How Do I Validate Shoutcast Stream Connections?

FSRadio

New member
Hello, appologies if this is a bit off topic.

I've been streaming a 24 hr (commercial free) music service for almost a year now.  I use a US service provider, who resells me a slot on their shoutcast server and covers my copyright license for US and Canada.  I maintain a separate music license for most other parts of the world.

Last Thursday, I noticed an abrupt spike in shoutcast listener connections; almost doubling my audience (and thereby bandwidth). The next day I received an email from the stream service provider informing me I now have more listeners than my current (entry level) arrangement allows and will be now billed at my new tier level. This will increase my cost of operation considerably.

On one hand I'm encouraged by new listeners; who linger for days at a time.  On the other hand, I'm a little suspicious when I see a few groups of 7 to 10 listeners, from various parts of the globe, who have connected at exactly the same time (give or take a few seconds).  Coincidence?  Not unless all these people were prompted by good reviews, or recommendations, to synchronize their mass connections.  Or maybe a new model of phone was just released with my stream included.  I'd be glad for that!

Since I don't yet have a promotional presence on social media to cause this, I can't stop wondering:  Is it technically possible to manipulate these connections and charge me more?

Many thanks for your thoughts
 
FSRadio said:
Is it technically possible to manipulate these connections and charge me more?
Technically it's possible, and it's actually quite easy to do. But I doubt that any hosting provider (at least real ones that exist for years and value their reputation) will ever do it just to make you pay more.

From our experience at radioboss.fm, there are cases when radio station goes under hacker attack. But usually numbers are much higher, e.g. they simulate thousands, or even tens of thousands simultaneous connections to make station go down. If you only see 7-10 additional listeners, I'd say, there's nothing to worry about. They are likely to be real listeners (however, it's strange that they are connecting at the same time).
 
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