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Setting up a radio broadcast requires two main components: 1. server-side streaming software and 2. some type of streaming software on your local computer that sends streaming music through the server.
There are many popular audio streaming solutions, but two of the most common free solutions are Shoutcast and Icecast. The difference between the two is that Shoutcast is proprietary while Icecast is free and open source. If you have your own dedicated server, you can usually install icecast from your Linux distribution’s repository.
If, however, you plan to get a shared hosting account, you should do some investigating to find a web hosting provider that offers pre-existing shoutcast or icecast setups. Many of them have different packages that vary depending on how many simultaneous listeners you will have. Each listener has a unique connection to the server, so bandwidth consideration is a factor. Once you have Shoutcast or Icecast ready to go, you will need to set it up and test it. We will learn about that later this week.
Photo: Flickr
