Social Radio
Overview
Social Radio is Tuned Global's SDK that transforms a music streaming app into an interactive, fan-driven platform. It enables artists, superfans, and creators to host live shows, broadcast music, and interact with listeners in real time — directly inside your app.
Social Radio is delivered as a native SDK for Android and iOS, with a proven backend infrastructure built on Pacemaker's patented technology.
What Social Radio Does
Social Radio adds live social broadcasting capabilities to your music app:
- Creator-hosted shows — Users go live instantly or launch sessions from curated playlists with track ordering and queue management
- Live voice commentary — Hosts layer voice over or between tracks with automatic volume levelling
- Real-time interaction — Listeners comment and react with emojis, creating an instant feedback loop
- Audio and visual effects — Sound effects (airhorns, reverb, applause), animated reactions, and branded overlays
- Real-time tipping (coming soon) — Fans send tips and virtual gifts to hosts during broadcasts
- Emotional data capture — Every tip, comment, and emoji becomes a timestamped data point for recommendations and segmentation
Why It Matters
Traditional streaming services rely on skips, likes, and playlists to understand listener behaviour. Social Radio captures real-time emotional responses — not just what users listen to, but when they care, who they share with, and how they feel. This powers more precise recommendations, better segmentation, and more relevant campaigns.
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Deeper engagement | Interactive shows drive longer sessions and stronger loyalty |
| New revenue streams | Tipping, premium subscriptions, and targeted advertising within your ecosystem |
| Content differentiation | Original, creator-led content that users can't find on competing platforms |
| Discovery engine | Creator-hosted shows surface new music through community-led curation |
| Emotional intelligence | Real-time reaction data that goes beyond traditional listen/skip signals |
Architecture
Social Radio is an SDK-based integration, not a REST API. The SDK handles:
- Show creation and lifecycle management
- Audio mixing and voice overlay
- Real-time messaging (comments, reactions, tips)
- Branding and UI customisation
- Concurrent show scaling (thousands of simultaneous broadcasts)
The SDK integrates with your existing catalogue and can connect to Tuned Global's APIs for real-time music search and personalised discovery during live shows.
Catalogue and Licensing
Social Radio operates exclusively with your licensed music catalogue. Key licensing characteristics:
- Uses Pacemaker's patented Recipe format — a licensing-friendly technology that doesn't create derivative musical works
- Can be configured to adhere to statutory licenses and DMCA rules where required
- Song transitions via AutomixIQ are played live during playback and are never saved or recorded
- For additional catalogue needs, Tuned Global offers tailored licensing solutions
Searching the Catalogue for Shows
During live shows, hosts need to search and queue tracks from your catalogue in real time. The SDK can integrate with Tuned Global's Metadata API for this.
Relevant endpoints for in-show catalogue access:
| Endpoint | Method | Description |
|---|---|---|
/api/v2.4/search |
GET | Universal search — hosts find tracks by keyword |
/api/v2.4/search/songs?q={query} |
GET | Song-specific search |
/api/v2.4/search/artists?q={query} |
GET | Find artists to browse their catalogue |
/api/v2.4/artists/{id}/songs |
GET | Browse an artist's tracks |
/api/v2.4/playlists/{id}/tracks |
GET | Load a pre-built playlist into a show |
/api/v2.4/songs/{id} |
GET | Get full track metadata for display |
/api/v2.4/tags/artists?tag={tag} |
GET | Browse by genre/mood tags |
/api/v2.4/playlists/by-tags |
GET | Find playlists by tag for themed shows |
Requesting assets for display:
Track artwork, artist images, and album covers can be retrieved and resized on the fly using Tuned Global's image engine. See the Image Handling guide for full documentation.
Example — get a 300x300 album cover:
https://[thumbor-url]/unsafe/fit-in/300x300/filters:quality(70)/[image-path]
SDK Availability
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| Android | Available |
| iOS | Available |
The SDK handles the full social broadcasting stack. Integration with Tuned Global's streaming backend is optional — Social Radio can work with any music catalogue and streaming infrastructure.
Getting Started
- Contact Tuned Global to request SDK access and licensing details
- Receive the Android and/or iOS SDK packages
- Integrate the SDK into your existing music app
- Connect to Tuned Global's Metadata API for catalogue search during shows (optional)
- Configure branding, UI overlays, and show creation flows
- Test show creation, voice overlay, reactions, and queue management
- Launch to users
Swagger References
- Metadata API (v2.4) — Catalogue search, track metadata, playlists, tags
- Services API (v3) — Authentication, playback, play logging