⚡ Quick start
New here? This is the five-minute path from signup to a live overlay.
While you set up, a "steps to go live" checklist on your dashboard ticks itself off as you connect your music, pick a theme, add the overlay to OBS and fill in your bio page.
📤 Push mode (DJ software)
Push mode sends each track to StreamFX the moment it plays. Your personal URL looks like this (copy the exact one from Dashboard → Playout or My links → Private links):
Setup per software
PlayIt Live
&artist={{artist}}&title={{title}}RadioDJ
&artist=$artist$&title=$title$mAirList
&artist=%a&title=%tSAM Broadcaster
&artist=$artist$&title=$title$StationPlaylist
&artist=%a&title=%tProppFrexx
&artist=${artist}&title=${title}AzuraCast
Use the webhook URL as-is — we read the standard JSON body.
Serato / rekordbox / VirtualDJ / Traktor / Mixxx / anything that writes a file
It watches C:\NowPlaying\nowplaying.txt and pushes every change automatically.
Blocklist: hiding jingles & station IDs
On the Playout page, add comma-separated keywords (e.g. Sweeper, Station ID, Advert). When a track matches, StreamFX keeps the previous song on screen instead.
📡 Pull mode (radio streams)
If you stream with Icecast, Shoutcast, AzuraCast or a plain MP3/AAC stream, StreamFX can read the track directly. Choose your type on Dashboard → Playout:
Direct audio stream
.mp3 / .aac — we read ICY metadata straight from the stream.
Icecast
Point us at your status-json.xsl URL.
Shoutcast
Your stats?json=1 or 7.html page.
JSON API
Any public JSON (AzuraCast, Radio.co…) — you can even set which keys hold the artist and title.
Plain text
Any URL that returns Artist - Title.
Always hit Test Connection after pasting the URL — it tells you exactly what we found before you go live.
FTP upload (text file)
Some playout software (SAM, Jazler, StationPlaylist, Zara…) can only upload a "now playing" text file by FTP. On Pro, choose FTP upload on the Playout page and click Create my FTP login. Put the server, username and password into your software's FTP upload setting and have it upload a .txt file containing Artist - Title (or pick another layout). Your overlay updates within a few seconds of each upload. Only small .txt files are kept, and each login can only see its own folder.
localhost or home-network address) — that's what your listeners see too.🖥️ Adding overlays to OBS
🎵 Now Playing
My links → Stream overlays🙋♂️ Song Requests banner
My links → Stream overlays (the scrolling ticker is 700 × 70)📱 Vertical themes (TikTok LIVE)
Pick a theme from the Vertical category in Themes🎬 Scenes
My links → Scenes: Starting soon, Be right back, Ending (vertical versions are 1080 × 1920)Widgets
On-air timer
420 × 110
Track goal
520 × 120
Next-track poll
520 × 340
Fundraiser goal
520 × 150 — your charity total and progress.
Up next
520 × 320 — the next requests in your queue.
Recently played
520 × 420 — the last few tracks with covers.
Fun fact
560 × 170 — a "Did you know?" about the song playing. Add &popup=1 to show it for 12 seconds per track.
Donation alerts
560 × 200 — pops up each donation with its message.
Every widget link is in Dashboard → My links; their settings (goal, polls, fundraiser…) are in Live Tools.
Your overlay, widgets and request banner carry a small "Powered by StreamFX.co.uk" credit in the corner. It's on to start with; switch it off in Themes → On the card.
Overlays are transparent — they blend straight onto your stream background. Changes you make in the dashboard (theme, colours, pinned requests…) appear on stream within a few seconds automatically.
🎨 Themes & customisation
Dashboard → Themes lets you make the overlay yours:
90+ built-in themes
Every theme shows a small live preview with your current track. Tap one to try it in the big preview — nothing changes on stream until you save. Search, or browse by category.
A different theme for each stream
Every theme has a link button (and Copy its link above the preview). Each link always shows that one theme, so you can run a vertical theme in your TikTok scene and a card in your Twitch scene at once. Your colours and settings still apply, and your main overlay link keeps showing the theme you saved.
Your own colours
Switch on Use my own colours to replace the theme's two main colours.
Colours from the album art
Switch on Match each album cover and the overlay picks two colours from each cover, so it changes with every song. Works with themes that support custom colours and your own builder designs. Mostly black, white or grey covers keep your normal colours.
Overlay builder
Dashboard → Builder: tap a layout (card, pill, banner, minimal or vertical), start from a colour palette, then pick fonts, corners and animation. The preview shows your design over a pretend stream, a see-through backdrop or a green screen. Press Save & use to put it on your overlay — up to 10 designs, also under My designs in Themes.
Fonts, corners & motion
Custom font, corner radius, transitions (slide, flip, scale, fade) and an auto-hide timer that pops the card away after a track starts.
Custom fallback logo
Upload your station logo to show whenever album art isn't found.
Track progress
Under On the card → Track progress, choose Bar or Bar and time (1:12 / 3:45). Song lengths come from iTunes, so an extended mix may run longer — the bar hides itself if it does.
Album, year and genre
Switch on Album, year and genre to add a line like "Reverence · 1996 · Dance" under the card. It also shows on your bio page.
Fun facts
Switch on On the card → Fun facts for a "Did you know?" card 20 seconds into each track. See Fun facts.
On your website
Scroll to On your website to put the same overlay on your own site, matching your stream look or any single theme. Visitors never see your private link.
Track milestones
Switch on Track milestones and the overlay celebrates moments from your own history: "First time played on this stream", "Played 50 times on this stream" (at 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 plays) or "Last played 6 months ago" for a track you haven't played in 3 months or more. Milestones show on your bio page too. "First time" only appears once you've played 100 tracks, so a new account isn't full of them.
Album art is fetched automatically for each track. Under the card, the overlay can also show "Requested by @name" and the presenter on air — switch these on or off on the Song Requests and Presenters pages.
💡 Fun facts
A short "Did you know?" about the song or artist that's playing — a chart record, an award, who wrote it, its tempo, or how often DJs play it on StreamFX. Nothing is made up: if no source has anything worth saying, no fact shows.
Where facts come from
Wikipedia, Wikidata, MusicBrainz, Deezer and Last.fm; facts suggested by streamers and checked by our team; and play stats from every StreamFX stream (only for tracks at least 5 different DJs have played, and never saying who). Your own stream adds facts too, like the first time you've played a track.
On your dashboard
Under Now playing on every dashboard page — with "more facts to talk about" listing everything found for the track and where it came from. Handy for talking on the mic.
On stream
Switch on Themes → On the card → Fun facts: a card slides in 20 seconds into each track for 12 seconds, with a different fact each time the song plays. Or add the Fun fact widget from My links.
Suggest a fact
Click Suggest a fact under Now playing, or the 💡 next to a track in History. Our team checks every suggestion; once approved it shows on any stream that plays the track, without your name, and we email you either way.
Each track is looked up once and remembered, so facts appear within a second or two of a new song. Tracks with nothing are looked up again every week.
🙋 Song requests
Listeners request songs from your bio page. Everything else happens in Dashboard → Song Requests.
🎬 Scenes & live tools
Everything in Dashboard → Live Tools works as a Browser Source and updates by itself.
Scenes
Full-screen Starting soon, Be right back and Ending scenes with your text, the current track and a QR code to your bio page. Start a 5, 10 or 15-minute countdown from the dashboard.
Timer & goal
The on-air timer and track goal start with your first track and reset after a 45-minute break, so they're right for every show.
Next-track polls
Pick 2–4 songs. Viewers vote on your bio page (one vote each) and the poll widget shows votes coming in. Close it to show the winner.
Fundraiser goal
For charity streams: set a target and your donation page (JustGiving, GoFundMe…), then add donations as they come in with the +£5 / +£10 buttons or any amount. The fundraiser widget and your bio page show the total and a Donate button. StreamFX never handles the money — donations go straight to your charity page.
Up next & recently played
Show the next requests in your queue, or your last few tracks with covers. Change count= in the link to show 1–8.
Fun fact widget
The "Did you know?" fact for the song playing, as its own Browser Source — for the whole track, or 12 seconds with &popup=1.
🔗 Bio page & Wrapped
Every streamer gets a public page (streamfx.co.uk/live.php?u=yourname) with the current track, recently played tracks, polls and a song request form — perfect for your social profiles.
Make it yours
Add your photo, a tagline and your social and tip links in Bio & Account → Profile. Copy or open your page link from the top of that page.
Page style
Under Look & links, choose a background (the StreamFX glow, one colour, a two-colour fade or your own picture), a font, light or dark text, button shape and box style. A phone-shaped preview updates as you go. Accent colours come from your overlay theme.
Link buttons
Add up to 8 buttons for anything else — your website, merch, next gig, mixes, YouTube — and put them in order with the arrows. With these, your bio page can replace Linktree. Well-known sites get their own icon.
Wrapped
Your month or year as a festival-style poster: headline artist, top tracks, longest show and busiest night. Open it from Dashboard → History, share it, or make it private.
Your track history is kept for 13 months. Download all of it as a spreadsheet (CSV) from the History page, or one show at a time under History → Your shows:
- Spreadsheet — opens in Excel or Google Sheets. To make a Spotify playlist, upload it to a free importer such as TuneMyMusic or Soundiiz.
- Plain text — one "Artist - Title" per line.
- With times — "12:34 Artist - Title", ready to paste into a Mixcloud or YouTube description.
A new show starts when nothing has played for 90 minutes. DJ apps such as rekordbox need the music files themselves, so they can't import a tracklist — use it as a checklist instead.
🌐 Your website & feeds
Show what's playing on your station's own website. In Dashboard → Live Tools → Now playing on your website, pick a style and copy the code into any page — WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or plain HTML.
Card
Cover, track and a few recent tracks.
Slim bar
One line for headers and footers.
Playlist
Now playing plus recently played.
The widget follows your visitors' light or dark mode (or pick one), and resizes itself. For developers there are feeds too:
Add &format=rss for an RSS feed of recent tracks, or &format=text for plain "Artist - Title" — handy for chatbots like Nightbot's $(urlfetch). You can switch the widget and feeds off at any time. All of these links are in My links → Website & chatbots.
Want your actual stream overlay on your site instead? Use Themes → On your website.
🧑💻 Fun Facts API
Websites, apps and chatbots can get fun facts for any track as JSON — free up to 5,000 requests a day.
GET /api/v1/facts.php?artist=…&title=… with Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY. The API docs cover the answer, limits, errors and examples.💸 Donations
Let viewers support you with a one-off donation. The money goes straight into your own Stripe or PayPal account — StreamFX never holds it. Set it up in Dashboard → Donations.
donate.php?u=yourname. A donate box also shows on your bio page (you can turn it off).On-stream alerts
Add the alert link from Donations as a 560 × 200 Browser Source. It pops up "Sam donated £5" with their message for a few seconds whenever one comes in.
Widget for your website
Copy the code to put a donate box on your own site, light or dark, with or without your latest supporters. Buttons open your donate page in a new tab to pay securely.
Counts towards your fundraiser
Tick Add donations to my fundraiser total and each donation is added to your fundraiser goal automatically (when the currencies match).
Hide a message
Every donation is listed on the Donations page. Hide one and its name and message disappear from your page, widget and stream.
🎙️ Station presenters
For radio stations and DJ crews. In Dashboard → Presenters, add each presenter (up to 25) to give them their own private push link.
🔐 Account & security
Personal details
Bio & Account → Personal details holds your name, email, phone, address and stream info. They're private and used for your receipts — if you pay by card, saving updates your Stripe receipts too.
Two-step login
In Bio & Account → Two-step login, scan the QR code with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password…). Save your backup codes somewhere safe — each one works once if you lose your phone.
Sign-in alerts
We email you when someone signs in to your account, or fails to, with the time, IP address and device. Choose every sign-in, only failed attempts, or off in Bio & Account → Sign-in alerts, which also lists recent sign-ins.
Emails from us
Bio & Account → Emails from us: a recap after each show (tracks, time on air, requests, donations, tracklist link), and tips and offers — three setup tips during your trial and one "we miss you" email if your plan ends. Account emails always arrive.
Forgotten password
Use Forgot your password? on the login page. We'll email you a link that works for 60 minutes.
Download your data
Get everything we hold about you — account, history, requests, polls, donations and designs — as one file from Bio & Account → Your data.
Back up your setup
Your data → Back up my setup saves your theme, colours, scenes, request rules, bio links, playout connection and designs as one file. Restore it later — choosing which parts — or use it to set up another account the same way.
Delete your account
At the bottom of Your data — open the red Delete my account bar. It cancels any subscription and permanently deletes your account and everything in it.
💳 Billing, trials & cancelling
Prices are always shown live on the pricing section of the homepage.
🔧 Troubleshooting
Tap a symptom to see the fix.
⚠️I can't find my overlay link
⚠️Overlay says "Waiting for track data"
⚠️Overlay was working, now blank
⚠️Requests not appearing
⚠️A request wasn't marked played
⚠️Album art is a vinyl disc
⚠️Album-art colours don't change
⚠️Pull mode shows the wrong song
⚠️Website widget says "not available"
⚠️No fun fact shows
⚠️My DJ software's FTP upload doesn't update the overlay
⚠️Lost my phone with two-step login
Still stuck? Check the status page to see if something's wrong on our side, and the FAQ for common questions.