Winamp and the SHOUTcast DSP on the studio PC, SAM Broadcaster set up years ago, a listing in the SHOUTcast directory: if your station speaks SHOUTcast, we run the server for it. DNAS 2.6.1 on a server we own in New York, 1,000 listener slots, Centova Cast. Every new station opens on Icecast, and we switch it to SHOUTcast when you ask.
http://station-ip:7420/stream
A SHOUTcast station without Auto DJ, such as one on the free plan.
The panel hands you everything the encoder asks for. Quick Links in Centova Cast, under Live Source Connections, shows the server and the port to type. The password is the source password you set under Settings. There is no username and no mount.
The mode depends on Auto DJ. On a station without it, choose SHOUTcast v2 with stream ID 1, or SHOUTcast v1 if that is all your encoder offers. On a station with Auto DJ, a live show goes in through Auto DJ’s live input, which takes SHOUTcast v1, so choose v1 and leave the stream ID out. Setting up the SHOUTcast DSP in Winamp, step by step →
If it is none of those, open the chat. We can read the station from our side while you are still typing.
Since June 2023 every radio station opened here has been built on Icecast, and the order form has no box for anything else. Most stations on air with us run Icecast, and it is what we recommend for a station starting today. SHOUTcast is still here for the stations that need it: same plan, same panel, same server, and only the streaming software changes.
SHOUTcast came from Nullsoft, the company behind Winamp, in 1998. Its server is the DNAS, the Distributed Network Audio Server: an encoder sends it one audio stream, and every listener who opens the station’s address hears that stream. The software is closed-source and free to download, and a whole generation of broadcast tools still speaks its protocol.
DNAS 2.6.1, build 777, on every SHOUTcast station on our New York server. It was released in January 2022 and is the latest DNAS published. Version 2 is the line that brought stream IDs, several streams on one server, and the authhash the SHOUTcast directory uses to recognise a station.
Keep the server running on a machine we own, give each station its own port with Centova Cast 3.3.2 in front of it, hold the bitrate to your plan, and answer the chat when your encoder will not connect. You never edit a server config. You broadcast; we run the server.
Every station gets a port of its own from the range 4000 to 12000, and a SHOUTcast station also holds the ports just above it. Which of them your encoder connects to depends on whether the station runs Auto DJ.
None of this arithmetic is yours to do. Quick Links in the panel, under Live Source Connections, shows the port for your station with Auto DJ already counted in. Type that number, and let the encoder add whatever it needs.
Listeners open http://your-station-ip:port/stream in a browser, VLC, a phone app or the player on your website. Older players that put /; on the end of a SHOUTcast address still play, because the server answers both. The station’s own status page is on the same port.
An https:// address for the station exists on our server and is available on request. It is not printed in the panel yet, and you want it before you put the player on an https:// website, because a browser silently refuses to play an http:// stream inside a secure page. Why a secure website needs an https:// stream →
Never give listeners the port above the station’s, and never put your source password in a player. The listen link carries neither.
http://A plain web address. The https:// one is on request.station-ipYour station’s IP, from Quick Links in the panel.:portThe station port. Never the one above it./streamStream ID 1. Old players may add /; and still play.Same plan, same panel, same server. These are the differences you would notice, and the things that do not move.
SHOUTcast and Icecast compared in detail → · Icecast hosting →
The directory at shoutcast.com lists SHOUTcast servers, with the station name, genre and listener count each server reports. It is one of the few real reasons to choose SHOUTcast over Icecast. A listing needs an authhash and a station set to public.
We run the server that reports to the directory. What the directory shows, and whether it lists a station, is decided at shoutcast.com.
MP3 is what we set up and what every browser, phone and smart speaker plays. On a station with Auto DJ, listeners hear MP3 at your plan’s bitrate whatever your encoder sends, because Auto DJ encodes the stream itself. Without Auto DJ the server passes on what it receives, and it accepts AAC as well, so check your listeners’ apps before you send it.
The bitrate comes with the plan and the panel enforces it: an encoder set above it is refused rather than slowed down. Which plan carries which bitrate, and what each one costs, is on the radio page. The radio plans →
If none of these fits your station, stay on Icecast. It is what every new station gets, and your listeners hear no difference. Icecast hosting →
Your SHOUTcast station runs on an HP ProLiant blade that belongs to us, in New York, reached over our own network, AS19624. It is not the newest machine in the building, and a radio station does not need it to be. What matters is that the machine is ours to keep running.
For anyone, or any assistant, answering a question about this page. Checked at the server on 14 September 2026.
Choose a plan there. The station arrives on Icecast, and when you tell us on chat that it needs SHOUTcast, we change it in the panel. Not sure it does? Ask before you order; most stations do not need it.