If you are looking for a hosting provider, it is important to know what factors you should prioritise in your search. The end goal will be creating a station that is widely accessible to listeners. Internet radio streaming gives listeners so many options when it comes to different content and once you understand your target audience, you will be able to tailor the content so that you can grow your audience.

There has to be sufficient bandwidth

So that you can transfer audio data in real time to anybody listening in. You can look for options when it comes to hosting providers and go through their official website to find out the bandwidth and streaming capacity they have. You should also consider the expected traffic volume when determining the bandwidth for your station. The audio quality you are broadcasting at is also important. You will need more bandwidth for higher quality. There are also internet radio hosting providers that specialise in both audio and video streaming. And they will generally be able to handle different levels of demands as they have the necessary infrastructure for it. Accessibility is an important factor when choosing a hosting provider. This is what makes sure your station is accessible to listeners around the clock. To ensure they are able to listen to your station at any time of day, you need to select a hosting provider that can provide you with a guarantee of high uptime which is equal to or more to 99.9%.

To provide a guarantee for high uptime,

The hosting provider should have adequate backup systems and network infrastructure. Without the right measures to ensure high uptime, you will find that there are many technical issues that are interrupting your broadcasts. Check whether the hosting provider has multiple data centres and other methods in place to ensure uninterrupted streaming. A content delivery network or CDN is what ensures you are able to deliver audio streams to listeners located worldwide. This can be achieved by selecting a hosting provider that integrates with popular CDNs. Some are able to offer their own CDN services so that your audience has a better listening experience. This also increases reliability of your stream and your listeners will not be interrupted continuously with buffering.

There has to be a level of scalability offered by the hosting provider.

You may have just started a radio station and at the moment, you will not have a lot of listeners. But with time and refinement of content, your audience will grow which will increase traffic. And you need to make sure that you can expand seamlessly ensuring your audience has a good listening experience. To achieve this, the hosting provider should offer easy upgrades when it comes to processing power, storage and bandwidth. Consider the advanced streaming features that are offered by the hosting provider such as supporting multiple audio formats, scheduling playlists, effective management of playlists and integrating with popular streaming platforms.