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