Icecast

Icecast is an open source streaming media server used to broadcast live audio (and other media) to listeners over the internet. It acts as a central mountpoint-based server that can accept source streams from encoders and relay them to many concurrent clients.

Key Features

• Live streaming server with mountpoints for multiple stations/streams
• Supports common streaming formats such as MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, and can carry AAC/Opus depending on your source setup
• Listener management features including basic authentication and access controls per mount
• Stream relaying and cascading to distribute load across multiple servers
• Built-in web status pages and stream metadata reporting
• Extensible architecture with optional modules (for example, authentication backends)

Use Cases

• Hosting an internet radio station with one or many channels
• Broadcasting live event audio (talks, DJ sets, community radio)
• Relaying streams to regional servers to reduce bandwidth and latency

Limitations and Considerations

• Primarily focused on live audio distribution; advanced on-demand media library features are out of scope
• Scaling to very large listener counts typically requires relays, careful tuning, and sufficient outbound bandwidth

Icecast is a mature choice for self-hosted audio streaming when you need a reliable server for live broadcasts, broad client compatibility, and a straightforward operational model. It fits well for internet radio, community streaming, and lightweight live audio infrastructure.