I wanted to test out and play around with Shoutcast with my friends but find it really stupid and most inconvienient to Pay just to try out hosting a server. It said in the readme that some cost money and some are free of charge. Does anyone know any?

The only free one that I know of is Live365. It's OK to play around with to learn, but they have their problems, not to mention an ad inserted at the beginning of the stream.

It is good to start off with a free service to play around and see if you like it. Live365 is the only free service available that I'm sure of. Once you feel you need to move on past the free services and all, check out http://www.wedgemusic.com/services.php for true and advanced SHOUTcast hosting.

HI WHY DONT YOU DOWNLOAD THE SERVER PROGAMS AND HOST YOURSELF THATS WHAT I DO.

BECAUSE NOT ALL OF US HAVE A T1, OR WE WANT MORE THAN 10 LISTENERS AT ONCE.

Like was mentioned before, Live365 is the only place to get a free server that I know of. Their service is OK to learn about shoutcasting, but I'm a firm beliver that "you get what you pay for", and Live365 is no exception to that rule.

Even if you're just doing this as a hobby, it can get pretty expensive, but then again so can building hot rods, flying model planes, etc...(all popular hobbies).

I wish there was a way that everyone who wanted to shoutcast could get a free reliable server, but that's not the way this world works (as you can tell by all of the dead dotcom's that failed this year by giving away something for free). You never know how long Live365 will be around.

I tried to present these facts and opinions in a civil manner and would appreciate anyone who disagrees with me to present their argument in a civil manner as well. I too was in your boat. That's just the way this world is.

Randy Langstraat

The only way to get a free, reliable server is to find a friend with an OC3 and bug him to let you use it.

That's a good idea, too. I'll have to look into that one.

Randy Langstraat

Haha, yeah me too.. ;)

I believe www.audiorealm.com has free servers as well. Be it with advertising (I think), but Live365 does too.
By the way, why does no one read the thread saying "need a server? check here!" before posting?

Download a wut and host my own?
 

tell me about this. Download a something and host my own?

Nullsoft has server-software as well, so you can host your own broadcast. You will need to have some spare bandwidth though (which means a cable-connection at least). You can easily configure everything to suit you needs if you read the docs. Good luck!