Shoutcast – A Service for Broadcasting Media over the Internet

April 19, 2023 / Web Hosting

If you want to get your content seen or heard on the internet today, there are endless ways to do it. You can post it on social media sites, like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, create and syndicate podcasts or even host the content on your own website. Since 1998, however, many people have chosen Shoutcast as a way to broadcast media to an online audience.  

What is Shoutcast?

Shoutcast is a service that enables businesses or individuals to stream recorded media or live shows over the internet. Using proprietary, cross-platform software, video and audio content can be broadcast online. This has made Shoutcast a popular service for internet radio stations. While Shoutcast offers an all-in-one solution, many of the services it offers can be obtained elsewhere.

How eukhost can help

One of the services available on Shoutcast is the basic plan. This is a free service that provides you with Shoutcast’s proprietary software, but which requires you to host your own radio station. If you prefer this option, then you can host your radio station with eukhost.

Just like Shoutcast, we offer cloud hosting on premium servers with free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. With hyper-converged data centres running the latest Intel Xeon-powered servers and ultrafast SSD drives, you’ll find the performance of your broadcasts second to none. What’s more, we guarantee 100% uptime, protected by SLA, ensuring your station can stay online all day, every day. And unlike Shoutcast, there is no limit on scalability should you find bigger audiences tuning in – so you’ll always have the bandwidth to cope with demand.

Service and support

While Shoutcast is a specialist in broadcasting, eukhost is a specialist in cloud hosting. This means if you host your radio station with us but use the Shoutcast basic plan to use its software for free, you get the best of both worlds.

As a managed cloud provider, this means we will look after your cloud server for you. Our engineers will take care of server admin, updating your operating system, installing security patches, monitoring your server and making sure it performs in tip-top condition.

Domain Name

We’ll also protect your server from cyberattacks that can take your station offline. Our partnership with Fortinet enables us to offer you the industry leading FortiGate firewall. This sophisticated, next-gen technology comes with a built-in Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and In-Flow Virus Protection so that any threats are detected and dealt with before they can reach your server.

And should you have any issue with your hosting or your online station, as an eukhost customer, you’ll have 24/7 access to our technical support team. So, regardless of the time of day, there will be an expert technician on hand to help you fix any issues there and then.

Backup and continuity

As a radio station, podcaster or video streamer, the chances are that you keep all your content in digital format and store this on your server. Losing that data, i.e., the music, podcasts, videos and pre-recorded material your shows rely on can have disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, things like human error, system failure or falling victim to a phishing email can result in all that valuable data being lost.

At eukhost, our cloud backup solutions can prevent such issues from causing long-term problems.   Our industry leading Veeam solution will back up and replicate your cloud server, at the frequency you require, so that if your data is lost, you can restore it quickly and without fuss. What’s more, your backups are encrypted to prevent them from being stolen and are integrity tested to ensure that if they are needed, they will work.

Conclusion

Shoutcast is a long-established and well-respected provider of internet broadcasting services. Its proprietary software makes it easier to run and manage internet radio broadcasts and video streaming programmes. However, for those that want to make use of its software for free, the basic plan that this comes with requires you to host your own station.

eukhost, the UK’s leading independent managed cloud hosting provider, has been offering first-class hosting for over 20 years. For broadcasters looking to self-host their stations, our cloud solutions provide everything you need: 100% uptime, server management, superlative performance, unlimited scalability, SSL certificates, state of the art cyber security, industry-leading backup solutions and round the clock technical support.  

For more information, visit our Managed Cloud Hosting page.

Author

  • Arjun Shinde

    I'm an experienced digital marketer with expertise in planning, SEO, SEM, and social media. I'm good at creating engaging content and optimising campaigns for a strong online presence.

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