Do you want to send Now Playing Song Data to the your Icecast Streaming Media Server from your Radio Automation System? MetaRadio makes this possible. This article explains the setup of MetaRadio and Icecast, allowing the current song title and artist to be displayed on your live internet streams.

Sending song now-playing information to your live streaming server has clear advantages for your listeners and also your station. Now Playing data enhances the listener experience by allowing them to discover new tracks, and unlocks additional advertising opportunities by displaying promotional messages on your screen.

Icecast is an open source streaming media server. It allows you to stream audio in common formats, such as MP3, AAC+, OGG, and Opus. We support all versions of Icecast 2 and onwards, but we always recommend you use the latest version.

This article explains how to send data to Icecast. If you want to receive data from Icecast, read our guide on receiving and forwarding now-playing data from Icecast.

What is MetaRadio?

MetaRadio is software which acts as a connector for your radio station’s metadata. It enables you to send your now playing data to dozens of different types of systems (including RDS), and also unlocks new opportunities for revenue and promotions by inserting commercial and non-commercial messages between your song data. While many automation systems can send data directly to some of these third party broadcast systems, MetaRadio aims to connect all your systems together and provide advanced features.

MetaRadio takes all the hard work out of connecting your metadata. There’s no need for custom scripting – MetaRadio does everything you need out of the box.

Getting Song Data From your Radio Automation System

Before you can send your song metadata to your Icecast, you must first install MetaRadio and connect it to your radio automation system.

MetaRadio has over 30 different input system – including all the major Radio Automation System vendors. If you don’t have reliable metadata available in your automation system, you may like to consider using radio stream fingerprinting software with MetaRadio.

There is a free trial available so you can test the entire system before committing to purchase.

Preparing your Icecast Server

You also need to prepare to your Icecast server. You need to have a mount-point configured, and know the URL, Mount Name, and Password of your stream. This Icecast server much be accessible via the internet from your MetaRadio PC.

We cannot send data to an Icecast relay – we can only send to Mount Points.

Sending Now Playing Data to your Icecast

Now we have successfully configured MetaRadio, our Automation System, and Icecast – we are ready to connect all these systems together.

All configuration in this step is done in the MetaRadio Configuration App. By default, the MetaRadio configuration app is available by going to http://127.0.0.1:9606/

MetaRadio’s configuration interface lets you control all settings within MetaRadio.

  • The left contains the menu with various options – including the Input and Output settings.
  • The centre of the screen contains information about your system, including license details, and a summary of the inputs and outputs you have setup.

The options you see available will vary depending on the version you have installed, and the license options you have installed.

In the left menu of MetaRadio, click on “Outputs”. Find your station, and click “Add Output”. Now you can select Icecast from the list, and configure its settings. If you have Icecast streaming from StreamGuys or Triton Digital, please use the specific output for these companies. They accept additional metadata in a specific format.

Click “Add Output System” under the Icecast heading. You can now configure your connection. You will need to enter the following details:

  1. Mount Point: The mount for your Icecast source (e.g. ‘/mystream‘).
  2. Icecast Address: The address of the server, not including the mount name (e.g. ‘http://stream.mediarealm.com.au/’).
  3. HTTP Auth Username: Set this to ‘source’ (alternatively, you can set it to ‘admin’ if you know the main admin password for the whole server).
  4. HTTP Auth Password: The password for your Icecast mount. This is the same password you put into your streaming encoder.

You can then configure the messages that rotate. The “Now Playing Text Format” messages rotate whenever a song is playing. The “Default/Fallback Text” messages rotate whenever a song is not playing. The Message Interval determines how long a message displays on the screen.

Click Save, and then click “Apply & Restart” up the top to restart MetaRadio.

The black MetaRadio window will now display a status update whenever a new messages is sent to your Icecast streaming server.

If data is not displaying on your radio receiver, check the following:

  • Check the black MetaRadio status windows for errors
  • Check your network allows connections from your MetaRadio PC to your Icecast
  • Check your Icecast is configured correctly.

Support & Next Steps

Thanks for choosing MetaRadio to manage your now playing song data needs. Make sure you explore all the features, such as station scheduling, message scheduling, and all of our advanced output options. Please get in touch with us if you ever need assistance!

If you have any trouble with this process or it’s not working, please send the MetaRadio log files through to our support team. We’re here to help! You’ll find the support bundle file in MetaRadio’s dashboard.