Caveat: This is a very rough feature that I'm just simply testing out. I don't plan on deploying radio.blog as the platform for Tabulas; if anything I'm using this as a dry run to spur my own developments.

I haven't been this excitedly geeked out about a new feature in a long time. There were a bunch of problems as I set this thing up, but I think for the most part I got it working alright.

I have added the ability for people to run their own streaming Internet radio station from their Tabulas accounts. Basically you upload a bunch of music files from a webpage ... and your radio station automatically updates. Check mine out.

How does it work?

The problem with the current media file uploads is that each MP3 file is really too big to send through HTML forms. Most of the time it will time out which causes a lot of heartache. With the new method (Tabulas: Radio), you run your music files through a quick batch converter which lowers the quality of the MP3s so they can be easily uploaded to the web. My 10 megabyte MP3 (Aesop Rock - Daylight) became 2 megs ... which is ideal when sending through a page.

Continue below for instructions.

Let me get started!

Alright, here are the steps to trying this whole thing out...

1. First, download the converter files. Unzip it to a folder. Move all the MP3 files you want eventually add to your Tabulas account to the folder the file convert64 exists. Then double click convert64. It should popup the fake-DOS prompt and begin converting your MP3s. This may take some time.
2. Secondly, you need to allow Tabulas to accept the radio files. So go to http://my.tabulas.com/radio.php . It should tell you need to install Radio on your Tabulas account. Install ... and then you should see an upload file box.
3. Navigate to the folder where you unzipped the converter and converted your music. Navigate to the sounds folder, and you should see all your music files in *.rbs format. Go back to your browser, and select one of these *.rbs files and upload it.
4. Rinse, recycle, and repeat.
5. Whenever you upload a file, it will automatically update your Radio location (http://radio.tabulas.com/users/*USERID*) (Your userid can be located from your profile page at http://www.tabulas.com/~username/profile.html).
6. Share this link ... and everyone will be able to listen to whatever you put up there!

Obviously it's not a completely "easy" situation, but my own radio station took no longer than 10 minutes to set-up.

I've put up no file limits on this, so you paid/beta users can abuse this feature as much as you'd like. Right now there is no way to remove files from your list (I'll do this tomorrow), so don't ask ask about that ;)

If there is enough interest in seeing a better implementation of this on Tabulas, I will develop it.

But anyways, check out my radio station. It has a listing of all the songs I've been listening to on repeat the past few days.