Blog from March - 2023

With over 23 million registered households using its products and services worldwide in 2022, Sonos is a popular multi-room audio system that allows users to listen to music and other audio content from a variety of sources. Many of them use the Sonos app as their primary way of listening to music and other audio content. Adding your stream to the Sonos app is a great way to make it easy for Sonos users to tune in to your station and reach a wider audience.

If you're still wondering if adding your station to the Sonos app is worth the effort, here are just a few of the benefits of adding your radio station to the Sonos app:

1. Increasing visibility: By making your station available on the Sonos app, you'll be reaching a new audience that may not have discovered your station otherwise.
2. Access to new revenue streams: Many of the streaming services that are integrated with the Sonos app, such as TuneIn offer advertising and sponsorship opportunities for radio stations.
3. Increased exposure: By being featured on the Sonos app, you'll be increasing your station's exposure and potentially attracting new listeners.

There exist multiple methods through which a radio station can gain exposure on the Sonos app, and the strategies for being featured on each of these platforms are as follows:

TuneIn: is a third-party radio streaming service that provides access to over 100,000 radio stations from around the world, as well as podcasts and live sports. TuneIn is integrated with the Sonos app, so any radio station that is listed on TuneIn can be easily accessed on the Sonos app. To add your radio station to TuneIn, follow these steps:

1. Go to TuneIn.com and click on "Sign Up" in the top-right corner of the page and follow the instructions to create an account.
2. Once you have created an account and your radio is located in the United States, go to https://tunein.com/on-air/. If not located in the United States Fill the TuneIn Station Interest Form.
3. On the next page, click on Get Started.
4. insert your billing information and click on the “Add Station” button.
5. Fill out the form with the required information, including your station name, location, stream URL, and other details.
6. Upload your station logo or artwork to help your station stand out in the directory.
7. Submit your station for approval.
8. TuneIn will review your submission, and if everything checks out, your station will be added to the directory within a few days.

Audacy: This is another popular streaming service available on the Sonos app. Audacy (formerly known as Entercom Communications) is a leading audio and entertainment company that owns and operates over 235 radio stations across the United States. By adding Audacy to the Sonos app, users can access these stations and enjoy a wider range of music, news, sports, and talk radio content. In addition to live radio, Audacy also offers podcasts and exclusive audio content, which further expands the listening options for Sonos users. By adding a radio station on Audacy, Sonos app listeners can discover new content and enjoy a more personalized radio experience. Please note: Audacy currently only accepts radio stations with an FCC Radio Broadcast Licence (no Internet Radio) and that have a stream encoded as an AAC format at 32-128Kbps (AAC, AAC+, HE-AAC v2). To add your station to the Audacy pool of radio stations, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Audacy Radio Station Submit page.
2. Review the Streaming Affiliate Terms and Conditions to ensure you fit the requirements.
3. Add your email address.
4. Accept the Terms of Service by checking the box.
5. Select if you have more than 10 stations.
6. Fill out the form with your contact information and the details about your radio station, including name, location, frequency, streaming provider, and format.
7. Upload your Radio Station logo.
8. Click “Submit”.
9. Once you submit your request, wait for Audacy to review and approve your submission.

MyTuner Radio: this is a popular streaming service that offers access to thousands of radio stations from around the world. As a radio station owner or operator, adding your station to MyTuner Radio can be a great way to expand your audience and reach new listeners. MyTuner Radio is a pre-installed catalog on the Sonos App. To add your station to MyTunerRadio, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Go to https://mytuner-radio.com/broadcasters/new-broadcaster/.
2. Create a MyTuner account with your personal information and your station access codes (if applicable).
3. Once logged into your account, click on “Stations”, then click on “New Station”.
4. Provide your station information, and a brief description of your station, including the type of music or programming you offer.
5. Upload your station's logo or image 512 X 512px, if available.
6. Provide a genre for your program.
7. Add your social media information if applicable.
8. Provide a stream URL.
9. Click the "Save" button to send your submission. After submitting your station, it may take some time for MyTunerRadio to review your application and add your station to their directory. If your station is accepted, you will receive an email notification with instructions on how to claim and manage your station's profile on MyTunerRadio.

Build your own catalog on Sonos: creating a catalog on the Sonos app can be a valuable tool for radio stations looking to engage with their audience, promote their content, and generate revenue. By curating a collection of music that aligns with their brand identity and appeals to their listeners, stations can provide a more personalized and engaging listening experience to help them stand out in a crowded market. For more details, contact us to get started on getting your own catalog on Sonos.

In today’s digital age, streaming audio and video content has become a vital aspect of any content creator. The rise of live events, on-demand videos, and podcasts over the past few years has created an overwhelming audience demand. StreamGuys' HLS solution is designed to deliver your content in a reliable and scalable manner, making it the perfect choice for broadcasters and content creators looking to improve their user experience with modern streaming technologies.

What is HLS?

HLS is a streaming protocol developed by Apple to allow audio or video content to be delivered over the internet in a segmented format. The content is broken up into smaller chunks (often 6-10 seconds long) and delivered over HTTP. This segmentation eliminates the need for each listener to have a consistent internet connection to the streaming server. It also means temporary congestion or network drops won’t impact the listener’s streaming experience. In addition, HLS supports Adaptive Bitrate playback, which allows media players to switch between bitrates/qualities to play the highest quality a user’s network conditions allow. If you temporarily have lower network speeds, the media player can seamlessly switch to a lower-quality stream, continuing playback at the lower quality.

Benefits of StreamGuys’ HLS:

Resiliency: with HLS, audio, and video content is delivered in smaller chunks, which means that if there is a brief change or drop in the network, the stream will continue to play without any disruption. This makes HLS a resilient solution for mobile streaming, where cellular networks or wifi can be unreliable. The segmented nature of HLS means users can also remain connected to the stream while switching cell towers or switching between WiFi and Cellular.

Metadata Accuracy: Older audio streaming protocols like Icecast send metadata out-of-band, which leads to a drift in timing between the audio and metadata. This means your song metadata isn’t exactly time aligned. Even worse, your ad insertion might happen a little early or late, leading to a rough transition to and from ad breaks. HLS has solved this with frame-accurate metadata, allowing for seamless transitions between song metadata or ad breaks. The metadata is included in the same data chunks as the audio, which means that the encoder can insert metadata at precisely the time an ad or song changes. This accurate metadata ensures that your content is delivered precisely as intended.

Ad-Insertion Support: Ad-insertion is critical for monetizing most content online. StreamGuys’ HLS solution offers a seamless ad insertion process, allowing for monetization and delivery of targeted ads to the audience. With HLS, ad-insertion can use ID3 metadata in the HLS chunks, or SCTE-35 triggers in the manifest files. SCTE-35 has traditionally been used in the video world, but StreamGuys is innovating to make SCTE-35 ad insertion available to audio broadcasters as well. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements and learn which technology is right for you.

AAC Support: StreamGuys’ HLS is a versatile solution for streaming audio and video content. AAC support in HLS enables high-quality audio streaming with a reduced bitrate. AAC codecs are more efficient than MP3 and have continued to improve over the last few years with xHE-AAC as the latest version. AAC codecs are the standard codecs used in HLS streams, and can be used in any device/browser that supports HLS. AAC provides 2x to 4x bandwidth savings over MP3 at the same sound quality. That means your users can remain connected with even less bandwidth, and you save on egress costs.

Content Protection Option: Our HLS solution is compatible with SGcontrol, a comprehensive content protection solution that enables content creators to securely deliver their media assets by encrypting media files, controlling access to content, and implementing restrictions against unauthorized use. SGcontrol is a powerful content protection solution that delivers your content with the highest level of protection and security, while also ensuring a high-quality streaming experience for your viewers.

How is StreamGuys’ HLS different?

StreamGuys’ HLS solution is based on a cloud-based infrastructure that can scale to meet the demands of any audience size. Typically, the workflow starts with the broadcaster encoding their audio or video content using an HLS-compatible encoder. While directly encoding HLS is a great option, StreamGuys also offers cloud-based transmuxing to create HLS from a different protocol. With transmuxing, the encoded content is delivered to StreamGuys’ cloud-based infrastructure, where it is segmented into HLS and delivered over HTTP to viewers’ devices.

StreamGuys’ HLS solution is an excellent choice for broadcasters looking to stream their content in a reliable and scalable way. With its support of frame-accurate metadata, high volume delivery, AAC format, mobile resiliency, and seamless ad insertion that offers these benefits, contact us to learn more!