No studio. No engineering degree. No experience required. This guide explains what you actually need to know — and skips everything you don't.
Online radio (also called internet radio or streaming radio) is audio broadcast over the internet. It works just like AM/FM from a listener's perspective — you tune in and hear whatever is playing at that moment — except it travels over the internet instead of radio waves.
That difference is what makes it accessible to anyone. You don't need an FCC license, an expensive transmitter, or a fixed broadcast radius. Your station can reach listeners anywhere on the planet with an internet connection, and the only thing standing between you and going live is an afternoon's work.
Podcasts are pre-recorded audio that listeners download or stream on demand — they choose what to listen to and when. Internet radio is a live, continuous stream. Listeners tune in and hear whatever is playing right now, the same thing everyone else is hearing at that moment.
Think of it as the difference between a TV show you can pause and rewind versus a TV channel that's always on. Radio suits music stations, community broadcasts, news shows, talk radio, and anything where the shared, live experience is the point. If you've ever wanted your own station playing your music to the world all day, you want radio.
The short version: Internet radio = a live audio stream over the internet. Anyone can start one. No license, no tower, no geography limit.
These are two separate things, and confusing them trips up a lot of first-time broadcasters.
Your stream is a URL that delivers live audio. It looks something like http://youraccount.alonhosting.com:8000/stream. That URL is what every listener's device actually connects to. Radio directories, mobile apps, and player widgets all pull audio from this address.
Your website is what visitors see in a browser — your station's homepage, branding, track listings, social links, whatever you want to show. A website is entirely optional.
You can have a fully working station with no website at all. If you do have one, Aloncast gives you a customizable player widget to embed — it's one copy-paste and done.
Good news: Aloncast gives you the stream. You don't need a website to have a working radio station. If you want one later, the embed widget takes about two minutes to add.
When you stream audio, your server has to send a separate copy of the stream to every listener at the same time. Ten listeners means ten simultaneous streams going out. Five hundred listeners means five hundred.
Your home internet connection isn't built for this. Most residential upload speeds would max out with one or two listeners, and the moment your computer sleeps or your connection blips, everyone disconnects. You'd also need to leave your computer on 24 hours a day — not realistic for most people.
Radio hosting solves all of this. A hosting service like Aloncast runs dedicated servers in professional data centers with the bandwidth to handle hundreds or thousands of simultaneous listeners without breaking a sweat. Those servers stay on whether your computer is on or not. And when something goes wrong with the hardware — which does happen — failover keeps your listeners connected.
When you pay for radio hosting, you're paying for: server capacity (listener slots), the bandwidth to deliver your stream to all those listeners, storage for your AutoDJ music library, a control panel to manage everything, and support when you need help. The music, the license for that music, and the equipment in your room are your responsibility — the host handles everything on the server side.
You'll see these terms when you're setting up your station. Here's what they mean — and what they mean for you specifically.
The list is shorter than you think.
If you want to go live on mic (host a talk show, DJ in real time, take calls), you'll also need a free encoder like BUTT or Mixxx. Setup takes about 10 minutes. Our team can walk you through it via email in English or Spanish — just write us.
Here's what the process actually looks like, start to finish.
The Starter plan ($5/mo, or $4/mo billed yearly) is the right starting point — 150 listener slots, 3 GB AutoDJ storage, 128 kbps audio quality. You get 30 days free. Card required to start, no charge until day 31. Cancel before then and owe nothing.
Set your station name, genre, description, and website URL (optional). This is the information that shows up in radio directories and in the player widget. It takes about five minutes.
Use the built-in file manager to upload MP3 or AAC files from your computer. Organize by folder if you like — by genre, show name, artist, or time of day. There's no complicated import process.
Create a playlist from your uploaded tracks, set the rotation (random, sequential, or weighted), and turn AutoDJ on. Your station is now playing music 24/7. You can build multiple playlists and schedule them for different times of day whenever you're ready.
Your stream URL is ready the moment AutoDJ starts. Share it directly, embed the player widget on any website, submit to radio directories like TuneIn, or text the link to your first listeners. Aloncast also gives you a hosted player page so you have a shareable link even without a website.
Stuck at any step? Email support@alonhosting.com. Real humans, English and Spanish, replies within 1 business day.
Once your station is live, there are several ways your audience can find and listen to it.
Every Aloncast station gets a stream URL. Anyone with that URL can paste it into VLC, Winamp, foobar2000, or any media player that supports internet radio. It's the most direct option — no apps, no sign-up, just the link.
Aloncast generates a small HTML snippet for your station's player. Paste it into any web page and listeners get a fully working, customizable audio player without leaving your site. You can match it to your brand colors. One copy-paste — no coding knowledge needed.
Services like TuneIn, iHeart Radio, and dozens of genre-specific directories list internet radio stations by topic and location. You submit your stream URL and station details; your station appears in their search results for free. This is how listeners who've never heard of you can discover you.
Apps like TuneIn, Simple Radio, and Radio Garden let users browse and save internet radio stations. Once your station is listed in a directory, listeners can add it to their favorites and tune in from their phone exactly like any traditional radio station.
Most guides skip this part. We don't, because being straight with you is how we operate.
Aloncast provides the streaming technology. We do not handle music licensing on your behalf. Broadcasting music publicly — including over the internet — typically requires a license from the rights holders, regardless of whether your station is free to listeners or whether you're making money from it.
In the United States, internet radio broadcasters pay digital performance royalties through SoundExchange for recorded music, plus separate composition licenses through PROs like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC if applicable.
In Latin America, Canada, the UK, and the EU, similar organizations exist in each country — SOCAN in Canada, PPL in the UK, SGAE in Spain, SADAIC in Argentina, and so on. Look up the performing rights organization for your country. Most have online portals designed for small independent broadcasters.
If you play your own original music, or music released under a Creative Commons license that explicitly allows broadcasting, you may not need a commercial license at all.
Keep this proportional to your situation. A hobbyist station with 50 listeners playing local originals is a very different situation from a commercial station with 5,000 listeners playing chart music. Understand what applies in your country, start there, and grow into it. Our team can point you to the right resource for your region — just ask.
No charge for the first 30 days. Card required to start — cancel before day 30 and you owe nothing. Real human help in English and Spanish if you get stuck.
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