GaGa

GaGa is a tiny radio player for the Windows tray: a single small GaGa.exe that needs nothing but Windows, and a plain text file for your stations.

This project is the maintained continuation of Beluki/GaGa. Beluki, who wrote GaGa, passed away in 2016, and the original repository has not changed since its 2016.02.02 release. This project starts from that last commit and keeps GaGa working with today's internet radio. It is released under the same license as the original (see License).

GaGa here is not affiliated with or endorsed by anyone connected to the original project; credit for GaGa itself goes to Beluki.

Download the latest GaGa.exe

There is also a macOS version, a menu bar app in Swift by thekingziga. It uses the same Streams.ini format.

Issues and suggestions: https://github.com/Solomag/GaGa/issues

Changes from the original GaGa

• https:// stations play. Many stations moved to https, which the original could not open.

• Lossless FLAC streams (Ogg FLAC) play, with no gap at track changes.

• HLS stations (.m3u8, e.g. many Serbian and Russian stations) play too, with track titles, and show up in the station search.

• Current track title shown in three places:

  • on top of the menu (click to copy);
  • on the tray tooltip;
  • in a small notification when the track changes.

  It works for any Icecast/SHOUTcast station, http or https.

• Station search. Search stations... finds stations in the radio-browser.info directory (by name, genre or country). You can listen right away or add a station to your streams file in one click. The selected station shows what it is playing right now.

• A checkmark on the station you're listening to, and on the submenus that lead to it.

• Favorites. Add to favorites puts the current station into a [Favorites] submenu at the top of the menu (it's just a section of your streams file), even when it's already in another submenu. Remove from favorites takes it out again.

• Recording. Recording > Record this station saves the stream as it plays (MP3, AAC or FLAC, no re-encoding) into a Recordings folder next to GaGa.exe. AAC stations are saved as .m4a (same audio, opens in more players), or as raw .aac if you untick Save AAC stations as .m4a.

• Start with Windows (in Options), off by default.

• Recent stations: the last 15 you played, one click away.

• Track history: the last 100 tracks with time and station; copy one or search for it on the web.

• Sleep timer: stop playing after 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes, or any time you type (Custom...: 45, 1h30 or a clock time like 23:30).

• Reconnects by itself when a station drops the connection, and gives up quickly (with the reason) on stations that are gone or send nothing.

• Dark theme for the menu and the search window: follows Windows, or pick Options > Theme > Light / Dark.

• Updates. GaGa checks for a new release on startup (can be turned off in Options) and, if you agree, downloads it and restarts itself.

• Working default stations (SomaFM, Radio Paradise, Radio Swiss, KEXP...). The original ones were hosted on Radionomy, which shut down in 2020.

Existing Streams.ini and settings files keep working: just replace GaGa.exe.

About

GaGa is a very lightweight, simple online radio player that runs as an icon on the Windows tray. It's similar to RadioTray for Linux. Here are two screenshots:

Left click on the icon toggles play/stop. Middle click (with the mouse wheel) toggles mute. Right click opens the menu with a list of streams. The icon reflects the current state (e.g. an animation while buffering).

GaGa also implements global hotkeys using multimedia keys. Toggle them on or off in the options submenu if your keyboard has them.

The volume slider and Mute are right in the menu, the mouse wheel over the tray icon changes the volume (the icon shows the percent for a moment; the step, 1 to 10%, is in Options > Volume step), and the icon tooltip shows it. The volume moves in steps of 1% (the original had 5%). The balance slider is gone.

The top line of the menu shows the station while it connects and the track once the station names it, so the menu doesn't jump when the title arrives.

On a modern system, GaGa typically uses about 16 MB of ram and 1% CPU while playing. It supports .m3u, .asx, .mp3 and basically everything that Windows Media Player supports.

The streams file

GaGa is designed to make it convenient to add, move or share radio stations between users. Unlike most other software, in which the user adds streams one by one in a GUI, GaGa uses an INI file. This file is automatically reloaded on changes and clicking "Edit streams file" opens it in your default editor for the .ini extension.

Here is an example. The "Radio Reddit" submenu in the screenshot above looks like this in the streams file:

[Radio Reddit]
Main = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/main_mp3_128k
Electronic = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/electronic_mp3_128k
Indie = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/indie_mp3_128k
Hiphop = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/hiphop_mp3_128k
Metal = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/metal_mp3_128k
Rock = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/rock_mp3_128k

It is possible to create arbitrarily nested submenus using a separator in the section name. Here is another example:

[Videogames/Oldies]
Kohina = http://kohina.radio.ethz.ch/kohina.mp3

[Videogames]
A.I. Radio = http://ai-radio.org/radio.mp3.m3u
NoLife = http://nolife-radio.com/radio/NoLife-radio.m3u

Which produces the following menu:

Scared of mistakes? Don't worry, GaGa will load an alternate menu with error details (including exact line) on any error. In the worst-case scenario, if you delete your Streams.ini file, GaGa will recreate it with a list of default radio streams.

Performance-wise, streams file reloading is usually instant or takes milliseconds, even with hundreds of radio stations defined.

Compiling and installation

Run build.cmd: it compiles Build\GaGa.exe with the C# compiler that ships with the .NET Framework 4, so no Visual Studio is needed. The included Visual Studio solution works too. The source code has no dependencies other than the .NET Framework 4.0+.

There are binaries for the latest version in the Releases tab above.

GaGa doesn't need to be installed. It can run from any folder and doesn't write to the Windows registry, unless you turn on Start with Windows (one value under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, removed again when you turn it off). It's possible to run it from an usb stick provided the .NET Framework is available on the target machine.

Where to find radio stations

Use Search stations... in the menu: it searches the radio-browser.info directory, which lists tens of thousands of stations. Other places with lots of stations, classified by genre or by country:

• radio-browser.info
• The Icecast Directory
• Listen Live

Portability

GaGa was originally tested on Windows 7 and 8. The current version is tested on Windows 10, and the .NET Framework 4 it needs is part of Windows 10 and 11. Mono is not supported, because it doesn't implement MediaPlayer (in PresentationCore) which GaGa uses for playback.

The streams file encoding is UTF-8 with or without a BOM signature. Notepad will work, although I suggest something better such as Notepad2 or Sublime Text.

Status

Maintained. Bug reports and requests are welcome in the issues.

GaGa stays what Beluki made it: one small executable, no installer, no dependencies, and a plain text file for your stations.

License

Free Software, as Beluki released it: do whatever you want with it. See the Documentation folder for more information. No warranty though.

---

Original GaGa README

The text below is the README of Beluki/GaGa as of its last commit, kept for reference. Some of it is out of date (build steps, station lists, status).

About

GaGa is a very lightweight, simple online radio player that runs as an icon on the Windows tray. It's similar to RadioTray for Linux. Here are two screenshots:

Left click on the icon toggles play/stop. Middle click (with the mouse wheel) toggles mute. Right click opens the menu with a list of streams. The icon reflects the current state (e.g. an animation while buffering).

GaGa also implements global hotkeys using multimedia keys. Toggle them on or off in the options submenu if your keyboard has them.

On a modern system, GaGa typically uses about 16 MB of ram and 1% CPU while playing. It supports .m3u, .asx, .mp3 and basically everything that Windows Media Player supports.

The streams file

GaGa is designed to make it convenient to add, move or share radio stations between users. Unlike most other software, in which the user adds streams one by one in a GUI, GaGa uses an INI file. This file is automatically reloaded on changes and clicking "Edit streams file" opens it in your default editor for the .ini extension.

Here is an example. The "Radio Reddit" submenu in the screenshot above looks like this in the streams file:

[Radio Reddit]
Main = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/main_mp3_128k
Electronic = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/electronic_mp3_128k
Indie = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/indie_mp3_128k
Hiphop = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/hiphop_mp3_128k
Metal = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/metal_mp3_128k
Rock = http://cdn.audiopump.co/radioreddit/rock_mp3_128k

It is possible to create arbitrarily nested submenus using a separator in the section name. Here is another example:

[Videogames/Oldies]
Kohina = http://kohina.radio.ethz.ch/kohina.mp3

[Videogames]
A.I. Radio = http://ai-radio.org/radio.mp3.m3u
NoLife = http://nolife-radio.com/radio/NoLife-radio.m3u

Which produces the following menu:

Scared of mistakes? Don't worry, GaGa will load an alternate menu with error details (including exact line) on any error. In the worst-case scenario, if you delete your Streams.ini file, GaGa will recreate it with a list of default radio streams.

Performance-wise, streams file reloading is usually instant or takes milliseconds, even with hundreds of radio stations defined.

Compiling and installation

Building GaGa is a matter of opening the included Visual Studio 2010 solution and clicking the build button (or using msbuild). The source code has no dependencies other than the .NET Framework 4.0+.

There are binaries for the latest version in the Releases tab of the original repository.

GaGa doesn't need to be installed. It can run from any folder and doesn't write to the Windows registry. It's possible to run it from an usb stick provided the .NET Framework is available on the target machine.

Where to find radio stations

GaGa only includes the Jamendo radio stations in the default ini. Here are some places with tons of radio stations, classified by genre or by country:

• Listen Live
• Radionomy
• The Icecast Directory

Portability

GaGa is tested on Windows 7 and 8, using the .NET Framework 4.0+. Mono is not supported, because it doesn't implement MediaPlayer (in PresentationCore) which GaGa uses for playback.

The streams file encoding is UTF-8 with or without a BOM signature. Notepad will work, although I suggest something better such as Notepad2 or Sublime Text.

Status

This program is finished!

GaGa is feature-complete and has no known bugs. Unless issues are reported I plan no further development on it other than maintenance.

License

Like all my hobby projects, this is Free Software. See the Documentation folder for more information. No warranty though.