What music does the AI play, and where does it come from?

The AI plays only from your own music library, pulled from Navidrome over the Subsonic API. It does not generate music, replace your taste, or draw from an external catalogue.

Can listeners skip songs or control what plays next?

No. Listeners cannot skip; track-end is the only natural transition. The DJ (AI plus operator-curated personas) owns the pacing. Operators can skip via the admin API, but listeners cannot.

What LLM providers and text-to-speech options are supported?

The LLM provider is swappable at runtime among Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, or any OpenAI-compatible server. Five TTS engines are available: Piper and Kokoro in-process, plus optional Chatterbox (zero-shot voice cloning) and PocketTTS (6× real-time, EN/FR/DE/IT/ES/PT) in a sidecar, and cloud options from OpenAI or ElevenLabs.

How do listeners access the broadcast?

Listeners connect via a single shared Icecast stream using native iOS or Android apps (available on the App Store and Google Play), a web player, or a PWA. The broadcast simultaneously serves MP3 128 kbps and Ogg-Opus 96 kbps so the player can pick the best codec.

Large Language ModelsHacker NewsJun 25, 2026Jun 26, 2026, 01:00 JST

SUB/WAVE brings AI DJ to self-hosted radio

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3 Key Points

What happened
SUB/WAVE is a self-hosted radio platform that streams a single shared Icecast broadcast where an AI DJ picks tracks from your music library (via Navidrome), writes intros, and reads station idents, weather, and time checks. Listeners can make song requests in plain language; the platform supports swappable LLM providers (Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway) and five TTS engines, with native iOS and Android apps plus a web player.
Why it matters
Unlike playlists or on-demand streaming, SUB/WAVE creates a shared broadcast experience where everyone hears the same thing at the same time—radio rather than a jukebox. The operator (not the listener) controls pacing, and the AI pulls only from your own music library, so it curates based on your taste rather than external algorithms or generated content. For self-hosters and small broadcasters, this offers a way to automate station-like curation without external music licensing or cloud dependencies.
What to watch
Setup requires Docker, a Navidrome music server, and choice of LLM provider; the CLI installer or docker-compose method takes three configuration variables. The platform includes hourly MP3 archives, a visual "Library Observatory" map of tagged tracks by genre and energy, scheduled shows with up to 10 DJ personas, and pluggable skills (weather, news, traffic, custom). iOS and Android apps are available on their respective app stores.

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FAQ

What music does the AI play, and where does it come from?: The AI plays only from your own music library, pulled from Navidrome over the Subsonic API. It does not generate music, replace your taste, or draw from an external catalogue.
Can listeners skip songs or control what plays next?: No. Listeners cannot skip; track-end is the only natural transition. The DJ (AI plus operator-curated personas) owns the pacing. Operators can skip via the admin API, but listeners cannot.
What LLM providers and text-to-speech options are supported?: The LLM provider is swappable at runtime among Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, or any OpenAI-compatible server. Five TTS engines are available: Piper and Kokoro in-process, plus optional Chatterbox (zero-shot voice cloning) and PocketTTS (6× real-time, EN/FR/DE/IT/ES/PT) in a sidecar, and cloud options from OpenAI or ElevenLabs.
How do listeners access the broadcast?: Listeners connect via a single shared Icecast stream using native iOS or Android apps (available on the App Store and Google Play), a web player, or a PWA. The broadcast simultaneously serves MP3 128 kbps and Ogg-Opus 96 kbps so the player can pick the best codec.

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