We are very big Radio Paradise fans and monthly supporters in our household. It is basically all we hear everyday and all day long. I switch it on in the morning and switch it off when we go to bed. I have discovered so much good and strange music with the station and the best is very little to no talk. Just incredible and diverse music you won’t hear anywhere else in one mix.

And for quite a while i had the idea of using some old Raspberrys as headless streaming-interfaces for our various stereos. Even as some have bluetooth, i found it always a hassle to connect with my phone and when i leave the room the connection would stop. I could have used other possibilitys but found the solution with the Raspberry Pi the best. I just switch it on and it plays one stream. Easy and hasslefree once it is setup.

Step 1

Install a Raspberry Pi image onto an sd-card. Don’t use the desktop environment. The basic server/headless image is enough. Then connect via ssh and update the repository with

sudo apt-get update

Then upgrade the installation with

sudo apt-get upgrade

Step 2

Install the music player demon mpd and the music player client mpc with

sudo apt-get install mpd mpc

Step 3

Enable the audio-output of the raspberry. Open the config file with

sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf

Then search for something like that and remove the #

# audio_output {
#    type "alsa"
#    name "My ALSA Device"
#    device "hw:0,0" # optional
# }

It will should like this afterwards

audio_output {
   type "alsa"
   name "My ALSA Device"
   device "hw:0,0" # optional
}

Step 4

Create the radio stream as a playlist. Create the following file. You can change the name if you like:

sudo touch /var/lib/mpd/playlists/rp-playlist.m3u

Open the created file:

sudo nano /var/lib/mpd/playlists/rp-playlist.m3u

and add the following:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,Radio Paradise - Main Mix
http://stream.radioparadise.com/aac-128

Save the file and restart the mpd

sudo /etc/init.d/mpd restart
sudo mpc update

You can change the output volume with the following to lets say 15%

sudo mpc volume 15
sudo mpc update

If you rebbot the machine it will keep the set volume and will start playing the stream without any further interaction.

I use it as a headless radio stream interface with a conventional old school stereo. It is easy to switch off and on and has very low power consumption.

Enjoy.