INTERNET RADIO ON THE RASPBERRY PI
Below is a photo of my Raspberry Pi, playing Miles Davis & More – I’m Oldfashioned at 2 am. The installation procedure for “PiRadio” is given below the photo, along with a short list of internet radio stations. I’ve also given directions on how to find the URL, aka web address, of stations you would like to listen to. This was the hardest part:-) At the end, I’ve given (i) a short list of commands for the player program, mpc, (ii) a shell script, ir, internet radio, for playing stations by name, e.g., play jazz. It does other thins as well, e.g., maintaining a list of songs that you have “liked.”
Credit: I learned how to make a PiRadio from Avogadro’s number.
piRadio @ 2AM
1. Update the Raspberry Pi System:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
2. Install mpc & mpd:
sudo apt-get install mpc mpd
3. Add stations:
mpc add http://69.166.45.47:8000 # NPR News
mpc add http://174.37.16.73:8158/Cosmitto # Jazz
4. Have fun:
mpc play 2 # play some jazz
mpc current # list current song
mpc play 1 # listen to NPR
mpc playlist # see what's playing
mpc stop # time to go to work
NOTES
(1) FINDING INTERNET RADIO STATIONS
The hardest part was finding correct URL’s for the radio stations. Here is one method. (a) Go to shoutcast.com. Find your station there. I found this station listed in blue:
Concerto & Chamber Music etc. (KOREA) Recently played: Borodin – String Quartet No.2 in D major – II.
You need to download the file linked to this and edit it with a text editor. On the mac, control click on the blue title. The file will be downloaded to your Downloads folder. You will find it as the most recently added file with name like tunein-station.pls. Open the file in a text editor. You get something like this:
numberofentries=1
File1=http://121.135.98.32:8000
Title1=(#1 - 15/50) Concerto & Chamber Music etc. (KOREA)
Length1=-1
Version=2
The title was the last piece/song played. What you want is this: http://121.135.98.32:8000
Add this station with the command
mpc add http://121.135.98.32:8000
(2) SOME INTERNET RADIO STATIONS
1 NPR news http://69.166.45.47:8000
2 Jazz http://174.37.16.73:8158/Cosmitto
3 Chamber music http://121.135.98.32:8000
4 Baroque http://85.25.100.57:8010
5 Classical http://174.36.206.197:8000
6 Piano Trio http://72.26.204.28:6874
7 Opera http://82.197.167.139:80
(3) SOME USEFUL COMMANDS
play N - play song/station N
stop - stop playing
add URL - add stream at URL
clear - clear playlist
crop - remove all songs/stations except for
the one currently playing
current - show the currently playing song
del N - removes playlist item N
move A B - moves item at position A to
position B in the playlist
next - starts playing next song/station on playlist.
prev - start playing previous song/station on playlist
playlist - display playlist
See man mpc for the complete list.
(4) A SHELL SCRIPT
The shell script ir, aka internet radio can play stations by name, list the streams you have added to your playlist, maintain a list of songs you have “liked”, and more. Examples:
– ir jazz – play my jazz station
– ir list – list what is currently playing on all stations
– ir now – see what is playing now:
– ir stations – list stations
– ir stream – list the streams of the stations
– off – turn radio off
– volume L – set volume to L, e.g., ir volume 85 to set volume to 85%
– like – log currently playing song to ~/likes.txt
Abbreviations: type ir to see these, e.g., ir n for ir now.
You will need to edit the file below so that the first set of commands, “ir jazz”, etc, conform to your playlist.
#!/bin/bash
# ir: play internet radio station, e.g. "ir npr"
case $1 in
[0-9]*) mpc play $1
;;
npr) mpc play 1
;;
ja*) echo; echo " Jazz"; echo
mpc play 2
;;
ve*) echo echo " Venice"; echo
mpc play 5
;;
ba*) echo; echo " Baroque"; echo;
mpc play 4
;;
tr*) echo; echo "Piano Trio"; echo;
mpc play 6
;;
ch*) echo; echo " Chamber Music"; echo;
mpc play 3
;;
p*) # playing
echo
mpc playlist -f " %position% %name% -- %title%" | sed 's/$/\n/'
;;
str*) # streams
mpc -f " %position% %name% -- %file%" playlist
;;
sta*)
mpc -f "%name%" playlist | awk '{printf " %-3s %s %s %s\n", NR, $1, $2, $3 }'
;;
o*) # off
mpc stop
;;
l*) # like
# log info on currently playing song that I like
echo ""
mpc current | sed 's/^/ /'
echo
echo " -- LIKED"
echo
mpc current >> ~/likes.txt
echo "" >> ~/likes.txt
;;
-l*) # likes
less ~/likes.txt
;;
n*) # now
mpc current
;;
v*) # volume
mpc volume $2
;;
*)
echo
echo "Stations: baroque, chamber, jazz, npr, trio, venice"
echo "Commands: like, -likes, now, off, volume"
echo "Lists: playing, stations, streams"
echo
echo "The volume command takes an extra argument, as in 'ir volume 100'."
echo "The command 'ir like' logs the currently playing song to ~/likes.txt."
echo "The ecommand 'ir likes' display the file of songs you like."
echo
echo "Abbreviations: generaly the first letter or first few letters, e.g.,"
echo "l = like, -l = -likes, n = now, o = off"
echo "p = playing, sta = stations, str = streams, v = volume"
echo "Not every command has an abbreviation"
echo
;;
esac
Circle and Square 
