast on :8000 and icecast on :9090 (iirc). Running both b/c I was just experimenting - both are not needed. Uploaded all of my tracks and stored them on DO. Ran a script to create a text playlist file. Configured icecast to be "fed" by ices (https://icecast.org/ices/docs/ices-2.0.2/basic.html https://icecast.org/ices/docs/ices-2.0.2/basic.html) Pointed ices to that file and have it feeding icecast. Created a startup bash script to fire up all both servers on restarts so "it just works". Maybe I should create a tutorial?
  - themodelplumber 8y ago
    Thanks, that made intuitive sense to me. A tutorial is always appreciated though. :-)
    - natural20s 8y ago
      Instead of reinventing the wheel - here is a tutorial I found helpful: https://www.howtoforge.com/linux_webradio_with_icecast2_ices2 https://www.howtoforge.com/linux_webradio_with_icecast2_ices...
plussed_reader 8y ago
echoplex.xyz runs a very similar setup; the autoDJ is 24hrs active, with live shows bumping in on a scheduled basis. KXStudio/IceCast/DigitalOcean