I'm wondering if the problem is that it's designed to block playing because of copyright?

I'm wondering if its possible with my current setup (streaming shoutcast server)

I wouldn't say it is impossible but when I was setting up something similar I
intercepted Droids and offered them a free 3rd party app (same idea for iPhones).

There is no standardization across media players for audio streams, and it sucks.

...

I know that the default player in android can play a stream from an rtsp server but I'm not sure how to set that up and if it's similar to shoutcsat/icecast.

I really don't want to have to ask listeners to download anything. Obviously that is the easy route, but it would be nice to have a flash player that auto plays or a link that says click to listen and that opens the default player streaming from rtsp.

In my research I've found that icecast servers streaming aac or aacplus can use a flash player to embed the stream masked as an flv. However, i think it requires something special with the icecast installation because in my test at home I could not get it to work.

drooh, why don't you let users have an app. That's not really a big issue these days.

not really a big issue these days

It may not be a big issue for the tech savvy or committed.

But it is a huge issue for the broadcaster, who wants a simple "click to listen" hyperlink.

It really should be as simple as that, and I have a lot of sympathy with the OP - the average user is far too impatient (or wary) to read instructions, download and install yet another media player, and paste in a URL before they can decide whether they like your stream or not.

The problem is not just with mobile devices, desktops/laptops are almost as bad - some media players require the .m3u extension, some require it to be omitted, some cope either way, some change the requirement between versions. A Flash player can be a good solution for desktops but is useless on mobiles or iDevices.

A default media player that does not support streaming is one thing, but the lack of standardization among those that do is unbelievable.

I started radio broadcasting in 2005 and have always had to offer multiple solutions. With the exception of more recent versions of QuickTime Player, every solution I have implemented for the various media players (those that do actually support streaming) has had one thing in common - a simple hyperlink to the stream using the HTTP protocol - and they can't even harmonize that.

It should be so much easier than it is.

/rant

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ipad,iphone,ipod can all play m3u stream by default. THANK YOU!

android can play an rtsp stream in default player, ikes!
android can play a flash embeded player with icecast/aacplus flv enabled (see fastserv website)