Keep listeners tuned in with the persistent player
See how the persistent radio player follows listeners around your site, what it shows, and what you control about it.
On this page
Anyone who runs radio alongside video wants the same thing: a listener who presses play shouldn’t lose the station the moment they open the schedule or read an article. That’s the persistent player’s job. This page is for producers and marketing staff who want to know what listeners see and how to get more people pressing play.
How it behaves
- It stays hidden until a listener presses play on a station, from the Radio page or from a radio row on your homepage.
- It then pins itself to a bottom corner of the screen and keeps playing on every page of your site.
- Starting a different station swaps the audio in the same player. Listeners never end up with two stations playing at once.
- The track information refreshes about every 20 seconds while the station plays.
- Closing it with the X stops the audio and hides the player until the next time someone presses play.
- The volume a listener picks is remembered on their device for next time.
What listeners see
| Part of the player | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Artwork | Your Custom Station Image if you picked one, otherwise the artwork from the station’s streaming details |
| Title line | The track playing now, or your Station Name when no track is reported |
| Second line | The artist, or the live presenter’s name when a presenter is on air |
| LIVE marker and listener count | Live from the station; the count only shows when at least one person is listening |
| Play/pause, mute, volume slider and X | Always shown |
What you control
| You want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Change the name or artwork in the player | Edit Station Name or Custom Station Image in Studio → Radio → Stations |
| Hide a station from listeners | Set its Status to Inactive |
| Change the order stations appear in | Drag them in Studio → Radio → Stations |
| Make listeners sign in first | Turn on Require sign-in to watch in Studio → System → Settings → Content → Viewer Access |
| Remove radio from the site entirely | Turn off Radio in Studio → System → Settings → Content → Features |
Put a radio row on your homepage
The easiest way to get people pressing play is to put your stations where visitors land.
- 1Open Sections
Go to Studio → Home → Sections.
- 2Add a section
Create a new section and choose Radio Stations as its content source.
- 3Title it and place it
Give the row a title visitors understand (“Listen live”), then drag it into position among your other rows.
- 4Check the homepage
Open your public homepage and press play on a card. The persistent player should appear and keep playing when you click through to another page.
The video mini-player
Videos and live channels have their own floating mini-player. When a viewer leaves the watch page while something is playing, the picture follows them in a small window so they can browse for what to watch next. A viewer who closes it with the X turns that behaviour off for themselves, and can turn it back on from the player. There’s nothing for you to set up: it works on every watch page.