User guide Version 1.3.0 · What's new ›

Everything you can do on Mass Insanity Radio, step by step. Jump to a section:

  1. Listening
  2. Liking and disliking songs
  3. Becoming a member
  4. Logging in and your password
  5. My account
  6. For bands: getting your music on air
  7. For bands: uploading MP3s
  8. For DJs: your profile
  9. For DJs: going live
  10. For station admins
  11. Getting help

1. Listening

  • Play / pause: press the red play button in the player bar at the bottom of any page (or the big one on the front page). The radio keeps playing while you move between pages.
  • Volume: the slider at the right of the player bar (on phones, use your phone's volume buttons). The site remembers your setting.
  • Open in your player: on the front page, "Open in your player" gives you the stream for a desktop player such as VLC or foobar2000.
  • On Air (front page): the song playing now, how many people are listening, the last songs played, about the band on air, and the Featured artist.
  • Featured: the station's featured band. Artists: every band in the rotation; click one for its own page with releases, tracks and photos. History: everything played recently.
  • Live DJs: when a DJ goes live you're switched over to the show automatically, and back to the auto-DJ when it ends. You don't need to do anything.
  • Every page has its own address, so you can bookmark or share it (for example a band's page).

2. Liking and disliking songs

  • The thumbs up and thumbs down in the player bar are for the song playing right now. The numbers next to them are how many members liked or disliked it.
  • You need to be logged in to vote. Each member has one vote per song; click the other thumb to change it, or the same thumb again to take your vote back.
  • The thumbs are hidden during live DJ shows.
  • Votes show the station and the bands which songs listeners like.

3. Becoming a member

Membership is by invitation code (it's mainly for bands and DJs). Listening never needs an account.

  1. Press Log in in the menu. Fill in your e-mail address, the username you want and a password, then press Request Code and confirm. The station gets your request and e-mails you a code.
  2. When the code arrives, go back to Log in, fill in the same e-mail, username and password, press Enter Code and type the code.
  3. You'll get an e-mail with a confirmation link. Click it: the site opens a short form (first name, and optionally last name, country, state, birthday). Press Confirm.
  4. That's it: you're logged in. Bands can now add their music (see section 6).

Didn't get an e-mail? Check your spam folder, or use the Contact page.

4. Logging in and your password

  • Log in: press Log in, enter your e-mail address, username and password, then Member Log In. Once you're in, the button changes to Sign out and a bar of member links appears under the menu.
  • Forgot your password? Press the ? next to the username or password box, enter your e-mail address and username, and submit. If they match an account, a temporary password is e-mailed to you. Log in with it, then change it under My account.
  • Change your password: My account → the edit button on Account Details → fill in Old Password and New Password → Save.
  • After 10 log-in tries in 10 minutes the site makes you wait a few minutes; this protects accounts from password guessing.

5. My account

Press My account in the member bar. You'll see:

  • Account Details: your name, username, e-mail, birthday, gender, picture and what you're allowed to do (member, band owner, DJ, admin). Press the edit button at the right of the heading to change them; the picture is resized to 128 px.
  • DJ Details (DJs only): see section 8.
  • Band Details (band owners): your bands, releases and songs. See sections 6 and 7.

Birthday can be left blank, or typed as 01-31-1990 or 1/31/1990.

6. For bands: getting your music on air

  1. Add your band: My account → Band Details → the add button at the right of the heading. Enter the band name and bio, and a band picture if you like.
  2. Add a release: on your band, use the add-release button. Enter the album name, year, an optional "Buy now" web address, the track names in order, and the cover picture.
  3. Upload the songs: each track has a box; a red box with a dash means no file yet. Click it to upload the MP3 (see section 7).
  4. Extra photos and links: add up to 6 more band photos, and your social media links, from the buttons on your band.
  5. Approval: new bands, releases and songs wait for the station to approve them. Once approved they're added at the next nightly playlist update (it can take 24–72 hours).

The colour key (shown in "The Legend" on your account page): a blue heading means waiting for approval, red means marked for removal, no colour means approved; a ✓ on a song means its file is approved.

  • Edit anything with its edit button; remove a band, release or song file with its delete button. Removals are carried out at the nightly update; until then you can re-enable it.
  • Pictures can be GIF, JPG or PNG, under 10 MB; they're resized for the site.
  • By uploading you confirm you hold the copyright and allow the station to play and show it.

7. For bands: uploading MP3s

  • Format: MP3 only.
  • Quality: 128 to 192 kbps, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. (320 kbps is refused: it wastes listeners' data without sounding better on the stream.)
  • Size: under 10 MB. That's about 7 minutes at 192 kbps; a too-big file is caught before it uploads.
  • The site checks the real file, not just its name, and scans it for viruses.
  • The file is renamed and re-tagged with your band, album and song name automatically, so the stream always shows the right title.
  • Replace or remove a song: click its green box and choose Replace File or Remove File.

8. For DJs: your profile

DJ accounts are set up by the station; ask on the Contact page. Once you're a DJ:

  • My account shows a DJ Details card. Press its edit button to set your DJ name, bio, logo (PNG, JPG or GIF, resized to 256 px) and your weekly show times.
  • Show times are Arizona time. Give each show day a start and an end time; leave a day blank if you have no show that day.
  • Your name, logo, bio and times appear on the public Live DJs page, with "On today" on your show days and "On the air now" while you're live.

9. For DJs: going live

  1. Log in and press DJ check-in in the member bar.
  2. Press Check in & go live. Your encoder can only connect while you're checked in; a check-in lasts 12 hours, or until you press Check out.
  3. Start streaming from your encoder (BUTT, Mixxx or similar) with these settings:
    Serverradio.massinsanity.org
    Port8443
    SSL / TLSOn (required; plain connections are refused)
    Server typeIcecast
    Mount/AZMetal-Live
    Usersource
    Passwordyour username, a dash, then your site password (for example DJName-MyPassword)
    AudioMP3, 128–192 kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo
  4. Listeners are switched to your show automatically. The check-in page says "You're on the air" while you're connected.
  5. When you're done, stop your encoder (listeners go back to the auto-DJ) and press Check out.

Encoder says the login failed? Check you're checked in, that SSL/TLS is on, and the password is username-dash-password.

10. For station admins

  • Admins get extra links in the member bar: Icecast status (is the stream up, who's connected, the bitrate on air), User report, Tracks to approve and Pending users.
  • Approving music: in Tracks to approve, click a band, album or track to enable or disable it. A song plays only when its band, album and track are all enabled; it joins the rotation at the next nightly playlist update.
  • Featured artist: also in Tracks to approve; pick the one featured band, or take a band out of the random featured pick.
  • New members: code requests arrive by e-mail with a suggested code; reply to the person with it.

11. Getting help

Use the Contact page for anything: problems, questions, a band code or a DJ account. See What's new for recent changes.

Mass Insanity Radio
· Mass Insanity Radio