How to Listen to SHOUTcast Radio Stations on Winamp

Listen to internet radio stations for live, real-time tunes

By
Mark Harris
Mark Harris
Writer
  • University of Wolverhampton
Mark Harris is a former writer for Lifewire who wrote about the digital music scene and streaming music services in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner.
lifewire's editorial guidelines
Updated on December 6, 2021

What to Know

  • Open Winamp. Go to the Media Library tab, select Online Services, and choose SHOUTcastRadio.
  • Choose a radio station from the SHOUTcast Radio progressive menus or search for a specific station.
  • To listen to a station, click Tune IN. Bookmark the stations you like so that you don't have to search for them again.

This article explains how to locate SHOUTcast Radio stations on Winamp by navigating the menus through thousands of radio stations to find the ones you like.

How to Set Up SHOUTcast Radio

As well as being a great software media player for audio and video files, Winamp excels at accessing thousands of internet radio stations. SHOUTcast Radio, which is built into Winamp, is a large directory of SHOUTcast servers that stream audio over the internet (Web radio).

Because SHOUTcast is built into Winamp, getting started is straightforward:

  1. Ensure that the Media Library tab is selected to display Winamp's options. In the left pane, click the triangle next to Online Services to open this category. Click the SHOUTcast Radio option to switch Winamp to radio mode—you should now see the SHOUTcast Radio Directory displayed on the main screen.

  2. To choose a radio station genre, click the drop-down menu on the right side of the screen and choose an option. Use the + symbol next to each one to expand the root genre to see more sub-categories. Alternatively, search for a station or genre using the text box on the left side of the main screen by typing a keyword in the text box and clicking the Search button.

  3. To listen to a SHOUTcast radio station, click the Tune IN button. To get more details about the broadcast, click the drop-down button underneath the Tune IN icon. To change stations, click the Tune IN button next to another station.

  4. When you find a radio station that you like, bookmark it so you don't have to go through the process of finding it again. To add the station to your bookmarks folder, click the small icon that appears at the end of the station name. Alternatively, click File > Play Bookmark > Add Current As Bookmark or use the shortcut CTRL+ALT+B.

  5. To check that your station has been added to the Bookmarks folder, click the Bookmarks option in the left pane. You should see all the stations you have added.

Considerations

Internet radio requires a reliable high-speed internet connection—dial-up or a congested public Wi-Fi connection will lead to skips, buffer pauses, and related irritations.

If you use a portable version of Winamp, ensure that your bookmark files travel with you so that you don't lose the stations you love when you switch devices.

Was this page helpful?