Basic DJing in SL

So you'd like to become an SL DJ but aren't quite sure what's involved? Great! You've come to the right place.

There are a few things you need to DJ in Second Life.

1. A software to play your music with 
2. a stream to send your music from your computer to the world 
3. a place to pick your music up (SL Land or some other receiving software (like winamp or windows media player - something that can play music from a URL). 

As I said, the first thing you're going to need is some sort of music player software that enables you to stream out. The two main ones in SL are Winamp (its free but requires a plug in to stream and does not allow for "on the fly" voiceovers.) and SAM Broadcaster (not free but many still use this). 

First, I'll tell you how to set up using Winamp. Unfortunately, I'm not able to provide information for obtaining SAM Broadcaster, but I can help you set it up once you obtain it. That will be provided at a later date.

Setting up Winamp

To install the Winamp player go to the Winamp website and download the free player : http://www.winamp.com/media-player/all - Its the big yellow button that says "FREE DOWNLOAD". Download and install the Winamp player accepting all the defaults.

Once you download and install the Winamp player, you need to install an add-on that allows it to stream music out. To do this, we need the SHOUTcast DSP Plug-In for Winamp available here: http://www.shoutcast.com/broadcast-tools at the very bottom of the page.

Download and install the DSP plug in. Open Winamp and you should get a grey popup window that says "Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source". Just press alt and tab on your keyboard to go back to your browser window. Once there, we'll get a temporary stream so you can test out your skills :).

Set Up Your Test Stream
For the purposes of getting you set up and streaming, we're going to get you an instant test stream. These streams will only be heard by YOU in your home or network. They will, however, get you up and streaming so you have a better idea of what streaming and DJing in SL is like.

In SL you can purchase a stream, you can set up your own stream using SHOUTcast, or you can obtain a stream URL and login from another DJ or host. You can not use the following stream information for a live show in SL as the stream will only be heard by computers on your home network! They are simply for testing purposes so you can walk through setting up a DJ set with Winamp. 

Access http://listen2myradio.com/ and register for a free account. When prompted for a stream name, you can put whatever you'd like. You must enter a streaming password, administrator password and username. These should not be the same. Select the server set closest to you.

Once you register and receive your email confirmation, you will be taken to the Radio Streaming Free Account information page - http://listen2myradio.com/exec.php. From there, you will see the information you need to set up and stream your music.

Example:
IP: 72.55.149.666 PORT: 1234 Streaming password: mypass

Set up Winamp With Your Stream
Press alt and tab again to bring you back to your Winamp Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source window. Once there, select the "Output" tab. In the "Login" area, enter your IP, port and password. Leave the DJ/USER ID blank! Check the box for Shoutcast v1 mode.

Select the "Directory" Tab and enter a name for your stream. This can be anything, but it would be good to identify yourself "DJ Yourname!" or something :)

Click "Connect". You should see "[sent]" and a bunch of numbers that keep going. If not, it is not connecting properly and could be a firewall issue or password entered incorrectly. Double check your information and try again.

Now that you have your stream set up and running, you're broadcasting to the internet! Congrats! Now, simply add music to your queue by adding items to your Winamp library, or clicking the "Eject" button and opening your windows explorer. The music you want to broadcast needs to be residing on your computer or network. Add songs to your Winamp play queue. Whatever you play will be sent directly over your stream.

Pick Up The Stream to Listen!

This is the easy part. To listen to your music or to give the url to someone else so they can listen, put your IP and port together, separated by a colon and prefaced with http://

In the example listed above, this would be http://72.55.149.666:1234

You can enter that in many places, but to stream to SL areas, someone needs to add the URL to a radio selection box or to the land details. The people who own the land should be aware of how to do this. 

All that's left to do is press play! Its always good to test your stream. Press play in Winamp and then play where you are receiving the data (SL Viewer for example). There will be a "small" delay (of up to 30 seconds) from when the music plays on your machine until others can hear in-world.