Software to stream music on demand

Hey,

I'm looking for some sort of software I can run on a WinXP machine that will let me stream music files on demand. I was using Shoutcast to stream with Winamp and remotely controlling Winamp, but there is this 30 second lag between changing songs due to the buffering.

I was also using the ml_www plugin. This lets me pick a song and stream it immediately, but the only problem is the plugin is no longer in development and the interface is somewhat limited.

So my question is does anyone have any recommendations of alternative things I can try?

Thanks,
- Eli

The only thing that springs to mind immediately is VLC, which I know supports a slew of streaming functions. Whether it can do on-demand streaming of random files, though, I do not know.

I know CenterStage and BackStage have that functionality, but you'd need to be running 2 Macs, which probably isn't much help in your case.

I'd look up "media backend servers" or something to that effect on Google. You might find something to build an iTunes-esque database of your music files and then a companion frontend to stream them, or even better, a backend that works with standard protocols.

I use Windows Media Encoder: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...r/default.mspx

All you need to do is once installed click on wmenc, Broadcast a Live Event, Pull From The Encoder, Check a Suitable Bitrate and You're done!

With this tool you can even use a webcam if you wanted a real live effect. I hope this works for you.