AzuraCast Website: Add a Full Station Website to Your AzuraCast Station

AzuraCast runs your station: the stream, the automation, the playlists. What it does not have to be is your website. A station website is a different job: a home page with a player that keeps going while people browse, a schedule listeners can read, pages for each show and DJ, podcasts, events, a way to get in touch, all on your own domain and findable in search.

RadioSiteMaker does that job and leaves AzuraCast exactly as it is. You paste one stream URL; nothing is installed on your server and nothing in AzuraCast changes.

RadioSiteMaker is our product. This page describes how it connects to AzuraCast as the software does it today. We do not describe AzuraCast's own listener pages here; look at your installation to see what it offers and compare.

Which URL to paste

In Settings → Stream on your RadioSiteMaker dashboard:

1. Stream URL: the HTTPS address of one of your station's mounts. RadioSiteMaker recognises the AzuraCast shape https://your-server/listen/<station>/<mount>, for example https://radio.example.com/listen/my_station/radio.mp3. The <station> part is your station's short name, and the site uses it to ask AzuraCast about your station specifically.
2. Stream Type: choose AzuraCast. This is the setting that makes the site read AzuraCast's now-playing API. On Auto-detect, a /listen/ URL is treated like any Icecast stream (status page, then in-stream titles), which may or may not find your titles, does not give you AzuraCast's cover art and can pick up the wrong mount on a busy server.
3. Now Playing URL: leave empty. You do not need it with Stream Type set to AzuraCast.

HLS: if HLS is enabled for your station, you can paste the HLS playlist instead, of the form https://your-server/hls/<station>/live.m3u8. The site loads an HLS player for browsers that need one and goes straight to the AzuraCast API for titles, because HLS carries no in-stream metadata. Your server must send CORS headers on the playlist for browsers other than Safari.

HTTPS is required. The site only plays HTTPS streams; an http:// stream on an https:// site is mixed content and browsers block it when it cannot be upgraded. If your AzuraCast server is reached by IP address or plain HTTP, put it behind a domain name with a certificate first.

Check the URL before you save:

The tester labels a /listen/<station>/… address as AzuraCast. It runs on Auto-detect, so its now-playing result is what you would get without choosing the AzuraCast stream type.

How RadioSiteMaker reads AzuraCast now-playing

AzuraCast documents its now-playing data at these addresses: /api/nowplaying ; /api/nowplaying/{station_shortcode} ; /api/nowplaying_static/{station_shortcode}.json^[1]. With Stream Type set to AzuraCast (or with an HLS URL), RadioSiteMaker uses them like this:

1. Your station's own endpoint first. It asks /api/nowplaying/<station>, using the short name from your stream URL.
2. Then the full list, matched to you. If that does not answer, it asks /api/nowplaying, which lists every station on the server. It picks the entry whose short name matches yours, or failing that the entry whose listen URL or HLS URL matches the stream URL you pasted. Only if nothing matches does it take the first station in the list. This matters on shared servers and hosting providers, where one AzuraCast install carries many stations.
3. What it reads: the current song's title, artist and cover art, and the current listener count (on older AzuraCast versions that report a single number, that number).
4. When there is no track: if AzuraCast answers but has no song to report, the site falls back to the titles carried inside the stream itself.
5. When the server does not answer at all: the site does not hammer it. It backs off, retries later, and shows the problem on your RadioSiteMaker Settings page so you can see the station is unreachable.

On top of that, the show name in the player comes from your RadioSiteMaker schedule, not from AzuraCast: whichever show is in the current slot in your station's timezone. If a track has no cover in AzuraCast, the site looks one up in Apple's iTunes Search, unless you turn on Hide Song Art. Each track change is added to the site's Recently Played list.

Using the Now Playing URL instead. You can also paste an AzuraCast now-playing address into Now Playing URL. If you do, use your station's own endpoint (/api/nowplaying/<station>). The site reads that field before anything else, and if it is given the full list it takes the first station in it, which on a multi-station server may not be yours.

What you manage in AzuraCast, and what on the website

There is no sync between the AzuraCast schedule and the website schedule. You keep your playlists and AutoDJ timing in AzuraCast and enter your public programme on the website, where it also drives the show name shown in the player.

What the website looks like

The real RadioSiteMaker template, running for a demo station:

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to install anything on my AzuraCast server?

No. RadioSiteMaker reads your public stream URL and your station's public now-playing endpoint. Nothing is installed on the server, and the site never logs in to AzuraCast.

Which Stream Type should I pick for AzuraCast?

Choose AzuraCast. On Auto-detect a /listen/ URL is treated as a generic Icecast stream, so you lose AzuraCast's cover art and, on a server with several stations, can get the wrong mount. With an HLS .m3u8 URL the site uses the AzuraCast API either way.

The player shows another station's songs. Why?

That happens when the site is given the full now-playing list from a shared server and cannot tell which entry is yours. Set Stream Type to AzuraCast with a /listen/station/mount URL so the site asks for your station by name, and if you use the Now Playing URL field, point it at /api/nowplaying/your_station rather than /api/nowplaying.

Does the website schedule sync with AzuraCast playlists?

No. Playlists and AutoDJ timing stay in AzuraCast; the public schedule is entered on the website. The website schedule also supplies the show name the player displays.

My AzuraCast stream is http only. What do I do?

Give the server a domain name and an HTTPS certificate, then paste the https:// stream URL. Browsers block an http:// stream on an https:// website when it cannot be upgraded, so RadioSiteMaker only plays HTTPS streams.