Internet radio
From SqueezeboxWiki
There are several different ways to tune in to an Internet Radio station. Squeezebox Server includes some plugins for finding stations (see Internet Radio Providers), and there are also a couple of ways to 'plug' a station in.
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Internet Radio Providers
Squeezebox Server includes support for several Internet Radio providers, including Shoutcast, Live365 and radioio. To browse the station directories of these providers, navigate to the Internet Radio menu on your Squeezebox.
Some providers have premium subscription options. To enter your username and password for an Internet Radio provider, or configure how you view the provider's stations, click here. You can also choose the Internet Radio section on the Server Settings page.
Finding a URL
Generally you google the radio station's name, then look on their website for a "live stream" or something similar. Right-click on the URL and select "Properties" to locate the URL. Highlight it and select copy, then paste it in the next step.
Unfortunately this method does not often work. Many radio stations try to obscure the true URL, will play audio through a Flash player or will even use a dummy video stream to send the audio. You can use a sniffer program like URL Snooper to try to determine the URL, but this won't always work either.
There's also a public list here: http://www.mikesradioworld.com/
Note that the stream must be tagged with the correct content type for SC to be able to play it. SC expects streams to have Content-Type set to audio/scpls or audio/x-scpls. Unfortunately, internet streams are not always tagged correctly. Other applications (such as iTunes) make guesses about content-type based on file extensions, but SC does not. This explains why some URLs work in other media players but not SC. Sometimes the URL for an internet stream is inside a .pls file. If the .pls file is tagged with the correct content-type SC will play it properly, however sometimes .pls files are tagged with some other content-type such as application/octet-steam. In this case you can download and look inside the .pls file (which is just a text file) and find the actual URL for the stream, which you can use in the step below.
Tuning In With a URL
If you know the URL of a stream you would like to play, you can go to Internet Radio > Tune In URL in the SqueezeCenter web interface, paste the URL of the stream and click on the play arrow to tune in to it.
If you find that you like that station, you can also tell the server
- to save the current playlist to be played later
- to add it to your favorites
If you saved it to your favorites, you will be able to change the station name or icon by editing the file favorites.opml in the Playlists directory. You will have to stop and restart your server for these changes to apply.
Playlist Files
To save a pointer to an Internet Radio station that you listen to often, you can create an .m3u or .pls playlist file containing the URL of the station in your Saved Playlists folder. You can download these files by right-clicking on the links at most streaming radio web sites.
iTunes users can drag stations from the Radio section of iTunes to their Library or to a playlist. It will then be available in the Saved Playlists area in the corresponding iTunes section.
You can also create playlists for Internet radio stations yourself using a text editor. They're just small text files containing the URLs of one or more stations. Here's an example .pls file from www.live365.com for a station called Monkeyfunk:
[playlist] numberofentries=1 File1=http://62.49.59.50:8000 Title1=Monkeyfunk Length1=-1 Version=2
SqueezeCenter can also create and use M3U playlist files. M3U playlist files simply contain a list of one or more URLs or path names, each on its own line in the file.
One note: Internet Radio stations often change their URL or go offline. If you are having problems with a station that worked at one time, visit their website again and see if you need to update your playlist file for that station.
Other Options
AlienBBC is a plugin designed to provide access to live streaming of a number of radio stations (mostly BBC but others too) as well as their online archive.
My Picks is a plugin which allows easy management of hierarchical lists of Internet Radio stations. The stations are saved in an OPML file which is easily modified using the My Picks OPML Editor via the Slimserver web interface.
WikiRadio is a plugin which allows the Slim community to share their favorite Internet Radio stations. The plugin allows playback of stations stored in OPML files that are posted here on the wiki. These files can be created using the My Picks OPML Editor.
LastFM is a plugin which allows you to connect to the personalised Internet Radio station at http://www.last.fm from your Squeezeboxes.
Subscription Services from Pandora or Rhapsody.
All of these plugins are available at the Audio plugins page.
Archives
Note: If any of the original authors, or anyone else that knows where these links should go, could edit/link this content, we'd appreciate it.
