How to create a free audio link over the Internet using an old PC, Ubuntu Linux and Icecast streaming software

Abstract

There are many different needs for sending an audible signal from one location to another. The technology that works in one use case may not work well in another. We can divide the applications into two main categories:

The applications in the first category are aimed for enabling conversations over long distances. Telephone calls and teleconferences are perfect examples. Within this category the sound quality is not the top priority, but low latency can be considered a must. Both closed and open source software solutions exist, the most well-known being Skype.

The applications in the second category are aimed for broadcasting an audio signal from a single source to a larger audience, which in general does not need to be able to communicate back to the source (i.e. the audience listens only). Within this category the sound quality is an important enabler for long listening periods, whereas long latency can be usually tolerated well. Both closed and open source software solutions exist, for example Shoutcast and Icecast.

The setup described in this article is intended to be a one-way pipe for high quality live audio signal. Therefore, these instructions are likely useful in use cases that fall to the second category.

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Spotify revolutionizes music listening

This is not a tutorial, but I just have to write about this…

I’m a music lover. I’ve been listening, playing and composing music since elementary school. For many years I’ve been sad about the situation of the music industry as a whole. Big companies seem to be ripping off both the artists and the consumers with their pricing, and at the same time they have refused to develop new business models, stubbornly sticking to CD sales and hoping for the Internet and MP3s to just go away. Moreover, sending an army of lawyers after their best customers and greatest music consumers is not only bad business, but plain stupid. Attempts to limit civil rights in a global scale and to collect money with tax like unjustified payments from everybody have made people angry, despite of their love to music and great artists. As a result, many of us have stopped buying music at all to boycott these methods. I’m one of them. I don’t want to support what they are doing to people and to our culture. Not with my money.

And you know what? It seems to be working. At least I like to belive that. We have lost many years in this fight without actually getting anywhere, but now I’ve been sensing that there is indeed a little bit of light in the end of the tunnel. Big content is beginning to realize that they need to switch from denial to adaptation, or face consequences of falling business models as CD sales continue to decline year after year. They have started to give up of ridiculous demands for draconian DRM solutions, and instead licensing their content to various start-ups who are creating new kinds of online stores. iTunes first proved that selling music online is viable, and montly payments for streaming music has been clearly accepted by the big record labels as a new business model.

So things are changing indeed. It is now possible to buy music online from many fiercly competing stores, like iTunes and Amazon – although these are still available in only a limited number of countries, which many seem to forget. However, so far the user experience of these shops, DRM, bad audio quality, and closed file formats have effectively prevented many from fully embracing legal online music and actually becoming a paying customer. This includes myself. And what is even more important, it has been easier to download good quality files from, say, The Pirate Bay – for free. For now, it should be obvious to everybody that free music is here to stay, either legally or illegally, like it or not.

So how do you compete with free? You create something that is better than the free alternative. And what that could possibly be? You have to add some real value to it. You have to do something on behalf of the users, serve them better. Something even a huge number of enthusiastic volunteers sharing all their files cannot or won’t do. You bring organization into a chaos. You make all the content available from one shop. And if you make it right, you’ve got a killer.

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