Recommend an online music broacast system

[Enjay]

Several friends and I have an ongoing role playing game that we are currently running via Zoom. The DM (not me) uses background music to enhance the experience but the system could, perhaps, be better.

At present we are using Discord, which is better than the previous system but is does give some of use problems. Prior to that we were using CleanFeed but it didn't really suit our needs.

So, I was wondering if anyone was able to recommend a system that would allow our DM to broadcast his soundtrack, change it on the fly etc and have the various participants be able to listen to it while playing and be able to control how things sound at their end (volume mainly)?

[Rachael]

I would recommend Icecast. You can use programs like Mixxx and Winamp to connect to it to send the stream, and you would only need an Icecast server to send it to and broadcast from. Listeners can use their choice of a massive array of media players, like VLC, Winamp, XMPlay, etc.

Luckily, I already have such a setup in place that I already have for personal use; if you are interested I'll let you use my server as a friend, just DM me. If you prefer your own, setup is pretty simple, you just need a dedicated server that everyone can connect to.

[Enjay]

Thanks very much for the recommendation. I'll pass the information along. It certainly sounds like a good option. I know that my friend would be quite happy to set up a server if he thought this was a good route for us to go so I don't think we would need to take advantage of your kind offer, but it is very much appreciated.

I forgot to mention that he uses a GoXLR mixer (not sure of the model) but I don't suppose that would affect any recommendations.

[Rachael]

These links might be useful for you, then:

Icecast:
https://icecast.org/docs/icecast-2.2.0/basic-setup.html

Mixxx:
https://mixxx.org/download/
https://manual.mixxx.org/2.2/en/

As I said, any streaming media player will work, after the server is set up.

[Scripten]

I DM using Discord myself and I've found that the Rhythm bot (https://rythmbot.co/) works fairly well for background music during my games. Groovy (https://groovy.bot/) is practically identical. Both are incredibly easy to set up and each player can set their volume levels as they like by changing the bot's volume when it joins the Discord voice channel.

The only caveat (if you could call it that) is that you need your own server to add it, but Discord servers are pretty easy to set up, if you haven't got one already for your group.

[Enjay]

Thanks for the various recommendations. I've passed them along. When reading about how to set up icecast, I stumbled upon a program called subsonic. That also looks like it might be useful.

I know Mixxx - I've been using that for quite some time. It's overkill for what I generally need, but it is good fun to mess with. An excellent program.

We are currently using Discord, but I don't know what is being done in the background to make that possible. Perhaps those bots will improve things.

Ultimately, it will be down to my friend to decide what he goes with - he's the one who has to set things up and run them. I just have to log on to whatever he provides.