Tune-In blocking foreign radio stations in the UK Master thread

  • 13 September 2020
  • 101 replies
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101 replies

A

As Sonos don’t seem to want to, lets try and consolidate the TuneIn UK problem into one master thread.

What we know: starting last Thursday, TuneIn in the UK started blocking all foreign radio stations. They did this because of a lawsuit they lost in November 2019.

Some have also claimed that Sonos Radio is also affected.

The known work-arounds are:

  • Add the direct streaming url of the station to the Sonos system (only available to PC and Mac users detailed here
  • Try a different radio station aggregator (eg radio.com)

 

Thanks so much for this. It was a massive frustration that suddenly our favourite station 1Live was blocked. Tunein were useless and clearly don’t care about their European and British customers. Sonos should know better. Thanks again. URL solution worked a treat and everyone happy!

Airgetlam

Because if they did, they’d be sued for enabling illegal play? 
 

Bruce
M

No that answer doesn’t make sense because some stations do post stream links

https://radioparadise.com/listen/stream-links

 

Airgetlam

Depends on each station’s lawyers, and risk assessment. It certainly varies widely from station to station, even within a specific geographic area. 

Bruce
L

Due to the legal problems of Tune In in the UK. I cant get Wreckingballradio.net. Its on live365 but I can't seem to find the link that works. 
This doesn't.    http://player.live365.com/a75201?l 

J

Ah, good point @controlav . Although presumably it does that with licensed UK stations? Must be an interaction of unlicensed and monetised.

1
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

It has been a few weeks. I popped back in hoping that maybe someone had come up with some innovative solutions! LIKE….

 

  • a list of all the tunein stations we lost and their URLs - I know there are site out there that list radio stations with a variety of success
  • a way of importing said radio stations in bulk!
  • a way of organising said radio stations within ‘My Radio Stations’ into folders
  • a way of adding station logo to added ‘My Radio Stations’
1
Userlevel 3
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Another thing, I asked earlier about use of a VPN to easily ‘recover’ the stations ‘lost’ to the UK. I fired up my Nord to point to the US and launched S1. The missing stations re-appear on TuneIn however the ones that have been removed from UK users still won’t play. :frowning2:

This isn’t a surprise to me. When I originally raised it I guessed it would need a hardware VPN at the router? Has nobody tried that - I don’t have one?

My guess is that I can fool the software but not the hardware and there must be something that talks between the two because using the VPN the controller software still shows my local stations as my region of the UK.

S

Thanks. Have tried the MyTuner Radio work around but the stations still seem to be blocked. Will try the URL route.

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Another thing, I asked earlier about use of a VPN to easily ‘recover’ the stations ‘lost’ to the UK. I fired up my Nord to point to the US and launched S1. The missing stations re-appear on TuneIn however the ones that have been removed from UK users still won’t play. :frowning2:

This isn’t a surprise to me. When I originally raised it I guessed it would need a hardware VPN at the router? Has nobody tried that - I don’t have one?

My guess is that I can fool the software but not the hardware and there must be something that talks between the two because using the VPN the controller software still shows my local stations as my region of the UK.

As you say the VPN would have to be at router level as Tunein streams to the actual speakers. Weather Sonos stamp the speakers with a location is anyones guess.

L
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Sibex .

last time i checked My tuner radio was working fine with worldwide connections . Does anybody know if Sonos are doing anything about this, or even look on it as a problem?

1
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Rather than mess around with VPNs, just locate the URLs for the stations you like to listen to and add them to My Radio Stations.

I get that, Ratty and I’ve done it on one station that is a favourite but I like to browse impatiently within a genre which is not so good if there’s only a couple of stations left now and they’re not playing what you like!

Hence the other part of my question - any way of grouping stations within ‘My Radio Stations’ so I am not scrolling a massive list all the time?

N
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Probably 90% of my Sonos listening is BBC radio, either live or as listen again to specific shows, through TuneIn. 

This week, the BBC show listen again links in Tunein haven’t been updated (ie they link to shows from 2+ weeks ago); today, TuneIn won’t connect to any BBC stations. 

[edit - looks like TuneIn won’t connect to *any* stations right now]. 

Any pointers on what this is, other than a return to TuneIn’s usual flaky BS after a few months of it blissfully working as it’s supposed to?

 

U

Sadly mytuner radio no longer supports the US stations i need. Its down to URL’s. Lets hope that works.

I

The US station that I enjoy listening to - Kost 103.5 - has stopped working this morning via the direct streaming URL.  It still works from a web browser using the same URL but the direct-via-TuneIn isn’t working.

 

Is there any other app/service that will stream from a URL?

 

(Streaming URL if anybody is interested is https://stream.revma.ihrhls.com/zc193 ) 

T

follow these instructions 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/260?language=en_US#:~:text=Select%20Manage%20and%20Add%20Radio,added%20station%20will%20be%20listed.

using the direct link you have posted

P
Userlevel 1
Badge

And with the tone-deafness we’re getting used to from the Sonos marketing department, they launch a new paid radio service that offers, amongst other things, access to tens of thousands of global radio stations.  As Sonos Radio depends on TuneIn, and TuneIn is now largely useless for U.K. users, this claim might be either negligent or fraudulent, but it is certainly infuriating.

As the new service is, I think, only available in the US and the U.K., I don’t buy the argument that it’s only one country that is the exception.

Come on, Sonos.  You can do better than this, and you’re making yourselves look foolish.  Your Sonos Radio is broken, at least for the U.K., and needs to be fixed before you start asking people to pay for the premium version.

J
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Yep, that’s just embarrassing. I get that the HD product add-on has nothing to do with the 60,000+ worldwide stations in the free version but to still advertise this on the UK version of the site 2 months after it stopped working is basically fraudulent.

U

When i add an URL and try to play it I get the message ‘The song is not encoded correctly.’ This is via Live365. Any ideas.

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

When i add an URL and try to play it I get the message ‘The song is not encoded correctly.’ This is via Live365. Any ideas.


Your URL is probably wrong. It needs to be the actual stream, not an HTML page, which is the usual mistake.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
U

Thanks but how do i get to the URL for Live365 - any ideas. What i used was the url i saw when playing the station on Live365 but that is obviously wrong.

I

follow these instructions 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/260?language=en_US#:~:text=Select%20Manage%20and%20Add%20Radio,added%20station%20will%20be%20listed.

using the direct link you have posted

 

Unfortunately the instructions use TuneIn to access the stream - this is what has stopped working this morning :( 

P

Came here to say the same thing -- if you can get hold of the stream link you can add the stations as above.

For example, SomaFM have added their links

https://somafm.com/listen/uktunein.html

Some of my fav stations don’t seem to have this link - get in touch with the station to see if they can help.

SomaFM were incredibly helpful as an example for me.

Hi, I tried the URL you kindly provided but I get a message informing  it’s not encoded properly 

U

Restricted URL. The streaming URL requires a login to access it or includes an expiring token in the URL. Some streaming hosts (ex. Live365, myradiostream, Listen2myradio) offer a premium service that is required in order to use their streams outside of their own platform.

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Thanks but how do i get to the URL for Live365 - any ideas. What i used was the url i saw when playing the station on Live365 but that is obviously wrong.


Do you mean “Live 365 Dev Radio”? I can’t play that from TuneIn but I am in the USA, so that might be an unrelated issue.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
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