Do you want to send Now Playing Song Data to the your TuneIn Radio, from your Radio Automation System? MetaRadio makes this possible. This article explains the setup of MetaRadio and TuneIn Radio, allowing the current song title and artist to be displayed on the TuneIn website and mobile apps.

Sending song now-playing information to TuneIn’s platform 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.

TuneIn has wide reach across web, mobile, and smart speakers. Sending your song data to TuneIn means it can be accessed by listeners wherever they listen via TuneIn.

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 TuneIn Radio, 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 TuneIn Radio

Before you can send song now-playing data to TuneIn Radio, you need to get some API Credentials from TuneIn.

If you already have your streams listed on the TuneIn Radio website, find the Station ID and email [email protected] with your Station Name and Station ID. Make sure you politely request a Partner ID and Partner Key.

If you don’t already have a page on the TuneIn website, use this page to get your station listed.

Sending Now Playing Data to TuneIn Radio

Now we have successfully configured MetaRadio, our Automation System, and our TuneIn Radio – 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 TuneIn Radio from the list, and configure its settings.

Click “Add Output System” under the TuneIn Radio heading. You can now configure your data.

Enter the Station ID, Partner ID, and Partner Key. The Station ID should start with the letter “s”, and the Partner ID and Partner Key need to be provided to you by TuneIn themselves.

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. By default we only send the song title, artist and album to TuneIn Radio. You can optionally configure custom messages in this section.

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 the TuneIn platform.

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 TuneIn Radio
  • Check your TuneIn Radio 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.