Your radio station should be broadcasting right now.
Not when you are at your computer. Not only during your live show hours. Right now, at this exact moment, playing curated music, firing your station IDs, and representing your brand to every listener who tunes in at any hour of any day.
AutoDJ is what makes that possible. And setting it up correctly is a one-time task that takes under two hours and keeps your station running professionally around the clock from that point forward.
This is the complete step-by-step AutoDJ setup guide for internet radio stations in 2026. It covers every configuration step from uploading your music to scheduling daypart playlists to testing your setup before going live. Whether you are setting up cloud AutoDJ through your hosting control panel or configuring desktop automation software, this guide walks you through every decision in plain language.
Before You Set Up AutoDJ: The Two Things That Must Be in Place First
AutoDJ setup is fast and straightforward when the foundation underneath it is solid. Two things must be in place before you begin.
A Hosting Plan That Includes AutoDJ
Cloud AutoDJ runs on your hosting provider’s server, not on your local computer. This means AutoDJ is only available as a feature if your hosting plan includes it.
Many hosting providers restrict AutoDJ to mid-tier and premium plans or charge it as a paid add-on. Before spending time on setup, confirm that your current hosting plan includes cloud AutoDJ as a standard feature. TTT Radio Network’s station automation is included in the Basic plan at $29.99 per month and above, meaning you do not pay extra for the automation layer on top of your hosting cost.
If your current plan does not include AutoDJ, upgrade before attempting setup. The internet radio hosting cost guide covers exactly what each TTT Radio Network plan tier includes so you can confirm your current plan or choose the right upgrade.
A Music Library Ready to Upload
Your AutoDJ broadcasts whatever music you have uploaded to your hosting account. Before setting up scheduling and configuration, prepare your music library for upload.
Your music files must be in MP3 or AAC format. Other audio formats including WAV, FLAC, and OGG are not compatible with most cloud AutoDJ systems because they are either too large for efficient streaming or not universally supported by listener players. Convert any non-MP3 or non-AAC files before uploading.
Your files need accurate ID3 tag metadata. Every track should have a correct title and artist name embedded in its file metadata. AutoDJ uses this information to display currently playing track details to your listeners and to prevent the same artist playing in close succession. Files with missing or incorrect metadata produce poor AutoDJ output because the system cannot apply artist separation rules without accurate artist information.
Use a free tool like Mp3tag (Windows) or Kid3 (Mac and Linux) to audit and correct your music library’s metadata before uploading. Select all files, view the tag information, and fix any tracks missing artist or title data. This step takes between 30 minutes and a few hours depending on library size but dramatically improves the quality of your automated programming output.
Aim for a minimum of 200 tracks for your first AutoDJ setup. A library of fewer than 200 tracks produces obvious repetition during extended automated broadcasting, with regular listeners hearing the same tracks multiple times within a few hours. Build toward 400 to 500 tracks as your target for non-repetitive 24-hour programming.
Step 1: Log Into Your TTT Radio Network Control Panel
Navigate to your TTT Radio Network account at tttradionetwork.com and log into your control panel using your account credentials.
Your control panel is the hub for every AutoDJ configuration task. From here you manage your music library, create and edit playlists, configure your broadcast schedule, set station ID intervals, and monitor your AutoDJ’s live status.
Familiarise yourself with the control panel layout before beginning setup. The main sections you will use for AutoDJ configuration are the File Manager for uploading music, the Playlist Manager for organising your tracks into broadcast playlists, the Scheduler for assigning playlists to time slots, and the AutoDJ Settings for your core automation configuration.
Step 2: Upload Your Music Library
Navigate to the File Manager section of your control panel. This is where all audio content for your AutoDJ lives, both your music tracks and your station ID files.
Click the Upload button. Select your prepared MP3 music files from your computer. You can select multiple files simultaneously for batch upload. TTT Radio Network’s Basic plan includes 25GB of disk space and the Premium and Exclusive plans include 50GB, accommodating between 3,000 and 6,000 tracks at typical 320kbps MP3 file sizes.
Upload your music in organised batches if you have a large library. Create folders within your File Manager for different categories: Main Rotation, Gospel Classics, New Releases, Station IDs, and any other organisational divisions that match how you want to structure your playlists.
Wait for all uploads to complete before moving to the next step. The upload speed depends on your internet connection and the file sizes involved. A library of 300 tracks at average 8MB per file (approximately 2.4GB total) typically uploads in 20 to 40 minutes on a standard home broadband connection.
After uploading, verify that your files appear correctly in the File Manager with their track titles and artist names visible. If tracks appear with generic file names rather than proper titles, your ID3 tag metadata is missing or incorrect. Return to your metadata editing tool, fix the affected files, and re-upload them.
Step 3: Upload Your Station ID Files
Station IDs are the short audio clips, typically 5 to 15 seconds, that announce your station name and brand between tracks during automated broadcasting. They maintain your presence and professionalism during every automated hour.
If you do not yet have station IDs recorded, create one before completing your AutoDJ setup. A basic station ID requires only your microphone and any free recording software:
Open your recording software, Audacity is free and works on all platforms. Record yourself speaking your station ID clearly. Something as simple as “You are listening to Gospel Fire Radio, broadcasting 24 hours a day” is sufficient to begin. Keep it under 15 seconds. Export as an MP3 file at the same bitrate as your music library.
For a more professional result, record your ID over a short piece of royalty-free background music at low volume beneath your voice. Free music from Pixabay or Free Music Archive works for this purpose. Mix your voice at a comfortable level above the music bed and export the combined audio as your station ID.
Upload your station ID files to a dedicated Station IDs folder in your File Manager. Create two or three variations with slightly different wording so your automated programming does not play the identical station ID repeatedly.
Step 4: Create Your Playlists
Navigate to the Playlist Manager in your control panel. Playlists are the organisational containers that your AutoDJ scheduler uses to determine what plays during each part of your broadcast day.
Create the following playlists as your starting structure:
Morning Playlist (6am to 10am): Add your highest-energy tracks to this playlist. Music that creates momentum, familiar songs that listeners know and love, tracks with a tempo and energy that serves someone starting their day. Add approximately 60 to 80 tracks to provide at least 3 to 4 hours of non-repeating content within the playlist itself.
Main Rotation Playlist (10am to 6pm and 8pm to 11pm): Your core programming. Add your full general rotation music library to this playlist. This is the longest running automated slot and benefits from the greatest library depth. Add all tracks not specifically assigned to other daypart playlists.
Evening Prime Playlist (6pm to 8pm): Your best material for your highest-traffic hours. Hand-select your 40 to 60 strongest tracks for this playlist. Think of it as your highlight reel that represents your station at its very best to the largest audience of your day.
Late Night Playlist (11pm to 6am): Slower, more atmospheric tracks suited to ambient listening. Music that works as a background for winding down, sleeping, or late-night focus work. Add 60 to 80 tracks covering your moodiest, most laid-back selections.
Station IDs Playlist: Add all of your station ID audio files to this dedicated playlist. This playlist is used differently from your music playlists. Rather than scheduling it to a time slot, you configure it to interleave between tracks in your other playlists at regular intervals.
To add tracks to each playlist, navigate to your playlist, click Add Tracks, and select tracks from your uploaded File Manager library. You can select multiple tracks simultaneously. After adding tracks, enable Shuffle within each playlist so your AutoDJ plays tracks in a randomised order rather than the same fixed sequence every broadcast day.
Step 5: Configure Your AutoDJ Settings
Navigate to the AutoDJ Settings section of your control panel. These settings control the core behaviour of your automation.
Crossfade Duration: Set your crossfade to 2 to 3 seconds. Crossfade creates a smooth overlap between the end of one track and the beginning of the next, eliminating the abrupt silence gap that makes automated programming sound robotic. A 2-second crossfade is standard for music radio. Increase to 3 seconds for genres where longer transitions feel more natural, such as ambient, jazz, or classical formats.
Station ID Interval: Set how frequently your Station IDs playlist inserts between tracks from your main playlists. A setting of every 4 to 6 tracks means a station ID plays approximately every 15 to 20 minutes during standard programming. This frequency maintains brand presence throughout automated hours without interrupting the listening flow too frequently.
Artist Separation: If your AutoDJ settings include artist separation configuration, set a minimum of 45 minutes between tracks from the same artist. This prevents two songs by the same artist playing within the same 45-minute window regardless of playlist shuffle order. Without this setting, shuffle occasionally clusters tracks from popular artists in your library.
Track Separation: Set a minimum of 4 hours before the same specific track can repeat. This prevents any individual track from playing more than once every 4 hours during continuous automated broadcasting, which is the minimum that regular long-session listeners need to avoid noticing repetition.
Volume Normalisation: Enable volume normalisation if your AutoDJ settings include this option. Normalisation adjusts each track’s output level to a consistent target, preventing loud tracks from blasting listeners and quiet tracks from being barely audible. This is particularly important when your library contains tracks from different recording eras and production styles that have different inherent volume levels.
Step 6: Schedule Your Playlists
Navigate to the Scheduler section of your control panel. This is where you assign each playlist to its designated time window throughout the broadcast week.
The scheduler typically shows a weekly grid with hours running vertically and days of the week running horizontally. Click on a time slot to assign a playlist to it.
Assign your playlists as follows:
Monday through Sunday, 6:00am to 10:00am: Morning Playlist
Monday through Sunday, 10:00am to 6:00pm: Main Rotation Playlist
Monday through Sunday, 6:00pm to 8:00pm: Evening Prime Playlist
Monday through Sunday, 8:00pm to 11:00pm: Main Rotation Playlist
Monday through Sunday, 11:00pm to 6:00am: Late Night Playlist
Review your completed schedule to confirm that every hour of every day of the week is assigned to a playlist with no uncovered gaps. An uncovered time slot produces silence during that period, which is exactly what AutoDJ is designed to prevent.
Save your schedule. Your AutoDJ now has a complete programming plan for the entire broadcast week.
Step 7: Activate Your AutoDJ
Return to the main AutoDJ Settings section and click the Activate or Enable button. Your station begins broadcasting your scheduled playlists from TTT Radio Network’s server infrastructure immediately.
The control panel’s live status indicator changes to show your AutoDJ is active. Your current listener count and currently playing track information update in real time.
Your station is now broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from TTT Radio Network’s servers. Your local computer can be off. Your internet connection can be down. Your station keeps playing for your listeners continuously from the hosting server.
Step 8: Test Your AutoDJ Before Promoting Your Station
Testing your AutoDJ before any promotion prevents listeners from encountering problems during their first experience with your station.
Open your station stream URL on a device different from your computer, your phone or tablet is ideal. Use a different internet connection than your home broadband if possible. Listen for a minimum of 10 minutes.
During your test, check the following:
Music plays continuously without gaps or silences beyond the 2 to 3 second crossfade you configured. Station IDs play at approximately the interval you set, every 4 to 6 tracks. Track metadata updates correctly in your player, showing the current track title and artist name as each new track begins. Audio quality sounds consistent across different tracks without jarring volume jumps between songs. No tracks from the same artist play within 45 minutes of each other.
If you encounter issues during testing, return to your control panel and check your settings. Common problems and their causes:
Silence gaps between tracks indicate your crossfade setting is not applied or your audio files have extended silence at their start or end points. In the second case, trim your audio files using Audacity to remove the silence before re-uploading.
Station IDs not playing indicate your Station IDs playlist is not correctly configured in your interval settings. Return to your AutoDJ settings and verify the station ID interval is set and pointing to your Station IDs playlist.
Metadata not updating indicates your stream is not carrying metadata correctly. Check your hosting control panel’s metadata settings and ensure metadata broadcast is enabled.
Repetitive artist clusters indicate your artist separation setting is not applied. Return to AutoDJ settings, verify artist separation is enabled and set to 45 minutes minimum.
Step 9: Configure the Handoff Between AutoDJ and Your Live Shows
Your AutoDJ and live broadcasting software work together through an automatic priority system. When you connect your live encoder, BUTT, SAM Broadcaster, Mixxx, or another broadcasting application, your server prioritises your live source over AutoDJ automatically. When you disconnect, AutoDJ resumes within seconds.
This means you do not need to disable AutoDJ before going live or restart it after your show. The system handles switching automatically. Your live shows interrupt and resume AutoDJ seamlessly.
There are two configuration options for the live-to-auto transition that affect listener experience:
Immediate switch: When your live encoder disconnects, AutoDJ starts the next scheduled track immediately. Listeners experience a near-instant transition from your live show to automated programming.
Jingle transition: Some hosting configurations allow a configured jingle or station ID to play automatically when switching from live to AutoDJ, providing a more intentional-sounding transition. If this option is available in your control panel, set your standard station ID as the transition audio.
Configure your live encoder connection in your broadcasting software using your hosting credentials from your TTT Radio Network control panel. If you are using BUTT, your server address, port, mount point, and source password from your control panel are all you need to configure the live connection. The best broadcasting software guide covers configuration steps for every major encoder if you need specific instructions for your chosen software.
Building on Your AutoDJ Foundation
A correctly configured AutoDJ is the starting point for everything that builds your station’s audience and commercial value.
Directory submissions to TuneIn Radio, Radio Garden, and RadioBrowser require a continuously broadcasting stream. Your AutoDJ provides that. The guide on how to get your radio station on TuneIn covers the submission process in full, but the prerequisite it requires is a live, stable stream at the time of review. Your AutoDJ delivers that prerequisite permanently.
Listener growth strategies that build audience through consistent programming availability, as covered in the how to get more radio listeners guide, all depend on your station being on when listeners arrive. Your AutoDJ ensures that regardless of what time discovery happens, your station is broadcasting.
Live stream recording through your TTT Radio Network account captures your live shows for your archive. Your AutoDJ covers the hours between those recorded sessions, keeping your station active and building continuous listener habits.
Sponsorship conversations require demonstrating that your station broadcasts professionally and consistently. A sponsor who tunes in at any hour to evaluate your station for an advertising partnership hears professional programming rather than silence. Your how to get sponsors for your radio station pitch is significantly more credible when backed by a station that demonstrably never goes offline.
For broadcasters who want more sophisticated rotation control beyond what cloud AutoDJ provides, the SAM Broadcaster Pro complete guide covers desktop automation software that adds intelligent music rotation, voice tracking, and event-level scheduling on top of your cloud AutoDJ foundation. Many professional stations use both: cloud AutoDJ as the always-on baseline and SAM Broadcaster for complex scheduled programming blocks.
Your Station Is Now Always On
AutoDJ setup is complete. Your station broadcasts around the clock from TTT Radio Network’s infrastructure. Listeners arrive at any hour and find professionally programmed music. Directories rank your station as consistently available. Your brand is present through station IDs every 15 to 20 minutes throughout every automated hour.
Every subsequent improvement to your station, better music library organization, additional daytime/nighttime playlists, more polished station IDs, additional live show hours, builds on this always-on foundation.
TTT Radio Network’s station automation is included in the Starter plan at $19.99 per month alongside 50 concurrent listeners, 192kbps audio, live stream recording, and unlimited DJs. Professional and Exclusive plans add branded apps, 320kbps audio, and dedicated support.
Visit tttradionetwork.com to get started or contact the team at info@tttradionetwork.com and 959-559-0060 with any AutoDJ configuration questions.
Your station is on. Keep it that way.