You can read up on that in the following article that we published to explain the removal: About The Shoutcast Removal In VLC 1.1.

The Shoutcast Playlist Downloader is a portable software for Windows that might provide a solution to Windows users. It basically can be used to download Internet Radio playlist files. These playlist files can be executed in a compatible media player, like VLC, Winamp or AIMP2, to listen to the radio station.

shoutcast playlist downloader

It begins with a click on the Refresh button in the program interface to pull the genre listing from Shoutcast. Each genre can be checked individually to include it in the download.

Parameters like the minimum and maximum bitrate, max number of playlists per genre and compression format (AAC+ or MP3) can be specified next to the download directory.

The downloaded playlists can be saved in .pls or .plx format. The playlist files are automatically saved in genre directories to make identification easier.

The individual playlist files can be executed with a simple double-click. The playlists are ideal for transferal to XBMC, other gaming systems, mobile devices or media players on the computer. It is theoretically possible to download the playlist files manually from Shoutcast as well, which is probably the better solution for users who want more control on the selection process.

Shoutcast Playlist Downloader is available for download at the developer’s website over at Gazstone.

VLC Media Player did integrate that directory in the past offering users the ability to browse the stations directly from within the media player.

VLC Shoutcast Radio

The VLC team has received several injunctions over the past year from AOL asking them to either comply with the Shoutcast license or remove the Shoutcast module from VLC.

The Shoutcast license basically does not allow developers to subject Shoutcast Radio or Shoutcast Radio materials ” to all or part of the license obligations of any Publically Available Software”.

It also forces developers to promote the Shoutcast Radio Toolbar on the website and in the software itself.

The license incompatibility led to the removal of Shoutcast in VLC. It is still possible to play Shoutcast radio by loading playlist files from the official Shoutcast website though.

The developers have integrated the Open Source alternative IceCast in VLC 1.1.

vlc media player icecast

Videolan is currently in talks with AOL to find a solution that would allow them to integrate Shoutcast into VLC again.

The VLC developers hint at a possible solution. The extension framework of VLC is capable of providing Shoutcast-like support in the media player.

The program uses three independent windows to control the recordings. Windows 1 is the start window with all options and configuration settings. The user can define the download path in here, load radio stations, change the skin, configure the build in Live365 support, change the default stream title format or generate a command line command for this preset which can then be used in batch files, loaded during startup or used in the Windows Task Scheduler.

Windows 2 lists all radio stations that have been added by the developer and user. It is possible to remove, add or edit the radio stations in the list.

The third and final window is the music player and recorder. It uses basic controls to play, record, pause and stop the music. The MP3 VCR tries to identify the name of the song so that it can save each tune with a descriptive file name. This is however only possible if the radio stations are including the title in the stream.

One interesting option is the ability to record radio stations for a certain time. This, in combination with the option to launch the program from the command line make it possible to record specific radio stations regularly.

The MP3 VCR can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system including Windows 7.

With Streamtuner you will find plenty of music genres at your fingertips waiting for you to stream them to your speakers. But just how easy is Streamtune? You will be surprised just how easy. And Streamtuner isn’t limited to Shoutcast. You can stream:

• Live365
• Xiph.org
• basic.ch
• local streams

and many more.

Getting and installing

Streamtuner should be included in your distributions’ repositories so you can open up your Add/Remove Software utility, search for Streamtuner, select Streamtune, and apply the changes.

Once stream tuner is installed you will most likely find it located in your Audio sub menu of your main menu. If you can not locate it, you can start it by issuing the command streamtuner from the command line.

How it works

Figure 1

Streamtuner is quite easy to use. Once open (see Figure 1) you navigate through the various streams, select the stream you want, and click the Tune in button. You can even record a stream (defaulting to mp3 format) by clicking the Record button.

Options

Figure 2

Streamtuner will default to whatever application you have set up to play the particular stream. By default, my installation optioned XMMS to play streams. You can, however, configure Streamtuner to use any application that will play the stream.

To configure Streamtuner to use a different application click on the Preferences entry in the Edit menu which will open the Preferences window (see Figure 2). In this window you will see the various types of Actions for Streamtuner. To change a command to handle this action double click on the particular action, delete the command used, and replace the command. You do have to know the exact command to run the application you want to use. Make sure you do keep the ” %q” suffix on the command (otherwise the application will open but not to the particular stream.)

Figure 3

From this same Preferences window you can define how many streams for each server type are loaded by clicking on the particular server plugin. By default each will load 100 available streams. You can up that by simply clicking the checkbox by the “Load at most” entry and upping the amount (see Figure 3).

Search for music

You can search for a particular genre of music, artist, song, etc within Streamtuner. To do this either click the Find entry in the Edit menu or hit the Ctrl-f key combination. This will bring up a find dialog box. Enter your search string and click Find. The resuls will appear in the main window where you can then select from the various streams. In order to do another search you first have to click the Reload button and then run your next search.This search method will only search the server type you currently in. So if you want to go from searching Shoutcast to searching Live365 you will have to click on the server tab and then run your search.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a means to listen to streaming music on a Linux desktop, search no further than Streamtune. It’s easy to use, reliable, and offers quite a large amount of music genres and stations to stream.