FAQ's

Whether you run a small community station or a professional broadcast, dead air and downtime cost you listeners. Monitor Your Streams watches your station around the clock, alerts you the moment something goes wrong, and lets you know when everything is back to normal — so you can focus on your show, not your server.
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What is Monitor Your Streams?

Monitor Your Streams is a service that watches your online radio stream around the clock. It checks whether your stream is reachable and whether it is actually playing audio. If something goes wrong, it sends you an alert straight away so you can fix it before your listeners notice.

Why do I need Monitor Your Streams?

What is dead air detection?

Dead air is when your stream is technically online and connecting, but there is no audio playing. This can happen if your encoder stops sending audio, your playout software crashes, or a scheduled show simply does not start. Dead air is just as damaging to your listeners as a stream going completely offline. Our silence detection listens to your stream and alerts you if it goes quiet.

What is the difference between a connectivity check and a silence check?

A connectivity check tests whether your stream is reachable at all — can we connect to it and is it responding? A silence check goes further and actually listens to the audio to check whether sound is being broadcast. Both types of check run automatically on a schedule depending on your plan.

What stream types do you support?

We support any HTTP or HTTPS audio stream, including Icecast and Shoutcast streams. When you set up your stream you can tell us whether it is a music station, a talk radio station, or a hybrid of both. This matters for silence detection because a talk show will naturally have moments of near-silence that a music station would not, so we adjust the sensitivity accordingly.

Will this work with my stream server or hosting?

If your stream has a public URL starting with http:// or https:// then yes. We do not support streams that require special authentication headers or streams hosted on private networks that are not accessible from the internet.

How quickly will I be alerted?

That depends on your plan. Free accounts check every 30 minutes, Basic every 10 minutes, and Pro every 2 minutes. The alert is sent as soon as a problem is confirmed.

What does the alert email look like?

It is a plain, clear email telling you which stream has a problem, what the problem is (down or silent), and the time it was detected. When your stream recovers, you get a second email confirming everything is back to normal.

Will I get bombarded with emails if my stream keeps going in and out?

No. If your stream triggers a lot of alerts in a short period we automatically pause the emails for three hours to prevent your inbox being flooded. We still keep monitoring and your dashboard will still show the current status. Alerts resume automatically when the pause period ends, and you get a single email letting you know they were paused.

What is a webhook?

A webhook is a way of connecting your stream alerts to other tools and services automatically. Instead of just sending an email, we can send a notification to a URL of your choosing — such as a Zapier workflow, a Make automation, a Slack bot, or your own server. Webhooks are available on the Pro plan only.

What plans are available?

We offer three plans. Free gives you one stream monitored every 30 minutes with one alert email and one day of history. Basic is £2.50 a month and gives you one stream monitored every 10 minutes, two alert emails, seven days of history, and metadata tracking. Pro is £5 a month and gives you two streams monitored every 2 minutes, four alert emails, 28 days of history, metadata tracking, and webhook notifications.

Is there a free trial?

There is no trial period as such, but the Free plan is genuinely free and never expires. You can use it for as long as you like. If you decide you need more frequent checks or more features, you can upgrade to Basic or Pro at any time from your dashboard.

How do I sign up?

Click the plan you want on the join page and fill in your details. Free accounts are created instantly. For Basic and Pro you will be taken through a secure payment form powered by Stripe. Once payment is confirmed your account is created automatically and you will receive a welcome email with a link to set your password.

Is my payment information secure?

Yes. We never see or store your card details. All payments are handled by Stripe, which is one of the most trusted payment processors in the world. Your card information goes directly to Stripe and never touches our servers.

Can I cancel at any time?

Yes. There are no contracts or minimum terms. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your dashboard and you will not be charged again. Your account will continue until the end of the period you have already paid for.

What happens if I cancel?

When you cancel your paid subscription your account automatically moves to the Free plan. Your stream continues to be monitored on the free schedule. You do not lose your account or your stream settings.

For Existing Clients

How do I log in?

Go to the login page and enter the email address you signed up with and your password. If it is your first time logging in, use the link in your welcome email to set your password first.

I have forgotten my password. What do I do?

On the login page click “Forgot your password?” and enter your email address. We will send you a link to reset your password. Check your spam folder if it does not arrive within a few minutes.

Where is my dashboard?

Once you are logged in you will be taken to your dashboard automatically. From there you can see all your streams, their current status, and when they were last checked.

What do the status badges mean?

OK means your stream is up and broadcasting audio normally. SILENT means your stream is connecting but we are not detecting any audio. DOWN means your stream is not reachable at all. If a stream has never been checked yet it will show No Data until the first check runs.

How do I add a stream?

On your dashboard, scroll down to the Add a Stream section and fill in the stream name, the stream URL, your alert email, and your timezone. Pro users will also see a field for a webhook URL. Click Add Stream and it will appear in your list within a few seconds.

What is the stream URL?

It is the direct URL to your audio stream, usually something like https://yourserver.com:8000/stream or similar. It is not your website address — it is the specific URL that a media player would use to tune in. Your stream hosting provider can tell you this if you are not sure.

What is the alert email for?

This is the email address that will receive alerts when your stream goes down or falls silent. It does not have to be the same as the email you signed up with. For example you might want alerts to go to a technical contact, a producer, or a shared team inbox. Basic accounts can add two alert emails and Pro accounts can add up to four.

Can I add multiple alert email addresses?

Yes, if you are on Basic or Pro. Basic allows two addresses and Pro allows up to four. You set these when you add a stream. At the moment you cannot edit them after the stream has been added — if you need to change your alert emails please delete the stream and add it again with the updated addresses, or contact us and we can update them for you.

How do I disable a stream without deleting it?

On your dashboard, click the pause icon next to the stream. This stops all checks and alerts for that stream without removing it. Click the play icon to re-enable it. This is useful if you are taking your stream offline for maintenance and do not want false alerts.

What is the history page?

The history page shows you a log of every check we have run on your stream, along with the result. You can see exactly when checks ran, whether the stream was up, down, or silent, and page through older results. How far back you can see depends on your plan — 1 day for Free, 7 days for Basic, and 28 days for Pro.

What is metadata tracking?

On Basic and Pro plans we can capture the stream name or now-playing information that your stream broadcasts in its headers. This is available as part of the check log. It is a useful reference if you want to see what was playing at the time of an incident.

What is a webhook and how do I set one up?

A webhook is a way of connecting your stream alerts to other tools automatically. When your stream goes down, goes silent, or recovers, we send a small data packet to a URL of your choosing. You could use this to post a message to Slack or Discord, trigger a Zapier or Make workflow, send a text message, or update a status board.

To set up a webhook, enter your webhook URL in the Webhook URL field when adding a stream. The URL needs to be a publicly accessible endpoint that accepts a POST request containing JSON data. The data we send includes the event type (stream_down, stream_silent, or stream_back_up), the stream name, the stream URL, the old and new status, and a timestamp.

Webhooks are available on the Pro plan only. If your plan changes to Basic or Free, your webhook URL is kept on file but webhooks will stop firing until you return to Pro.

I set up a webhook but it is not triggering. What should I check?

First make sure the URL you entered is correct and publicly accessible — it cannot be a local address or anything that requires login. Check that the service you are connecting to (Zapier, Make, your own server etc.) is set up to accept a POST request with a JSON body. If you are using Zapier or Make, make sure the trigger is active and not in draft mode. If you are still stuck, contact us and we can help.

How do I upgrade my plan?

From your dashboard, click the upgrade button for the plan you want. You will be taken through a secure Stripe payment form. Once payment is confirmed your plan is upgraded immediately and your streams will start being checked on the new schedule within the next check cycle.

What is Monitor Your Streams?

How do I manage or cancel my subscription?

On your dashboard click the Manage Subscription / Cancel button. This takes you to the Stripe billing portal where you can update your payment method, view your billing history, or cancel your subscription. Everything is handled securely by Stripe.

My stream shows as DOWN but I can hear it playing fine. What is happening?

This can occasionally happen if there is a brief network issue between our monitoring server and your stream at the exact moment of a check. On the Pro plan we run a second audio analysis check before raising an alert to reduce false positives. On Free and Basic, if you receive a down alert but your stream seems fine, it is worth checking your stream URL is correct and that your server is not blocking external connections. If it keeps happening, contact us.

My stream shows as SILENT but there is definitely audio playing. What is happening?

Silence detection works by analysing the audio level of your stream. If the audio is very quiet — for example during a very soft passage of music or a long pause — it can occasionally be below our threshold. You can help reduce this by making sure your stream’s audio level is healthy and not too low. If you are on Pro and using a talk format, make sure you selected Talk Radio as your stream type when you set it up, as this uses a more sensitive threshold suited to speech.

What is Monitor Your Streams?

I am not receiving alert emails. What should I check?

First check your spam or junk folder — our emails sometimes end up there. Add our sending address to your contacts to help with this. Make sure the alert email address on your stream is correct. If alerts were paused due to repeated failures, they will resume automatically after three hours. If you are still not receiving emails after all of that, contact us.

How do I contact support?

You can reach us through the website. We are a small team so we aim to respond within one business day.