Amazon's Radio Skills Kit (RSK) is a free, no-code way to put a radio station on Alexa. Once your station is published, listeners say "Alexa, play [station name]" on an Echo or in the Alexa app. There is no skill to enable and no "open" or "ask" in the request, and the station works in multi-room groups, alarms and routines.
Only a station's owner can submit, from their own Amazon developer account. Amazon has no API for it, so CloudRadio can't submit for you. It prepares every value instead: open Directories in your station's left sidebar and expand Amazon Alexa in the Manual group. Each value has a copy button, and the row warns you about settings that would get the station refused or cut off.
Before you start
- An Amazon developer account. Sign in with the Amazon account you want to own the station.
- Your station's city, country and language in Profile & Branding. CloudRadio suggests your latitude and longitude from the city.
- A square logo, ideally 600 by 600 pixels or larger, uploaded in Profile & Branding. Amazon asks for a JPG or PNG. If your logo predates the full-size copy CloudRadio now keeps, the Directories page asks you to upload it again.
Amazon distributes RSK stations in 38 countries: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CR, DE, DK, EG, ES, FI, FR, GB, ID, IE, IT, KR, LU, MC, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PE, PH, PL, PT, SA, SE, SG, TR and US.
Add your station
- Open the Radio Skills Kit console and sign in.
- In the upper-right corner, select Add New Station.
- Fill in each step with the values below, then click Save & Next. Required fields have an asterisk.
- When the station shows Ready to Submit, click Submit at the bottom of the page, then Yes, Submit.
- Back on the CloudRadio Directories page, click I submitted in the Amazon Alexa row.
Step 1: station name
| Field | Value to use |
|---|---|
| Station Name | Your station name. Alexa reads a name with periods (C.A.P.S.) letter by letter; write it Caps to have it said as a word. |
| Alternative names | Optional. Up to five other ways listeners might say your name, per language, separated by commas. |
Step 2: frequency and location
| Field | Value to use |
|---|---|
| Call Sign | Your station name, since internet stations have no call sign. Amazon asks you not to leave it blank. |
| Frequency | 0.0, what Amazon asks web-only stations to enter. |
| Band | Leave empty. |
| City | Your city. |
| Country | Your two-letter country code, such as CA. |
| Latitude | Your latitude, such as 45.5017 for Montreal. |
| Longitude | Your longitude, with a minus sign for the western hemisphere, such as -73.5673. |
| Language | Your language code: en, fr, de, es, it, pt or ar. You can pick more than one. |
| Locales | Your language and country joined by an underscore, such as fr_CA. Amazon's list: ar_AE, ar_SA, en_AU (also New Zealand), en_CA, en_GB (also Ireland), en_US, es_US, es_ES, es_MX, fr_CA, fr_FR, de_DE (also Austria), it_IT, pt_BR, and ww for worldwide. |
| Allowed Countries | The countries Alexa may play your station in. The Directories page lists all 38, narrowed by your country rules under Settings > Listener protection. |
Step 3: genre and station art
| Field | Value to use |
|---|---|
| Genre | Up to three tags from Amazon's list. The Directories page suggests the ones that match your genres. |
| Station Art URL | Your logo URL from the Directories page. An https:// address is accepted. |
| Slogan | Optional. |
| Stream Domain | Your HLS stream URL from the Directories page, such as https://hls.cloudrad.io/abc123/stream.m3u8. The field is called Stream Domain but takes the full URL. |
| Custom Skill Deprecation, Custom Skill ID | Leave empty, unless you are moving off a paid Alexa skill (see below). |
Which stream URL to use
The Directories page gives the HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) URL for Stream Domain. Amazon accepts HLS, and HLS listeners don't count against the connection limits of your ICY (Icecast) stream.
Underneath, the page shows your ICY URL as Fallback stream. Use it instead if Amazon rejects the HLS URL, or if playback on an Echo stops after a few minutes. Edit the station in the console, paste the ICY URL into Stream Domain, and submit again.
Either way, Amazon refuses streams that filter listeners by user agent. If Block stream rippers is on under Settings > Listener protection, turn it off before you submit.
Review and publishing
The station shows In progress while Amazon checks it. Amazon publishes new and updated stations within 72 hours. Stations in Great Britain and Ireland are reviewed by hand and can take up to 3 weeks.
- Published: your station is live on Alexa. Click They approved it in the Amazon Alexa row.
- Review required: a value didn't pass. Hover View Errors in the console, edit the station, save, and submit again.
The console shows a station ID for each station. Paste it into Amazon station ID in the row, so you have it when you contact Amazon support. Station analytics appear in the console about 48 hours after publication.
Test your station
Once the console shows Published, say "Alexa, play [station name]" to an Echo or in the Alexa app. Listeners can also ask by alternative name or call sign.
While it plays, go to Statistics in the left sidebar and click Show live detail. The session shows Amazon Echo as the player. Several Echos in one home can show as a single HLS listener.
Move off a paid Alexa skill
If listeners reach your station today through a custom Alexa skill (the kind they enable and launch with "open" or "ask"), you can add it to RSK too. Listeners who already enabled the skill keep going through it until it is disabled.
- In Step 3, set Custom Skill Deprecation to Yes and enter the old skill's ID in Custom Skill ID.
- Ask whoever runs the skill to hide it in the Alexa Developer Console, so new listeners can't enable it. Don't delete it: existing listeners would get an error instead of your station.
- Allow at least 4 months for Amazon to disable the skill. Cancel the paid skill only after that.