AzuraCast @azuracast@fosstodon.org

AzuraCast is a free and open-source self-hosted web radio station in a box! Our helpful installer tools and powerful web interface let you manage every aspect of your station directly from your browser. Learn more at https://www.azuracast.com/ or our GitHub https://github.com/azuracast/azuracast

The regular Ubuntu releases are supported for much shorter periods of time than the LTS releases. AzuraCast is meant to be installed on servers that stay online, often for years, so LTS releases are very well-suited for this scenario.

We frequently get asked to add support for Ubuntu 19.04 and 19.10. Our Docker installation *does* support those versions! Our Ansible installation (and our Docker images themselves) use LTS (long-term support) versions of Ubuntu for better stability and longer lifespan.

Reminder: our Ansible ("Traditional") installation is not officially supported in most cases. There are a lot of places it can cause errors, and these errors put a huge burden on our very small support team. Docker avoids many of these errors. If you can, please use Docker!

PHP 7.4 has released this week, and we're currently pushing out updates that will move both our Docker and Ansible users directly from 7.2 to 7.4.

As usual, for Docker users this will be a routine update with little likelihood of problems. This is why we recommend Docker!

The inline radio player has moved from a dropdown menu to inline controls in the header navigation.

It's not a major change, but we wanted to make sure it didn't surprise anyone (particularly those with screen readers).

AzuraCast is now at version 0.9.8, which includes the new playlist schedule improvements, the new playlist editor, and the under-the-hood update to Liquidsoap 1.4.0.

See the release notes at https://github.com/AzuraCast/AzuraCast/releases/tag/0.9.8

Update instructions are available at https://www.azuracast.com/install/#updating

We've created a new Discord community to help provide more ways for our station owners to interact and work with us for support.

Join our Discord at https://azuracast.com/discord

Patrons also get access to a special Supporters section and role! https://patreon.com/azuracast

Join us in supporting upstream software that helps make projects like ours a success:

@slimphp@twitter.com (https://opencollective.com/slimphp)
@BootstrapVue@twitter.com (https://opencollective.com/bootstrap-vue)
@doctrineproject@twitter.com (https://www.patreon.com/phpdoctrine)
@kalessil@twitter.com (https://www.patreon.com/kalessil) @OndrejMirtes@twitter.com (https://www.patreon.com/phpstan)

We also contribute upstream to two projects that have helped us deliver our web application to you: The @slimphp@twitter.com PHP Framework (https://opencollective.com/slimphp) and @BootstrapVue@twitter.com (https://opencollective.com/bootstrap-vue).

We are still not enabled for GitHub Sponsors, but you can donate to support us today via our Patreon at http://patreon.com/AzuraCast.

We are a part of a huge open-source ecosystem, and we strive to help raise the standards for how all FOSS developers are able to make a living.

Thanks to your support, we're able to support a number of upstream open-source projects, like:

@kalessil@twitter.com, PHP EA Inspections (https://www.patreon.com/kalessil)
@doctrineproject@twitter.com
(https://www.patreon.com/phpdoctrine)
@OndrejMirtes@twitter.com, creator of PhpStan and the Ubuntu PHP PPAs (https://www.patreon.com/phpstan)

We are upgrading our internal version of Liquidsoap to version 1.4.0, which includes several improvements for UTF-8 support and crossfading.

This update applies to both Docker and Ansible installations. For technical reasons, the update takes longer for Ansible installations.

AzuraCast's new playlist manager is built on the same foundation that our new media manager was built on. That means editing and reordering are inline with the main page, and changes are much faster with no full-page reloads.

We've got a BIG new feature to show you: we've revamped playlist scheduling!

- ANY playlist type (standard, per-x-songs, etc) can be scheduled!
- Playlists can have more than one scheduled time!
- You can provide a start and end *date* for schedules!

Plus a new manager page!

We have also set the default value for the "Web Radio Proxy" setting to be enabled for new installs. Several users taking advantage of CloudFlare or using SHOUTcast have had trouble using their stations with HTTPS and been unaware of the setting. It can easily be disabled.

Fixes released tonight include:
- Editing files will correctly persist the changes to the file's ID3 metadata again, preventing future overwrites.
- Files won't be copied to a temp directory for modifications if they were already local, which almost all station media is.

The sensation that was the MLP fandom inspired thousands of folks from all walks of life to share their energy and passion by creating things as diverse as art, music, videos, games and web sites. Our project is another result of that energy. We hope it makes your day brighter /)

The original Azura was named for the site's theme, a deep blue "azure"; that color and the hexagon motif still live on in AzuraCast today.

Though the project is very different today, many of us spent time in the MLP community and hope to carry on the show's spirit. #ThankYouMLP

Today, fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic say goodbye to the show. We don't talk about it much, but that's where we come from! AzuraCast is named for Azura, the mascot of our predecessor project (Ponyville Live). We carry the spirit on in the form of our own unicorn.

When we said "soon" in the previous tweet, we actually meant "3 hours later".

The new media manager's inline file editor now has a complimentary new album art page, showing you the current album art and letting you swap it out (or clear it entirely).