Hosting for Internet Radio Station
It is not your fault you got confused. You probably already know that choosing the wrong website hosting plan can be detrimental to your business.
Here is a common question we hear often from our website design clients:
Can I host a streaming radio site on a web hosting account? How do I go about doing this?
What is the best internet radio hosting (streaming) site? Also what is the best software for radio station?
Live365? SpacialNet? Loudcity? ERadio? I’m looking for a good quality software that isn’t too difficult to use.
Common Misconception
A few people don’t really know what what they’re going to do if they need to host for an internet radio station. They just sign up on any web hosting site without even identifying their web hosting requirements.
Clarification
Creating a streaming radio website might be confusing for starters but here are some recommendations:
Taken from Hostgator’s support portal:
How do I set up streaming video or music?
Many people have questions about media steaming support for their sites. Unless you have a dedicated server, HostGator supports only “HTTP Streaming” which is real player, quicktime, and windows media player.
After you encode your media files, there are two more steps in preparing your content for streaming from a Web server. You must create Windows Media metafiles with .wax, .wvx, or .asx file name extensions and add tags to your HTML files. The HTML tag points the end user’s browser to the metafile, which points Windows Media Player to the content, the Windows Media file. A metafile must be used to reference the media because a direct reference to the media in an HTML tag will cause most browsers to attempt to download the media rather than stream it.
To create a Windows Media metafile:
Open a text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad. Type the following metafile script, replacing the URL with that of your media. Reference the media just as you would any other Web file.
<ASX VERSION=”3.0″>
<ENTRY>
<REF HREF = “http://YourWebServer/Path/YourFile.wmv” />
</ENTRY>
</ASX>You can place the metafile in the same folder as that of your media. If you do so, you can use a relative path, which is simply the name of the file. The REF line would look like this:
<REF HREF=”YourFile.wmv” />Save the text file, using the name of your media file followed by the .wvx extension if the metafile points to a file with a .wmv extension, or .wax if the metafile points to a file with a .wma extension, such as YourFile.wvx. The file name extension .asx was used in previous versions of Windows Media Technologies. To add a tag to an HTML file Using a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad, open the Web page that you want to add the reference to the media to. Add the URL of the metafile. For example:
<HTML>
<BODY>
Play this Windows Media file:
<A HREF = “http://YourWebServer/Path/YourFile.wvx”>
YourFile</A>
</BODY>
</HTML>Copy the Windows Media files (with .wma, .wax, .wmv, and .wvx file name extensions) to your Web server. When an end user clicks the reference on the Web page, the metafile is downloaded and Windows Media Player opens. Windows Media Player opens the metafile, and then opens and plays the Windows Media file from your Web server.
Now you know that it is better to use a virtual private server(VPS) or a dedicated server hosting plan in hosting your radio streaming site. So before getting any unrightful web hosting provider, check and review for the best VPS or dedicated server hosting provider so that your effort and money won’t go to waste.
Now let us review the 10 important factors to identify in an excellent web hosting. An outstanding web host:
- lets you try their service for free or at super low price,
- has friendly Live Chat available 24/7 so it does not matter where you are in the world,
- gives huge webspace at no extra cost,
- offers more than enough bandwidth at no extra cost,
- can be easily upgraded to VPS or one of the best dedicated server plans if and when your business require.
- gives unlimited add-on domains,
- has excellent support and rated at least A+ by Better Business Bureau (BBB),
- has at least 30 days money back guarantee,
- has easy-to-use Site Builder for quick website creation,
- has Fantastico and QuickInstall to quickly install apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OSCommerce, ZenCart and more,
Top Web Hosting provider
Many experienced web developers use Hostgator. If need a quality hosting plan, website experts usually recommend going with Hostgator because they are the best best domain host in the world today.
The Hostgator reviews will tell you that HG has an amazingly long, 45 days money back guarantee so you have ample time to test them out. They are rated A+ by Better Business Bureau which shows their commitment to customer satisfaction. You also do not have to pay for the first month. You can just try their fully functional hosting service – you pay only $ 0.01 (you need to use the exclusive Hostgator coupon code 2015). Do you know any other hosting company that believe in themselves so much they can give you that kind of assurance? Anybody can grab an account from Hostgator for almost FREE.
Best Hostgator Coupons
Click the coupon below try Hostgator cPanel hosting for almost free. If you already know that Hostgator is what you want, you can even save 25% off the normal price.
Hostgator Compared with Other Web Hosts
No web hosting service is perfect. If you compare Hostgator with other hosts, they do not offer some things these companies offer:
- Free domain name – but you can easily get a domain name from the best domain registrar such as Godaddy or Namecheap for $ 10 or less. Do not forget that it is a hassle to take the free domain name you receive at a web host and move it to another host.
- You need to pay full price after your first invoice – you do not expect such great service and support at $ 0.01 forever, do you? Hostgator is not one of those free hosting service. It is like they say, you get what you pay for.
If you are unsure if HG can meet your needs, or you have specific question about something, try the Live Chat at HG. They are friendly, fast and knowledgeable. They are available for sales, billing or even technical support for 24/7 at no extra charge.
Hostgator is having a 20% sale right now, but you can use the above coupon code for bigger savings.
