Build a Raspberry Pi Internet Radio: Every Station on Earth, for About £40

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A dedicated internet radio is one of the most genuinely useful things you can build with a Raspberry Pi — and one of the oldest, most well-documented Pi projects out there, which means the rough edges have mostly already been sanded off by a decade of hobbyists before you. Instead of picking from whatever stations happen to reach your postcode over FM, you get literally any station streaming anywhere in the world, for the cost of a Pi and an afternoon.

What You Actually Need

• A Raspberry Pi — a Pi Zero 2 W is genuinely enough for this; you don’t need a Pi 4 or 5 for something that’s just decoding audio streams. If you’re going the DAC hat route below, buy the Zero 2 WH instead, which comes with the GPIO header already soldered on — the standard Zero 2 W doesn’t, and a hat needs it
• An audio output solution — this one’s not optional. The Pi Zero 2 W has no audio port at all (neither does the Pi 5, for that matter), so you need something external. The simplest route is a cheap USB DAC like this UGREEN 24-bit/96kHz one (well under a tenner, and Pi forum users report it working plug-and-play) via a micro USB OTG adapter — plug in, done, no soldering. The better-sounding route is a DAC hat like the HiFiBerry DAC+ or a breadboard-built TI PCM5102A, which sits directly on the Pi’s GPIO pins
• A microSD card — 16GB is comfortably enough
• A small amp and speaker, or just a 3.5mm cable into an existing speaker/stereo you already own
• Optional: a small screen and a couple of GPIO buttons — for station switching and volume control without needing to pull out a phone every time

The Software Side

Most builds in this space are variations on the same core idea: MPD (Music Player Daemon) handles the actual stream playback, with something simpler layered on top for control. But you don’t need to build that stack by hand any more. A few well-trodden routes, easiest first:

• moOde Audio OS — a free, open-source, purpose-built audio distribution you flash straight to the SD card with Raspberry Pi Imager. It gives you a full web interface for stations, playlists, and settings, and handles Bluetooth and streaming renderers out of the box. Probably the easiest route for most people
• Volumio — a comparable alternative with a polished interface and a broad plugin ecosystem, worth trying if moOde’s interface doesn’t suit you. Two things to check first: Volumio 4 dropped support for the original Pi Zero and Pi 1 (the Zero 2 W is a different, newer board, but confirm it’s on Volumio’s supported list before you commit), and some streaming-service integrations sit behind a paid tier, whereas moOde is entirely free
• MPD + a simple web interface — the DIY route; control the whole thing from your phone’s browser on the same WiFi network, no app needed
• Bob Rathbone’s Raspberry Pi Internet Radio project — the most comprehensively documented build in this space, covering everything from LCD displays to touchscreens, worth a look if you want physical controls and a dedicated display

For a genuinely minimal build, flash moOde, add a few station URLs, and you’ll be playing internet radio within an hour of first boot — no command line required.

A Bonus Trick: Add Bluetooth to Any Old Speakers

The same hardware does a second, equally useful job. Because moOde can act as a Bluetooth receiver, a Pi Zero 2 W plugged into any old speaker or amplifier with an aux input effectively gives that gear wireless streaming, with no soldering and no changes to the speakers themselves. If you’ve got a decent old hi-fi or bookshelf speakers stuck with only a wired input, that’s a genuinely cheap way to bring them into the modern world — and a more flexible one than a fixed-function Bluetooth adapter, since the Pi can run internet radio and stream from your phone from the same box.

Adding Physical Controls

The part that turns this from “a script running on a Pi” into “an actual radio” is physical input — a couple of GPIO buttons wired for volume up/down and station skip mean you’re not reaching for a phone every time you want to change the mood. It’s a genuinely satisfying small electronics project even if you’ve never touched GPIO pins before; the wiring for basic buttons is about as simple as Pi projects get.

A Word on Streams and Licensing

Worth being upfront about: playing internet radio streams for personal listening is completely standard and unremarkable — you’re doing exactly what listening on any radio app does, just through your own hardware. Where people occasionally get into murkier territory is broadcasting audio out over an actual FM transmitter without a licence, which several of the more advanced Pi radio projects also support as an option. That’s a different, genuinely regulated thing in most countries and worth avoiding unless you’ve specifically looked into your local rules — the basic “stream to my own speaker” build has no such concerns at all.

Total Cost

Realistically: around £15-25 for a Pi Zero 2 W, under £10 for a USB DAC (or £15-20 for a proper DAC hat), plus an OTG adapter and a microSD card. That puts the cheapest route at roughly £40 all in, for something that will comfortably outlast most standalone internet radios costing far more — and unlike a commercial unit, nothing here becomes obsolete when a manufacturer decides to stop supporting an app. One warning: Pi Zero 2 W prices on Amazon swing around a lot, and third-party sellers sometimes list them at several times the going rate, so check who’s selling before you buy.

Our Verdict

If what you actually want is flexibility rather than a specific format, this beats every CD player and DAB radio on the market for the money — genuinely any station, anywhere, with total control over the interface. It’s not a five-minute plug-and-play purchase like the CD players in our other guide, but if you’re comfortable following a wiring diagram, it’s one of the most rewarding small builds the Pi ecosystem has to offer.