Self-Hosted Internet Radio
Your music. Your schedule. Your sound.
Freo is a self-hosted internet radio platform. Build your library, shape the week, take the decks, and discover what connects with your listeners.
Freo 0.3.2 — fresh installation and reboot recovery tested and passed on Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64.
Free for up to three stations · Source available.
How to install → · Release notes ↗ · Explore the demo ↗
A station with your signature
The best stations have a point of view. Freo gives you the space to find yours—and the tools to bring it to life.
One connected workspace takes you from a carefully chosen library to a full week of programming, a hands-on DJ session, and a station website your listeners can make part of their day.
01 / Music & playlists
From the album you know by heart to tomorrow's discovery. Bring your music together, give it some order, and put it to work.
Browse artists, albums and songs. Prepare WAV, M4A, MP3 and FLAC files or whole folders for review before importing. Check detected metadata and artwork, group albums, edit shared details and assign playlists. Compilation albums keep each song’s performing artist.
Build a Straight playlist or let Random work through a fresh cycle. Add songs, albums, artists or categories; drag to reorder, then bring your playlist into the schedule.
Return to uploaded files and saved edits, retry individual failures, or correct metadata without uploading again. Files that never reached the server may need reselection. Explore the import workspace ↗
A more consistent sound. Background analysis measures BPM, loudness and true peak. Non-destructive playback gain helps match song levels while keeping your originals intact.
Inside the music workspace ↗
02 / Your station, in time
A carefully planned week. A repeatable daily format. One great playlist on repeat. Choose the way you want to program.
SAVE YOUR IDEAS. CHOOSE WHAT PLAYS.
Calendar saves completed edits automatically, including Undo and Redo. Unsaved edits remain recoverable if a connection fails. Shows, Blocks and Simple keep explicit Save controls; changing the active scheduling mode is always a deliberate action.
Reuse a saved Block in Calendar or Simple. Existing selections keep their saved version: editing a Block does not silently change what is already scheduled or playing.
How saving works ↗Place Shows, saved Blocks and music on dates and times. Repeat daily, weekly or monthly, with autosave and Undo/Redo. Adjust one occurrence or a whole series.
Compose a full 24-hour format. Assign weekdays, selected dates, or a pattern that rolls from day to day.
Choose a Show, saved Block, playlist, artist, album, category or song. Save your selection, then confirm when it should take over. A Block starts at the beginning and repeats its 24-hour format.
REUSABLE SHOWS
Build a Show from 15 minutes to 24 hours. Drag in sources, resize sections, combine artists and insert a song for a particular moment. Saved revisions keep future edits deliberate.
A DAILY FORMAT
Save a 24-hour Block and give every part of the day its own character. Assign it in Blocks mode, place it in Calendar or select it in Simple. Calendar placements retain their saved version until you choose Apply to future uses. A configured default playlist fills the gaps.
TIMED MOMENTS
Schedule an ID, announcement or commercial sequence once, every 15 minutes, hourly, daily, weekly or monthly in your station’s timezone. Choose individual audio, a playlist item, a whole playlist or an ordered sequence.
New Events wait for the current song to finish. Commercial sequences stay together, with no ordinary music between their items. You choose whether an Event may follow the current DJ song; live microphones remain protected.
Explore Events ↗Scroll across to explore
| Mode | Your starting point | Made for |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar | Day, Week, Month or Agenda | Shows, saved Blocks and music tied to dates, times and recurring series |
| Blocks | A reusable 24-hour composition | Weekday formats, selected dates and rolling daily patterns |
| Simple | One Show, saved Block or music source | Continuous playback with an explicit change when you're ready |
Shows are reusable compositions, not a fourth mode. Events work across all three. Scheduling follows station-local time; normal program boundaries let the current song finish.
03 / Take the air
Let the schedule run, take control of two decks, or bring your voice into the mix. The booth keeps your station's sound close at hand.
Load a song without interrupting Auto. Choose a fade from 0 to 10 seconds and Take Air. Pause, resume, repeat once or fade out. Return to your scheduled sound when your session is done.
Prepare a set. Keep it moving. Add and reorder songs in a persistent working Cue, drag entries onto either deck and save named sets to return to later. AUTO_CUE continues after songs finish and moves completed entries to the bottom, even with the browser closed. Your saved set keeps its order until you save it again.
Explore Cue ↗Cue playback is separate from private audition and station AUTO scheduling. AUTO_CUE follows song endings; it does not promise gapless mixing.
Keep an eye on the active program, current song and next selection. Monitor your stream and skip through a worker-controlled fade.
Test a browser microphone or USB mixer input off air. Set your gain, go live, then fade back to the interrupted feed.
YOUR STATION'S SIGNATURE
Fire an ID, sweeper or promo from your station audio. Eight hot carts and four station-ID slots let you play over with ducking, or take over and resume the interrupted audio afterward. One cart plays at a time; the cart wall stays with you in Auto, DJ and Live Mic.
04 / Your sound, in numbers
Go beyond a listener counter. Explore your audience, music, feedback, resources and broadcast reliability, across one channel or the whole installation.
Follow current, average and peak connections, listener-hours and approximate geography. Keep stream listeners separate from player-page visitors.
See confirmed song and artist plays, likes, dislikes and approval. Compare periods and take the data with you as CSV.
Track stream transfer, storage, mount availability, low audio levels and broadcast outcomes. Missing observations stay visible as gaps.
Analytics uses a local geographic database and locally served maps. Raw listener addresses and user agents are not stored in analytics.
Understand the numbers ↗YOUR STATION’S FRONT DOOR
Every installation includes a customizable public homepage, separate from its channel players. Give listeners somewhere to discover your sound and the people behind it.
Choose hero photography, station branding and a story. Automatic channel cards, published schedules and real library totals keep the page connected to your radio. Add announcements, social links and contact details you choose to publish, plus search and sharing metadata.
Set the Day/Night appearance independently of your workspace. Keep edits in a private draft, preview desktop and mobile layouts, then publish when you are ready. Restore any of six retained published versions.
Explore the website editor ↗
05 / On the other side of the speakers
Your station deserves a listening experience with as much personality as its music.
Give it a cover, artwork and your own colors. Share announcements and socials. Publish the schedule, make room for sponsors, and hear back through song votes and private comments.
A PLAYER FOR EVERY CHANNEL
Your homepage brings the channels together. Each channel’s player gives listeners its own identity, live listening controls, published schedule and ways to respond.
Keep stable listening links, choose your own colors and use a verified custom domain. Day/Night appearance and reduced-motion preferences make room for different ways to listen.
Explore the live demo players ↗THE WHOLE INSTALLATION
See observed broadcast and worker health, aggregate statistics and connection status in one Overview. Switch to a station’s controls while monitoring stays with you.
Check your running version and update status, then use Station Control’s MASTER BROADCAST switch to start or stop a station. Signed upgrades, encrypted backups and verified restoration remain administrator workflows with preparation and a maintenance window.
Explore station operations ↗The details make the station
From your first import to the commercial log. Explore the full feature set included in Freo 0.3.2, from everyday music preparation to running your station.
Import WAV, M4A, MP3 and FLAC files into your library.
AGC audio compression, multi-band compression and EQ give you control over your station’s sound.
Select an MP3 broadcast bitrate of 64, 96 or 128 kbps to suit your station and bandwidth.
Scroll across to explore
| Capability | What Freo includes | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| A connected catalog | Artist, album and song views; metadata, artwork, notes and review flags. | Search, filter and organize in one workspace. |
| Import & analysis | Review WAV, M4A, MP3 and FLAC files, batches and folders; detected metadata/artwork, album grouping, shared edits and compilation artists. Assign playlists during import. | Saved workspaces, duplicate detection, individual retries and corrections without uploading again. Uploaded files and saved edits resume; incomplete uploads may need reselection. |
| Audio analysis | BPM, waveform, loudness and true peak analysis with background processing. | Preparation stays out of the broadcast path; originals are preserved. |
| Music, STATION & COMMERCIALS | One audio library with classification-maintained collections. STATION holds IDs, promos, announcements, jingles, sweepers, liners and carts; COMMERCIALS holds advertising audio. | Station and commercial audio remains private to its station and excluded from ordinary music fallback. |
| Categories & tags | Multiple categories, colored tags, bulk assignment and membership Undo. | Each channel keeps its own organization. |
| Playlists | Straight order or non-repeating Random cycles; bulk additions, reordering and scheduling. | Category, artist and album additions copy the current songs. |
| Preview & level matching | Private audition, seeking, original/normalized listening and station loudness targets. | Playback gain preserves original audio files. |
Scroll across to explore
| Capability | What Freo includes | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar, Blocks & Simple | Three scheduling modes, reusable Shows and saved Blocks in Calendar and Simple. | Calendar autosaves with Undo/Redo and unsaved-edit recovery. Shows, Blocks and Simple use Save; activation remains explicit. |
| Saved versions | Calendar placements and Simple selections retain the saved Block version you chose. | Block edits do not silently replace existing uses. Apply to future uses updates Calendar placements deliberately. |
| Rotations & clocks | Explicit category rotations, repeating clock slots, previews and track/artist separation. | Advanced rotation rules are distinct from visual-scheduler shuffle cycles. |
| Timed events | Individual audio, one playlist item, a whole playlist or an ordered sequence. One-time, every 15 minutes, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly schedules use the station’s timezone. | New events wait for the current song to finish. INTERRUPT DJ defaults to No; Yes permits the event after the current audible DJ song. Live microphones remain protected. |
| Event sequences & stopsets | Ordered audio sequences, item failure policies and execution history. Commercial sequences keep their order without ordinary music between items. | STATION events default to one rotating item; COMMERCIALS events default to the entire selected playlist once. These sequences are separate from 24-hour Blocks. |
| Traffic planning | Advertisers, campaigns, creatives, dayparts, daily logs, makegoods and CSV as-run reports. | Advanced commercial planning; billing and invoicing are not included. |
Scroll across to explore
| Capability | What Freo includes | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Two-deck control | Load, Take Air, pause, resume, repeat once, clear and fade out. | Choose a 0–10 second transition; prepare while Auto plays. |
| Cue & saved sets | Add and reorder songs, drag entries onto either deck, keep a persistent working Cue and save named sets. | AUTO_CUE continues after songs finish, rotating completed entries to the bottom with the browser closed. Separate from private audition and station AUTO; no gapless guarantee. |
| Monitoring | Persistent Master Monitor, listening volume, private preview and program/monitor meters. | Program levels come from the worker; monitor levels measure browser audio. |
| Carts & station audio | Eight hot carts, four station-ID slots and classified station audio such as sweepers, promos and jingles. | Play over with ducking, or take over and resume. One cart at a time. |
| Live Mic | Off-air input testing, software gain, mute, fades and disconnect fallback. | Optional gateway, HTTPS and working WebRTC connectivity; browser mic or OS-recognized stereo USB input. |
Scroll across to explore
| Capability | What Freo includes | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Audience & geography | Current, average and peak connections, listener-hours, approximate map and period comparisons. | Connections are sampled; they do not identify unique people. |
| Music & engagement | Confirmed song/artist plays, likes, dislikes, approval and moderated private comments. | Queue entries and private previews do not count as plays. |
| Resources & reliability | Stream transfer, storage, mount availability, low program levels and broadcast outcomes. | Coverage gaps remain visible. Stream bytes exclude website/proxy overhead. |
| Branded listening | Covers, artwork, palettes, announcements, socials, sponsor slots and mobile controls. | Day/Night and reduced-motion preferences. |
| Built-in station website | Installation-wide homepage with hero photography, branding/story, automatic channel cards, published schedules, real library totals, announcements, social/contact details and search/sharing metadata. | Independent Day/Night appearance, private drafts, desktop/mobile previews, publication and restoration from six retained published versions. Separate from channel players. |
| Public schedules | Published Day, Week and Month listings, automatic schedules and custom overrides. | Listener-facing listings are separate from engine control. |
| Reports you can use | Overall or per-channel statistics, timezone-aware dates, tables and CSV export. | Six views: Overview, Audience, Music, Engagement, Resources, Reliability. |
Scroll across to explore
| Capability | What Freo includes | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple channels | Separate station engines and streams; shared artists, albums and songs without duplicated audio. | Configured station limits apply. Current admins manage all stations. |
| Identity & domains | Station logos, descriptions, stable URL aliases, verified custom domains and optional operator-entered city-level coordinates. | Contacts stay private unless published; operators configure DNS and HTTPS. Coordinates describe the station, not listener locations. |
| Overview & broadcast control | An all-station Overview with observed broadcast/worker health, aggregate statistics and connection status. MASTER BROADCAST starts or stops a station. | Monitor audio across workspace navigation. Observed status is separate from the requested switch position; missing observations remain unknown. |
| Version awareness | See the running version and Current, Update Available, Ahead or Unknown status. | Version information helps administrators plan updates; it does not install them automatically. |
| Upgrades, backups & recovery | Administrator workflows for signed upgrades, encrypted backups and verified restoration. | Prepare and verify a matched recovery point, then schedule a maintenance window. Upgrades are not unattended, one-click or zero-downtime. |
| Public radio directories | Explicit Radio Browser submission and optional Internet-Radio.com advertising through Icecast YP. Both begin off/unlisted. | Independent of the Freo Live directory opt-in. Directory acceptance is not guaranteed; Radio Browser submissions do not resynchronize automatically. |
| History & accountability | Confirmed playback starts, admin audit records, health views and durable control intent. | Controls recheck the intended song before changing playback. |
| Copyright review | Permanent public Track IDs, optional ISRC, reporting form and private case management. | Review tools do not establish ownership or music licensing. |
| Installation integration | Automatic installation enrollment and aggregate reporting begin at startup. Owner accounts and account linking are optional; public-directory visibility is a separate opt-in. | Local listener analytics stay separate from aggregate installation reports. Reporting runs independently of playout, with cached entitlements for temporary API outages. |
Explore the traffic workflow, custom domains and copyright review in detail. Explore Events and station audio, public directories and the upgrade and recovery guide. For the tested installation and reboot scope, see the release acceptance record.
Your next great hour starts here
Your radio runs on your server. Community works without a Freo Live account. Create an account when you want to link your installation and manage its license.
Bring your server and your music. The setup guide walks through the requirements.
How to install Freo →Optionally create an owner account with your email and station name. Link your existing Freo installation using an activation code. Email verification is separate; Freo reports automatically from first startup.
Register your site ↗Start with the included allowance. Manage your installation and request an unlimited station licence when you need it.
How licensing works →Your station. Your server.
Freo connects a browser workspace to dedicated broadcast services. Your library, programming and confirmed history live in PostgreSQL; each managed station gets its own Liquidsoap process.
Dedicated ingest and statistics workers support the station. Optional WebRTC microphone audio joins the engine through a separate gateway. The web app records validated commands; the automation worker controls the private playout connection.
Scroll across to explore
| Layer | Technology | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | Python · Flask · Gunicorn | Browser management, APIs and authenticated control requests |
| Station data | PostgreSQL | Music, schedules, command intent and confirmed playback history |
| Audio & delivery | Liquidsoap · Icecast · Nginx | Station playback, transitions and public listener streams |
| Media preparation | FFmpeg · ffprobe | Validated imports, metadata and background audio analysis |
| Live microphone | WebRTC / Opus · aiortc | Optional browser microphone and USB audio input gateway |
| Operations | Ubuntu 24.04 · systemd | Separate services, workers, timers and health checks |
Make room for your next idea
A fresh Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 server. One install command. Start with your server’s IP—no DNS setup or certificate email needed. Our installer downloads the latest stable GitHub release and verifies its signature.
Freo 0.3.2 — fresh installation and reboot recovery tested and passed on Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64. See the confirmed acceptance scope and downloads. Already running Freo? Follow the upgrade and recovery guide.
A fresh Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 server, your music, and the services described in the installation guide. Plan for storage and stream bandwidth. Production browser access needs HTTPS. Station Control’s MASTER BROADCAST switch starts and stops your station.
Yes. Freo manages separate station engines and stream mounts. Share artists, albums or songs across channels without copying the audio. Station limits depend on installation configuration and any configured entitlements; current admin accounts manage all stations.
Yes, with the optional Live Mic gateway installed and configured. Use a browser microphone or an OS-recognized stereo USB mixer input. HTTPS and working WebRTC connectivity are required; some networks need TURN.
The application, database and audio services run on your server. Local listener analytics stay on your installation. Installation enrollment and aggregate reporting begin automatically at startup. Creating an owner account and linking your installation are optional; public-directory visibility requires a separate opt-in. See the integration guide for details.
Yes. Every installation has a customizable homepage alongside its channel players. Prepare private drafts, preview desktop and mobile layouts, publish, or restore one of six retained published versions. See the website features.
No. AUTO_CUE runs through the working Cue after songs finish, even with the browser closed. It is separate from private preview and the station’s AUTO schedule; it does not promise gapless mixing.
The primary administrator uses the supported signed upgrade and recovery workflow. Prepare encrypted backups and verify restoration before a planned maintenance window. Do not run the fresh installer over an existing station. Read the procedure.
The source and documentation are available on GitHub. Consult the repository for current source-code reuse terms. For installation entitlements and unlimited station licensing, visit Freo Live licensing. These are separate from the rights needed to broadcast music.
