I've been streaming on shoutcast for a couple of months now, and only in the last few days has the 'auto-tweet' function on the 'social streams' page actually started to work. (http://rmo.shoutcast.com/Settings/Ra...dioUId=xxxxxxx)
However, it seems to be spotty or at least, selective in which filters it will auto-tweet; and depending on the buffer, can take a few minutes before it sends out the tweet.
In other words, the song starts on Winamp, the shoutcast server broadcasts it and sends the artist/title date to shoutcast, and finally (maybe) the auto-tweet function kicks off the "Now Playing" tweets based on the filters I created. The problem is even if someone saw the tweet the moment it was posted, the track it is referring to may already be halfway done or already over.
So how about a plugin to do the auto-tweeting FROM winamp itself?
First off, if Winamp sent the tweet when it starts playing the song, then, depending on the buffer size, someone could then see the tweet, click the link and 'tune in' just before the song starts or soon after it started on the stream.
Also, the shoutcast.com filters allow for artist and/or song title triggers, but I don't think it can be set to tweet with every update... it would be nice to have it an auto-tweet for every track that has Artist and Song Title fields with some default text IN ADDITION to the special filters for certain Artist/Title updates that may have their own hashtags and text.
DSP Artwork tab:
One problem I've noticed when using the 'Send in-stream artwork' function on the 'Artwork' tab on the shoutcast source DSP, IF I use the additional 'Send artwork from the playing file (if available)' function, then my stream listeners hear an audible 'hiccup' at the beginning of each song. It is barely noticeable on music tracks, but on spoken word tracks, the gap can vaporize two words or an entire sentence.
So instead of going through the DSP, it would be nice if the separate auto-tweeting plugin on the Winamp side could also add the tracks' artwork to the tweet if it is available, otherwise, it could include stream's branding artwork.
There is a private, premium service advertised in these forums that does all of these things, but not only do I NOT want to pay $5 a month for them to do it, it seems like their servers would still have the lag on the 'Now Playing' updates as well as the 'hiccup' if I send them artwork to tweet.
TL,dr:
Basically, why can't we reverse-engineer the auto-tweet services for a player-side plugin?
I wouldn't expect all the functions they are offering (facebook,google, et.al.), but rather more specifically, these features:
Post customized Tweets based on Artist/Song Title info from from Winamp.
Add #Hashtags and other text to Tweets based on configurable artist/title filters
Add “Listen Now” links to each Tweet
So called "Flood protection" to avoid posting same song multiple times and/or too many tweets per hour (because Twitter will block a user that tweets more than x per hour).
Bonus:
Add artist/CD images (if available) to each Tweet...otherwise use a 'default' image for each.... this isn't required but would be cool. If this function were added, and it is getting data directly from Winamp instead of the server, then the stream wouldn't have that 'hiccup' gap at the beginning of tracks.
Thanks for reading!
Wow Machine Radio
However, it seems to be spotty or at least, selective in which filters it will auto-tweet; and depending on the buffer, can take a few minutes before it sends out the tweet.
In other words, the song starts on Winamp, the shoutcast server broadcasts it and sends the artist/title date to shoutcast, and finally (maybe) the auto-tweet function kicks off the "Now Playing" tweets based on the filters I created. The problem is even if someone saw the tweet the moment it was posted, the track it is referring to may already be halfway done or already over.
So how about a plugin to do the auto-tweeting FROM winamp itself?
First off, if Winamp sent the tweet when it starts playing the song, then, depending on the buffer size, someone could then see the tweet, click the link and 'tune in' just before the song starts or soon after it started on the stream.
Also, the shoutcast.com filters allow for artist and/or song title triggers, but I don't think it can be set to tweet with every update... it would be nice to have it an auto-tweet for every track that has Artist and Song Title fields with some default text IN ADDITION to the special filters for certain Artist/Title updates that may have their own hashtags and text.
DSP Artwork tab:
One problem I've noticed when using the 'Send in-stream artwork' function on the 'Artwork' tab on the shoutcast source DSP, IF I use the additional 'Send artwork from the playing file (if available)' function, then my stream listeners hear an audible 'hiccup' at the beginning of each song. It is barely noticeable on music tracks, but on spoken word tracks, the gap can vaporize two words or an entire sentence.
So instead of going through the DSP, it would be nice if the separate auto-tweeting plugin on the Winamp side could also add the tracks' artwork to the tweet if it is available, otherwise, it could include stream's branding artwork.
There is a private, premium service advertised in these forums that does all of these things, but not only do I NOT want to pay $5 a month for them to do it, it seems like their servers would still have the lag on the 'Now Playing' updates as well as the 'hiccup' if I send them artwork to tweet.
TL,dr:
Basically, why can't we reverse-engineer the auto-tweet services for a player-side plugin?
I wouldn't expect all the functions they are offering (facebook,google, et.al.), but rather more specifically, these features:
Post customized Tweets based on Artist/Song Title info from from Winamp.
Add #Hashtags and other text to Tweets based on configurable artist/title filters
Add “Listen Now” links to each Tweet
So called "Flood protection" to avoid posting same song multiple times and/or too many tweets per hour (because Twitter will block a user that tweets more than x per hour).
Bonus:
Add artist/CD images (if available) to each Tweet...otherwise use a 'default' image for each.... this isn't required but would be cool. If this function were added, and it is getting data directly from Winamp instead of the server, then the stream wouldn't have that 'hiccup' gap at the beginning of tracks.
Thanks for reading!
Wow Machine Radio
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