It's pretty well known that there can be huge music licensing costs involved in running an Internet stream.
A while ago, Carl Blare talked about running a private internet stream, which was, essentially, an internet stream that no one had the URL for.
At first glance, that works, but it is possible to 'guess' the stream address. Port probes reveal which are being used, and if you had some knowledge about Artisan Radio, for example, you could probably determine the stream name and port being used for the stream.
I thought that there had to be a better way, and it turns out that there is, if you're running your own IceCast server.
Icecast supports listener authentication (I did not know that), which basically means that any users of a stream have to provide a user id and a password. I've tested it out, and it works for most browsers, such as Firefox and Vivaldi. I've also tested attempting to connect to a stream requiring authentication with several music players, including VLC and Winamp Lite (the old version, which still works like a champ, even with modern codecs such as Opus). The two I mentioned worked, others, such as Foobar2000, didn't seem to. I'm not sure why for the latter, but will keep on researching.
So if you want to stream for your own personal use, or for experimentation, this could be the ticket.
What's the difference exactly? Wasn't he running a private server as it was?
I mean if he had not registered a kdxradio domain to point to his computer server then it would have remained private. - right?? The address would have to be revealed and entered manually - Isn't this correct?
Seems maybe you could bypass the Internet altogether and broadcast on a private cellular channel - Part 15 has no restrictions on how it's used or on what content is transmitted, so what's to stop anyone from running a private Rapid Radio music channel?
He was worried about music licensing, or lack thereof.
His private steam would be for his use only. Theoretically, if anyone else listened, he would have been liable to pay any copyright fees for non public domain material.
I haven't decided yet whether I will play public domain material only, in which case I can stream. If I decide to play oldies, then I really can't, which is why I'm experimenting with listener authentication.