1. Plan your station
Decide what you'll play and when: a music format, the shows you want to run live, and what fills the rest of the day. Most stations run automation around the clock and drop presenters in for live shows. Write down a simple hour plan, for example songs, a station ID every few songs, adverts or promos twice an hour and the news at the top of the hour. RadioMaster will follow that plan for you.
2. Sort out music and licences
Streaming music to the public usually needs a licence, even for a small or non-profit station. The rules and the organisations that issue licences depend on your country, so check with your local music licensing bodies before you go on air. Some stream hosts include licensing for certain countries in their plans. Music you own the rights to, or that is released under a licence that allows broadcast, can be played without one.
3. Choose a streaming server
Listeners don't connect to your computer: your software sends one stream to a server, and the server copies it to every listener. You have three common choices:
- Icecast: free, open-source streaming server you can run on any Linux VPS. Good if you're comfortable with a server.
- Shoutcast: widely supported by radio directories and players, often sold as hosted plans.
- AzuraCast: a free, self-hosted web radio suite that bundles a streaming server, AutoDJ, listener stats and requests. RadioMaster can manage an AzuraCast station from the studio.
Whichever you choose, note the server address, port, mount point and source password. You'll type them into RadioMaster in step 6.
4. Install free radio automation software
Radio automation software plays your playlists, crossfades between songs, keeps the station on time and sends the audio to the stream. Download RadioMaster for Windows, macOS or Linux. It's free and open source, with no account, subscription or paid edition. On Windows the installer sets everything up; on macOS drag the app into Applications; on Linux unpack the tar.gz and run ./RadioMaster.
5. Build your library and playlists
- Add your music folders to the Library. RadioMaster reads the tags and analyses each track so silence is trimmed and fades sound right.
- Drag songs into a playlist tab, or let Tools → Playlist generator build hours of programming from your categories and templates (see the playlist generator guide).
- Add hour markers so the station stays on the clock: wait for the top of the hour, finish the song and jump, or cut in exactly on time for the news.
- Put jingles and station IDs on the Jingles → Cart wall, and use Tools → Advertisement scheduler for rules like "every 5 songs, play 2 adverts" (see scheduling adverts and jingles).
6. Connect to your stream
Open Tools → Streams / encoders, add an encoder and fill in the server address, port, mount and password from step 3. Pick a format: MP3 at 128 kbps is understood by every player, while AAC and Opus sound better at lower bitrates. You can run several encoders at once, for example a high and a low quality stream, and RadioMaster reconnects on its own and sends the song titles to the server. The streaming guide has every setting.
7. Go live
Press play and your station is on air. When a presenter wants to talk, switch on the microphone and the music ducks under the voice. Record voice tracks to sound live while you're away, use text to speech for time checks and "coming up next" links, and give each presenter their own login with users and permissions. The live show guide covers the mic, cart wall and voice tracks.
8. Run it 24/7
The Tools → Event scheduler puts playlists on air, generates new ones or runs station commands at set times, so the station keeps going overnight. If you'd rather not leave a desktop computer on, RadioMaster Server runs the whole station on a Linux machine, a VPS or Windows Server without a window, and presenters control it from the desktop app, from anywhere (see broadcast from anywhere).
9. Get listeners
- Put a player on your website that points at your stream address.
- List the station in internet radio directories; many read their details from your Icecast or Shoutcast server.
- Share the stream link on social media and post what's on air with a RadioMaster plugin, for example to Discord.
- Check Tools → Reports for what played, and your stream server's stats for who listened.
Need help?
Ask on the RadioMaster Support Discord, read the FAQ, or see what's new in the latest version.