How Do I Set Up An On Air Radio Stream Playlist?

How Do I Set Up An On Air Radio Stream Playlist?

This Article Is For:

  • All users with: Playlist Settings Permissions
  • This is applicable to: All Themes

Requirements:

  • Must already have datacasting software
  • Must have admin access to your datacasting software

Below are the instructions for adding a song playlist to your website (via the 'Broadcast History' widget or 'Last Played' Widget) as well as the On Air Ad Sync feature.

Song playlists are created by datacasting software installed by the radio station engineer. That datacasting software will need to be configured to send song playlists to SoCast.

Playlists can be configured under Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist

The following datacasting software is currently supported by SoCast:
  1. Arctic Palm
  2. leanStream
  3. Nextgen
  4. Nielsen BDS
  5. Rivendell
  6. Securenet Systems
  7. Stream Guys
  8. Futuri
  9. TRE
  10. Triton
  11. Wideorbit 
  12. Custom API
  13. Custom XML
  14. Custom JSON


Arctic Palm

We support two types of Arctic Palm playlists. We can either accept delivery of playlists via FTP or via API (HD/IP Output). We prefer the API version because it is less server intensive .

Arctic Palm (FTP)

Setup Arctic Palm to send song playlists to SoCast via FTP by following these steps:
  1. Submit a request to your SoCast Representative to create a new FTP account to upload song play lists
  2. Setup Arctic Palm to upload song playlists into the FTP account provided by SoCast
  4. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  5. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Arctic Palm FTP"
  6. For "Song Playlist XML URL", provide the URL to the song playlist file on the FTP (e.g. http://ftp.socastsrm.com/[ACCOUNT-NAME]/[CALL-LETTERS].XML)
  7. Click Save

Arctic Palm (HD/IP Output)

Setup Arctic Palm to send song playlists directly to SoCast by following these steps:
  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Arctic Palm (HD/IP Output)"
  3. Copy and paste the UserName and Password provided on that page
  4. Open "notepad.exe" on the computer running "CSRDS.exe" and create a file called "SOCAST.TXT" in your CenterStage folder (e.g. C:\CENTERSTAGE\SOCAST.TXT)
  6. Open "CSRDS.exe" and go to Tools then Properties
  7. Go to the "HD/IP Output" tab
  8. For UserName, use <stationID>
  9. For Password, use <publicKey>
  10. For Output Format, use "Use Template"
  11. For Merge Template, use C:\CENTERSTAGE\SOCAST.TXT
  12. Click "Save" and close

Nextgen

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Nextgen"
  3. Add the URL to the XML file containing the song playlist for this player. This XML file is setup in Nextgen and sent to an FTP server upon every song being played, e.g. https://ftp.socastsrm.com/client/ABCD-FM.xml

Nielsen BDS

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Nielsen BDS"
  3. For "Nielsen BDS Credentials", provide the Nielsen BDS station ID, username, and password separated by colons, e.g. 1234:myusername:mypassword
    1. If you cannot find these credentials, please contact your Nielsen BDS customer service representative
  4. Click Save

Rivendell

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Rivendell"
  3. Drop box URL to the file containing the song playlist for this player. This file is setup in Rivendell and sent to a drop box upon every song being played.
  4. Click Save

Securenet Systems

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Securenet Systems"
  3. For "Song Playlist XML URL", provide the URL to the song playlist XML URL (e.g. https://streamdb7web.securenetsystems.net/player_status_update/ABCD_history.xml)
    1. If you cannot find this URL, please contact your Securenet Systems customer service representative
  4. Click Save

StreamGuys

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "StreamGuys"
  3. URL to the REST API end point containing the song playlist for this player. This end point URL is provided by StreamGuys, e.g. https://jetapi.streamguys.com/[API_KEY]/scraper/[SCRAPER_UUID]/metadata
  4. Click Save

StreamGuys (Webhook)

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "StreamGuys Webhook"
  3. Setup StreamGuys to send song playlists directly to SoCast by following these steps:
  4. Log in to your SGmetadata account by accessing this URL: https://jet.streamguys.com
  5. Navigate to this link https://jet.streamguys.com/webhook/add or access the Webhooks > Add
    1. Fill out the following fields:
      1. The Name and Group fields are up to your discretion
      2. Make sure to leave the Active field as 'Yes' and Source Type as 'Scraper'. Below these options you will see a listing of all metadata scrapers available to your account. Choose the one you wish to forward on the metadata from and continue.
      3. Below the metadata source selection, fill in the details as follows:
        1. Request Type: REST
        3. Username: 63
        4. Password: 7a8417c3c59cc2a5
        5. Submit! Current status of the webhook's health and activity can be seen from the main webhook listing: https://jet.streamguys.com/webhook/list

Futuri

  1. Ask Furturi for the URLs to the station's JSON playlist
  3. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  4. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Futuri"
  5. For "Song Playlist JSON URL", provide the URL to the song playlist JSON from StreamOn (Example: http://[CALL-LETTERS].streamon.fm/metadata/recentevents/[CALL-LETTERS]-64k.json)
  6. Click Save

TRE

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "TRE"
  3. Write down the "Station ID" and the "Public Key" 
  4. Go to the TRE Configuration Manager and find "SoCast" under "Licensed Features". If it's not available, contact your TRE customer service representative.
  5. Click the "Enable" check box.
  6. For the "Station ID", type in the Station ID you wrote down in step #4
  7. For the "Public Key", type in the Public Key you wrote down in step #4
  8. Save the configuration

Triton

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Triton"
  3. For "Mount Name", provide the mount name (e.g. station call letters) as entered in Triton
    1. If you cannot find these credentials, please contact your Triton customer service representative
  4. Click Save

Wideorbit

  1. Go to Player > Radio Stream Settings > Edit Playlist 
  2. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Wideorbit"
  3. URL to the XML file containing the song playlist for this player. This XML file is setup in WideOrbit and updates upon every song being played, e.g. http://api.nowplaying.abacast.net/prt/nowplaying/2/10/1173/nowplaying.xml

Custom API

Send song playlists directly to SoCast via a custom API integration. This requires programming knowledge. Contact us if you require assistance.

  2. Go to Settings > Player Settings > On Air Playlist ( http://admin.socastsrm.com/player/onAirPlaylistSync )
  3. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Custom API"
  4. Copy and paste the URL of the API end point and implement it in your automation software. 

The custom API URL will look like this:
  1. publicKey - (required)(string) Unique "Public Key" per radio station for authentication provided by SoCast. To be entered by the station into the TRE plugin configuration settings. The public key for this account is 3dd5ab0b4a92fab3.
  2. accountID - (required)(integer) Unique identification per radio station for authentication provided by SoCast. The ID for this account is 259.
  3. playerID - (integer) Unique identification per player stream (required for multi-tenant players only). The ID for this player is 53796.
  4. cutID - (string) Unique promo post identification provided by the radio station. Preferable, avoid special characters and spaces.
  5. category - (string) Type of content send to the Socast platform. Possible values are "COM", "MUS" and "PRO". Maximum length is 10 characters. Default is MUS.
  6. title - (string) Song name, title of event, title of ad.
  7. artist - (string) Artist name or empty/null if this is a non-music event.
  8. duration - (integer) Duration of this event in seconds.
  9. timestamp - (integer) The unix time stamp is a way to track time as a running total of seconds. This count starts at the Unix Epoch on January 1st, 1970 at UTC. Default is current.
  10. image - (string) banner ad image URL.
  11. link - (string) banner ad link URL.

Custom JSON

Use this option if your automation software provides a URL containing your playlist information in a JSON format. This requires knowledge of JSON programming. Contact us if you require assistance. 
  1. Log into http://admin.socastsrm.com
  2. Go to Settings > Player Settings > On Air Playlist ( http://admin.socastsrm.com/player/onAirPlaylistSync )
  3. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Custom JSON"
  4. Provide a Song Playlist JSON URL, e.g. https://jetapi.streamguys.com/aaaaa/scraper/bbbbb/metadata
  5. Provide the JSONPath to find the Artist Name, e.g. $.[0].artist
  6. Provide the JSONPath of the Song Title, e.g. $.[0].title
As an example, if your song playlist JSON looks like this:
{
"artist": "Staind",
"title": "It's Been A While",
"date": "Mon May 08 2023 10:29:18 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)",
"timestamp": 1683559758819
}
Then, this JSONPath code will get the artist name:
$.[0].artist
And this JSONPath code will get the song name:
$.[0].title
To test your JSONPath code, click here.

Custom XML

Use this option if your automation software provides a URL containing your playlist information in a XML format. This requires knowledge of JSON programming. Contact us if you require assistance. 
  1. Log into http://admin.socastsrm.com
  2. Go to Settings > Player Settings > On Air Playlist ( http://admin.socastsrm.com/player/onAirPlaylistSync )
  3. For the "Playlist Source" drop down, select "Custom XML"
  4. Provide a Song Playlist XML URL, e.g. https://jetapi.streamguys.com/aaaaa/scraper/bbbbb/metadata
  5. Provide the XPath to find the Artist Name, e.g. //Song[1]/Artist
  6. Provide the XPath of the Song Title, e.g. //Song[1]/Title
As an example, if your song playlist XML looks like this:
<Playlist>
      <Song>
            <Artist>Staind</Artist>
            <Title>It's Been a While</Title>
      </Song>
</Playlist>
Then, this XPath code will get the artist name:
//Song[1]/Artist
And this XPath code will get the song name:
//Song[1]/Title
To test your XPath code, click here.

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