Internet radio stream

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Headless Internet Radio Stream
Information
Owner Orias
Version 1.0
Status In Progress
Started On 2010-01-16
Cost $0


Overview

I have listened to Shoutcast radio streams for the past couple of years. Rather than carry all my cd's or fill my phone with my mp3's, I wanted a way to access my music library from anywhere. All you need is an internet connection, a computer, and a little bit of free software. This is not a complete how-to, consider it more of a guide to show you were to look. As I come across good tutorials, I'll include links to them here. Of course, feel free to ask me any questions, I'd be happy to help!

Features

  • Password protected stream, so access is limited and controlled
  • Remote administration and play-list building through a web-based GUI
  • CLI for administration and play-list building if desired

Requirements

  • Computer with enough local storage
  • Internet connection- at least 20KBps upstream bandwidth
  • Windows/Linux/Mac OS (this article will be for linux)
  • Icecast2
  • MPD
  • Ampache
  • Ncmpcpp


Setup Instructions

  • Setup MPD- MPD Wiki make sure to set up the shoutcast section (for Icecast) and the httpd section, to verify you have a working stream
  • Verify the player can see your music, add some tracks to the playlist and check to see if its playing
  • Setup Ampache Ampache Wiki Follow the preparing your OS for Ampache, then go through the web-browser based setup
  • Sign in to Ampache, build your catalog, and start playing :)


Issues

  • MPD needs to be reset everytime you change your config (sudo /etc/init.d/mpd reset), you'll find that it solves a lot of issues if your player cannot connect
  • Icecast will let you know when you mess up your config file, similar to MPD, it needs to be restarted every time you make a change (sudo /etc/init.d/icecast2 restart). I recommend going through section by section and restarting at each instance to verify every-thing's happy. If not- just check the line that the error tells you about.
  • Ampache will sometimes flake out on passing the playlist to MPD, that's why we have Ncmpcpp as a fallback if needed.Sometimes it just needs to clear the playlist and start fresh.
  • You will listen to too much music :p