Your internet radio station deserve the best internet hosting package and provider.
But if you’re just starting a new radio station, Do you know what are the things you should look into in a radio hosting package?
What are the most important features and functions of an Internet radio hosting package you should be aware of?
Whether you’re new to start your own radio or an industry leader in web radio, You must need to consider the most important factors of Internet radio Hosting services to grow your online radio station.
This article will get the exact list of things to look for in radio hosting packages. So without taking much time, let’s dive into the article.
Technical Specifications of a Best Internet Radio Hosting
There are many technical factors to check in a Ineternet radio hosting.
But a few of them are the most important specifications in an Online radio hosting you must look for before confirming any SHOUTcast Hosting Package.
These are,
- Audio Quality
- No. of Listeners
- Bandwidth
- Diskspace
- AutoDJ
- Secure Streaming
Audio Quality
Audio Quality is the most important factor in broadcasting or radio streaming. Though there is nothing called best bitrate but only the right bitrate.
The higher the audio bitrate you choose the higher the sound quality you can offer to your listeners.
High bit rates are not always the best option to choose, but you can say your listeners will be super impressed with that. To choose the right bitrate you have to understand the purpose first.
If you’re offering listeners to download in audio format, a higher bitrate is a good option, but if you’re streaming you can choose between 128bit to 328bit.
So While choosing the Online radio hosting provider, you must check the audio quality the Radio Hosting provider offering to you.
No. of Listeners
When you’re just starting your own internet radio station, you might require very few listeners at first. But what if the no. of listeners exceeded than you expected?
Therefore you always need to consider the no. of listeners your Internet radio hosting provider is offering in their radio hosting packages.
If you already know your expected number of listeners then you can choose it accordingly. Most of the Internet Radio Hosting / SHOUTcast hosting comes with limited no. of listeners in the basic packages. The number of the listener in Radio hosting packages are actually the total number of real-time users can listen your broadcasting.
For example, If you choose Hostcode’s IR-128 Shoutcast Hosting Package ,
on a real time only 200 listeners can tune to your broadcast.
What if the the listeners quota get filled in real time?
The next listener will not be able to join your stream. If you continuously see the surge of audiences, you probably need to upgrade your package with the higher listeners.
Bandwidth
Another significant factor to check in a hosting package is the BandWidth. Bandwidth defines the amount of data that can be transferred from a website. It is also referred to as the capability of the network between the user and server.
The speed and performance of your system totally proportional to the bandwidth of your hosting infrastructure.If you have an extensive number of users you need a high amount of bandwidth to manage your system functional.
Audio streaming and broadcasting require a large amount of bandwidth though.
Therefore at all of our Hostcode’s SHOUTcast hosting plans, we are offering unmetered bandwidth.
Diskspace
The disk space defines the total storage allocated for your system to upload contents. Another major factor in SHOUTcast hosting, as you will be uploading your content to create various playlists for your listeners.
Some of the Internet radio hosting providers offer you limited storage or disk space and a few offer you Unlimited or unmetered disk space. At Hostcode we understand the needs of the Online Radio Stations and offering Unmetered disk spaces in our every SHOUTcast / IceCast hosting packages.
Though I would like to clear one thing here,
There is nothing called Unlimited or Unmetered in hosting. All the resources are defined.
But Why it is marketed as Unlimited / Unmetered Hosting?
The reason here is We don’t pay close attention to the resources you’re consuming to upload your content. But once you use noticeably more storage than usual, you will be notified immediately.
AutoDj ( The best feature of Internet radio hosting)
Are you worried about how to keep your internet radio station onine for 24/7?
Then AutoDj is the answer for your question.
AutoDj is a special feature of SHOUTcast hosting, which acts as a Content Delivery System for SHOUTcast servers. It allows you to keep your radio streaming online 24/7 without any interruption.
All you need to do is to upload your music files to the AutoDJ and create a playlist.
That’s all!
You no more need to keep your computer active to play the streaming, the AutoDJ will play it the whole night for your listeners. Therefore, while choosing the best internet radio hosting provider or best radio hosting packages don’t forget to check the availability of this feature.
Also, I would like to remind you , a few host offer only a limited number of AutoDJ playlist.
That meaning, you can only create a few playlists to play automatically from your SHOUTcast server. But, We added an UNLIMITED number of AutoDJ playlists in each plan so that you can create as much as you need.
Secure Streaming
Security is the major thing you should consider in your SHOUTcast hosting. A good Shoutcast hosting package will have SSL streaming. That means all the streaming will be covered with HTTPS.
And your streaming cotent remain safe from any attacker.
Control & Management of Top Internet Radio Hosting Service
The control and management of your online radio shouold be easy to use.
After going through the technical specifications of the Internet radio hosting packages the next thing you can do is to analyze the Radio control and management options.
Check the availability of the below-mentioned radio control and management features in the Control panel.
Radio Control
The first common feature you should look for in the control panel is how you can make updates to your radio station.
That means this module of the control panel allows users to change the streaming system, Stream password & Radio admin password of the radio station.
Also, this segment has Managing Account information of your radio station along with other advanced management options like Music Player Widgets code generator, webhooks for developers, etc.
Domain Management
The Domain Management module allows you to add your domain name to the system. Also, you can check the SSL stream links here.
AutoDj Management
This module is specially designed to manage your music playlist.
So If you want to create your playlist, you need to go to this module to create, edit and delete the AutoDj playlist.
Not only that, you can do a lot more things in this module.
Custom Cover Image :
If you want to add a custom cover to your music, this feature will replace the default cover with your uploaded one.
The recommended size for the Custom Album cover is 600x400px.
Music Library Management
You can organize your music files in a better way with the Music Library management feature.
This allows you to create folders and upload your music to the specific folders.
Audio Jingle / Ad :
Want to add some jingles to your music or want to put an advertisement in the middle of your streaming? You can upload your short Jingles like 5 to 15 seconds long and allow it to play between tracks by the AutoDJ.
Also, you can schedule the jingle play mode or play immediately over the playing song with a fade effect by using the Play Jingle Now feature.
There are other features in AutoDJ modules like “Say in Microphone” which allows you to talk live in the streaming and the “Voice Pro” which allows you to convert text to voice in live streaming.
DJ Controller
This module is basically to manage the DJ accounts.
You are able to create DJ accounts, edit and remove them from the panel. And as an add-on, there is another feature of Recording Live Dj shows.
If you enable this feature, let, for example, if one of your DJ is playing a show it will record in the system which you can download later.
Statistics & Analytics
Knowing the stats of your own radio station is very important. Which is almost impossible in traditional radio but using Internet radio hosting you can able to track each detail of your radio station.
This Statistics and Analytics module allows you to check for
- Account Summary
- Hard Disk Drive Usage
- Radio Listener’s Graphical Representation
- Live Streaming Information ( peak listener, Unique Listener, etc.)
- Radio Listeners on Google Maps
- Bandwidth usage
Technical Support for the best online radio hosting
A great SHOUTcast hosting package comes with a great support.
The support and help from the hosting provider are very crucial and important to your Internet radio station. So, before going with any Internet radio hosting package, make sure you know,
How responsive the radio hositng provider is?
Do they get back to your and solve it within 12 hours or it takes longer than that.
What is the mode of support?
Do you need to email them, call them, or simply opening a support ticket will be enough from your side?
Also consider knowledge base and DIY support information for quick fix.
Pricing & Payment Terms
Now you know what you should look for in online radio hositng packages.
The technical specification, Control panel features, and Support mode all the crucial information will help you to decide whether you should move forward with the Internet radio hosting provider or you should look for other providers.
But another thing here you shouldn’t miss is the Pricing and Payment terms.
Don’t fall in the trap of cheap Internet radio hosting solutions if it doesn’t provide the quality specifications and support you need.
Rather you must go for affordable SHOUTcast hosting packages with great quality support and high specification to run your radio station smoothly.
Along with pricing of the packages look for payment terms, do you have to pay per month or Per year?
For some paying per month is easier and some prefer to pay on yearly basis.
Conclusion
We are at the end of this article of choosing the best internet radio hosting provider.
You must always check all the Tech features, Control and Management functions, Pricing, and payment terms before signup with any Internet radio hosting plan.
Hopefully, it will help you to identify the best internet radio hosting provider for your radio station.