SHOUTcast Radio

SHOUTcast was developed by Nullsoft before they were bought out by AOL for their popular Winamp media player. SHOUTcast is used to stream either a live broadcast or a playlist of files on demand to others across the internet. It can be used for both audio and video streams.

Shoutcast Software

SHOUTcast consists of a client application and a server one. The client application is run by a D.J. and depending on the software used, can either just play files from a playlist, or be mixed in real time. The music is sent from the client to the server which allows others online to connect to the stream. The client and server may be run on the same system, or on seperate machines.

Nullsoft has released both the client and server applications for Windows and Unix (Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, etc) operating systems. Other programmers have developed client-only applications with extra features that run on a wide variety of computers and handheld devices (Including smart phones and handheld gaming systems).

Usage

SHOUTcast is mainly used to stream audio for internet radio stations, although it can be used for podcasts, online playlists, or video streams. Users usually connect to streams with playlist files (generally .pls or .m3u) that contain information about the SHOUTcast server. This usually includes the IP address, stream name, and any other important information. The playlist files can be opened with most common media players including Winamp, VLC, iTunes, Amarok, XMMS, Totem, and many others.

Because of the low cost involved in running a SHOUTcast server(only bandwidth costs) it has led to the creation of thousands of amature radio stations online. It is also used by many over the air radio stations that want to allow people to listen on the web when they can't use a traditional radio.

A list of public SHOUTcast stations currently online is always available on their website.

General Info

The SHOUTcast protocol was originally named "I Can Yell," but that domain was taken before Nullsoft could register it, so the name was changed to Shoutcast. ICY (Standing for 'I Can Yell') still apears as a prefix in the metadata for SHOUTcast. Nullsoft has since gained control of the domain icanyell.com and it redirects to shoutcast.com.

After many years of inactivity with SHOUTcast, AOL restarted development in September of 2008. They redesigned the website and added social networking pages (Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo), a toolbar applet, and a widget.