Installing PlayoutONE takes less than ten minutes. Getting it configured correctly — so it actually runs your station the way you want — takes a bit more thought. This guide walks you through both: the download and install, and then the first-launch setup steps that most beginner guides skip over.
By the time you finish this page, you will have PlayoutONE installed with all its companion applications, a clean audio folder structure on your hard drive, your first categories created, and a test track playing through the system. That is the foundation everything else builds on.
This guide is part of the Complete Guide to Building a 24/7 Internet Radio Station with PlayoutONE.
What You Need Before You Start
PlayoutONE runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11. Before downloading, confirm your system meets the recommended baseline:
- Processor: Intel i5 8th generation or later (Aiir’s officially stated minimum). Lower-spec CPUs may work, but Aiir does not test or support them.
- RAM: 16 GB minimum
- Storage: SSD strongly recommended — mechanical drives cause audio stutters under load
- Network: Wired Ethernet, not Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi introduces latency and dropout risk on a 24/7 stream
- OS: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
PlayoutONE will run on lower-spec hardware, but broadcasting demands stability. The minimum listed above is the minimum for a station you actually want to leave running overnight.
Where to Download PlayoutONE
Download the installer directly from the official Aiir website:
PlayoutONE Standard – Free Radio Automation Software – Aiir
Always download from the official source. Third-party sites hosting PlayoutONE installers may be outdated or modified. The official installer ensures you get the current version with all companion applications available.
The PlayoutONE Ecosystem: What You Are Installing
The PlayoutONE installer gives you access to five applications. Most beginners only install the main application and wonder later why their stream keeps dropping or their library never updates automatically. Install all five from the start.
PlayoutONE
The core automation engine. It manages your music library, builds your hourly schedules using clocks and rotation rules, and plays everything on air. This is the heart of your station.
LiveStream
Your streaming encoder. LiveStream receives the audio output from PlayoutONE, compresses it into MP3 or AAC+ format, and pushes it continuously to your streaming server. Without LiveStream, your station plays audio only on your local PC — nothing reaches the internet.
Monitor
The watchdog. Monitor runs in the background and watches PlayoutONE, LiveStream, AutoImport, and FileCopy. If any of them crash or close unexpectedly, Monitor restarts them automatically. On a 24/7 unattended station, Monitor is what keeps you on air when no one is watching.
AutoImport
Automatic library intake. AutoImport watches a designated folder on your hard drive and imports any new audio files it finds — placing them into the correct category with the correct metadata, ready for scheduling. This is how you add new music to a running station without interrupting the broadcast.
FileCopy
File synchronisation and delivery. FileCopy moves and copies files on a schedule — syncing audio from a production machine to your broadcast PC, delivering commercial spots before they are needed on air, or staging syndicated show files in the right location before they are scheduled to play.
Microsoft SQL Server Express
PlayoutONE uses Microsoft SQL Server Express as its database engine. The installer includes SQL Server Express and installs it automatically — you do not need to download or configure it separately. Your entire music library, scheduling data, and station configuration is stored in a SQL Server Express database on your PC. This is why PlayoutONE has a faster, more robust library system than simpler playout tools that use flat files or SQLite.
Running the Installer
Once downloaded, run the installer as Administrator (right-click → Run as administrator). Work through the setup wizard and make sure every companion application is selected when offered the choice — PlayoutONE, LiveStream, Monitor, AutoImport, and FileCopy.
The installer is straightforward. Accept the defaults for installation location unless you have a specific reason to change them. When installation finishes, do not launch PlayoutONE yet — you have one important step to do first.
Build Your Audio Folder Structure Before You Import Anything
This is the step most people skip, and it causes headaches later. Create your audio folder structure now, before the first import, so every file that enters your library goes exactly where it should.
Open File Explorer and create the following folders. You can use any drive you have space on — just keep it consistent:
C:RadioAudioMusic C:RadioAudioImaging C:RadioAudioCommercials C:RadioAudioShows C:RadioAudioSpecials C:RadioIncoming
What each folder is for:
- Music — All your music tracks. This will be your largest folder by far.
- Imaging — Station sweepers, stings, jingles, and station IDs. Short audio elements that give your station its branded sound.
- Commercials — Paid spots, sponsor reads, or promotional content. Keeping these separate from music makes scheduling and reporting much easier.
- Shows — Pre-recorded shows, voice-tracked hours, syndicated programmes, or podcast-style content.
- Specials — One-off content: holiday programming, special events, guest mixes, or anything that does not fit the regular categories.
- Incoming — The drop zone. This is where AutoImport watches for new files. Drop a new track here and it automatically enters your library. Do not store finished library files here — only files waiting to be processed.
If your audio library is already on an external drive or a NAS, adjust the paths accordingly. What matters is that the structure is logical, consistent, and that every category has a dedicated home.
First Launch: Configuring PlayoutONE
Now launch PlayoutONE. The first-launch setup asks you for some basic information. Take your time here.
Station Name
Enter your station name exactly as you want it to appear — in metadata, in the interface, and in any integrations you set up later. You can change this later, but setting it correctly now saves confusion.
System Time and Timezone
Verify that your PC’s system clock is accurate and set to the correct timezone. PlayoutONE schedules programming by the clock. If your system time is wrong, your schedule will be wrong — programmes will air at the wrong time, and dayparting rules will behave unexpectedly.
Configuring Audio Devices
This is one of the most important settings in PlayoutONE. Open Settings and navigate to the audio configuration section. You will set up two outputs:
- Monitor output — Your speakers or headphones. This is what you hear in the room when testing. Set this to your actual audio device.
- Broadcast output — This is where the audio goes to LiveStream. Once you have installed VB-Audio Virtual Cable (covered in the Virtual Audio Routing guide), you will set this to CABLE Input. For now, you can set it to your speakers as well and change it once the virtual cable is installed.
Types and Categories: Understanding the Difference
PlayoutONE uses two related but distinct concepts to organise your library and control how items play — and confusing them causes problems:
Categories
Categories are the containers that hold your audio files in PlayoutONE. When you import a music track, it goes into the Music category. A station sweeper goes into Imaging. A pre-recorded show goes into Shows. Categories are what your clocks and AutoDJ templates reference when scheduling content.
Types
Types are properties applied to every item in your library — they define how each item behaves during playback and scheduling. Each Type controls:
- Artist separation — how long before the same artist can play again
- Title separation — how long before the same song can repeat
- Volume level — playback volume as a percentage
- Colour coding — visual identification in the log
- Billboard output — whether this Type sends “Now Playing” metadata (see the Metadata guide)
You create and manage Types in Type Manager. Every audio item in your library must be assigned a Type. Start with basic Types that match your categories (Music Type, Imaging Type, Commercials Type) and refine them as your station grows.
Think of it this way: Categories determine where an item lives; Types determine how it behaves.
Creating Your Categories
Categories in PlayoutONE are the containers that organise your audio library and drive your scheduling logic. They connect directly to your clocks — when you build a clock that says “play a Music item, then an Imaging item,” PlayoutONE pulls from your Music category and your Imaging category respectively.
Create the following starter categories inside PlayoutONE, matching the folder names you created earlier:
- Music
- Imaging
- Commercials
- Shows
- Specials
As your station grows, you can create sub-categories — separating music by era, energy level, or genre — but these five give you everything you need to get started and to build your first automated clock.
Importing Your First Audio Files
With categories created, import a small batch of test tracks — ten to twenty songs is enough at this stage. Point PlayoutONE at your Music folder and import.
After importing, verify every track before you move on:
- Artist name — Correct spelling, correct format. Inconsistent artist names break artist separation rules. “The Beatles” and “Beatles, The” are two different artists to PlayoutONE’s rotation logic.
- Song title — What your listeners see in now-playing metadata and website widgets. Accuracy matters.
- Duration — Should be populated automatically from the file. If it is showing as zero, the file may be corrupted or in an unsupported format.
- Category — Confirm every track is in the correct category. A sweeper that lands in Music will play in your music rotation. A music track in Imaging will play wherever imaging is scheduled.
This audit takes a few minutes on a small test library. On a library of ten thousand tracks, fixing metadata problems after the fact takes days. Do it right now.
Quick Playback Test
Before building clocks or configuring streaming, do a basic sanity check:
- Select a track from your library
- Hit play
- Confirm audio comes through your monitor speakers
- Check that the track timer is counting, levels are showing, and the system responds normally
If audio plays cleanly, your installation is working correctly. If not, check your audio device selection in Settings before proceeding — almost all playback problems at this stage come from the wrong output device being selected.
What Comes Next
With PlayoutONE installed and configured, you are ready to set up the audio routing between PlayoutONE and LiveStream. This is the virtual cable layer that carries your broadcast audio internally to the streaming encoder — without it, nothing reaches the internet.