Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I enable high bitrate streams, add my twitter account, etc.? Where are these ooTunes Settings!??

A: Settings are made using Apple's Gray "Settings" icon on the iPhone or iPod Touch. See this: Settings for ooTunes Radio (bitrates, etc.) and/or see a helpful screenshot and more information on what each setting does.

Q: How do I login?

A: Username and Password are not needed to use the "radio only" mode of ooTunes Radio. Simply tap the "Radio Only" mode and you'll get a list of all the stations and can listen to them to your heart's content! To access your iTunes library, or many of the other features, you'll need to be running the ooTunes Server which comes with a username/password. If you just want to try that out without having a server, use login/password demo/demo to login to the demo server.

Q: Holy Buttonfest Batman! This thing has more buttons than a Universal Remote! What do they do?!?

A: ooTunes does indeed have a lot of stuff in it. It's kinda meant to be(come) a swiss army knife of audio playback on your iPhone. So, we created this neat tuturial using 1990's era internet technology, to show you how to get around the app, including descriptions of what everything does.

Q: I can't find a station?

A: Please let us know if you can't find a station you want. We will be happy to add them (often the same day you request it!) Let us know!

Q: This station is not working!?

A: Stations change their stream links sometimes very frequently. This can cause a stream that worked even yesterday, to stop working. Please let us know and we'll fix it ASAP (usually within 24 hours)

Q: Why does this stream keep buffering?

A: Bandwidth is the most likely cause. Some streams simply require more bandwidth than the connection you're using (especially over EDGE or weak 3G/Wifi Signals). Also, the stream's bitrate as shown in ooTunes Radio is not always perfectly accurate (and can vary depending on the stream format, stereo vs. mono, sampling frequency, etc.) If you know that the stream you want has a lower bitrate stream, try that, or let us know if we don't have it listed, or if you are on a very fast connection and it still buffers (it's possible we can figure out why and fix it).
Finally, when connecting through the ooTunes Server high bitrate streams can be transcoded to lower bitrates on the fly to make them play without constantly rebuffering.

Q: Why does the radio/music stop playing after 30 minutes of having the screen locked (if your ipod/iphone is not plugged into a power source)?

A: This is a limitation of all 3rd party applications on the iPhone. Apple automatically turns off the network after 30 minutes of being locked, regardless of it the current application is using it. For now you can turn off the "automatic sleep" feature for ooTunes Radio in the ooTunes preferences in apple's "Settings" app. Hopefully in the future, Apple will change this, but they probably do it to conserve the battery. This only occurs if it is not plugged into a power source. We may be able to buffer more than the current song for playback without the network. However, that's not possible for a live stream.

Q: I really like the 'Play in Background' option. Does that work for radio streams?

A: Yes and no, currently, it will work with any stream from the "All Streams" list, if you're logged in to an ooTunes Server. It will however never work unless you have ooTunes server (since those streams just won't play in safari unless ooTunes server converts them).

Q: How does the 'Find Similar' work? I was plaing "Cars" by "Gary Numan" and it brought back "All You Need Is Love" by "the Beatles" as being similar!

A: Based on Last.fm's scrobbling/algorithms. It's not perfect, unfortunately.

Q: How does it know my login? Are the usernames unique across all people's setups?

A: Currently ooTunes on iPhone will only allow one user account to be able to login. This is the "master" account created when signing up.

Q: 'Radio Only' doesn't connect to my service then? No login required?

A: no login, it connects to the ooTunes master list and streams directly (no need to login or transcode)

Q: Why isn't station ____ available?

A: Currently, if it's available in the demo it should be available in ooTunes Radio. However, currently Real Audio streams are not playable with ooTunes Radio without being connected to an ooTunes Server to convert it to something that ooTunes can play.

Q: The location search is ______ (insert negative word)!

A: Yes, location search is very coarse and not all streams are geo-tagged yet. Please let us know about specific streams missing, with incorrect locations, or if we are missing certain locations.

Q: What's the deal with iTunes purchased tracks/movies?

A: For some reason the same media player from safari and itunes (which plays them fine) doesn't do so well in 3rd party app's. (I think it's because apple doesn't want them to) So, if it doesn't work, ooTunes offers to open it in the built in browser. If that doesn't work, open it in the background with Safari (which should be able to play it fine). For now, though, you lose the "continuity". We'll do what we can to improve this and hopefully, apple will fix the issue.

Q: Zooming doesn't work once you make it to a webpage from 'Buy'

A: True, it's just not implemented yet (it's also not meant to be a full browser but a quick way to find the lowest price on the song... However, if you hit the "Send" icon on the top right, it will send a link to the prices page to your email or twitter account so you can "remember" and check it out later in a better browser.

ooTunes Support