Basic Use and Function

Icecast can be used for several different reasons. If, for example, you work at a radio station or in some other broadcasting venue, you can stream your live audio feed over the Internet. This provides listening access to those who normally live or work outside the nominal broadcasting radius access of the radio station transmitter. This can be useful for smaller stations with limited wattage. Or if you are a home user and wish to play Internet disc jockey, create your own playlist, insert sound bytes, and stream audio to the world, icecast is a viable solution. Because icecast does not broadcast over radio waves or use limited frequencies requiring licensing, it does not fall under FCC rulings. Anyone can set up an icecast server and begin transmitting songs or audio files. This is applicable to both home implementations through networked machines or for use in a business environment.

There are many stations on the Internet currently using icecast. A comprehensive repository of streaming servers is located on the main icecast page. If you would like your server added to this list edit your icecast configuration files appropriately. Oddsock, one of the icecast developers, provides a fairly comprehensive listing of icecast servers serving a variety of musical and listening formats via his home page. Both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis are represented here: http://www.oddsock.org/icecast2yp/. More regarding the setup and use of YP directories are addressed later in this book.

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