Hello, I am trying to do a small light show this year, and i was wondering what the best method would be to broadcast music. I was thinking of a radio station, but i was also thinking about using a website to play music. The idea would be for the music to play on an ESP32 which would broadcast it to a car. Just wondering how i could achieve this. Thanks!
What's Your experience and previous projects?
And a further question: What technology is your receiver in the car based on?
I'm not sure but there is computer software for making an Internet radio station. A quick search turned-up this.
Note that here in the U.S. you are supposed to have a license to broadcast, stream, or play copyrighted music in a "public performance". Grocery stores have a license to play background music and you're not supposed to even play the radio at work without a license!
You probably won't get busted for playing Christmas music for a couple of weeks...
If you are a band or DJ for a wedding or company party, the venue is supposed to have an ASCAP or BMI license. They won't go after the band or DJ but they can fine the venue. Even churches need a license unless they are just singing the old out-of-copyright Hymns!!! You don't need a license if a band/artist plays original material for-which they own the copyright, you only need a license for a cover band.) The artists/copyright holders get paid "statistically" based on their popularity. Nobody is keeping exact track of what songs are played.
I don't know as much about broadcast & streaming but it's similar.
...I've made a few sound-activated lighting effects and I've thought about maybe doing the same thing sometime in the future if I ever live on a street with more traffic. But I was thinking about buying a low-power FM transmitter. Apparently, low power transmission is not illegal... unless you broadcast copyrighted music. So I'd probably just take my chances...
Or... If you have a local radio station that broadcasts Christmas music it would be OK to trigger your lighting off of that. The downside is that you can't choose/control the music and your lights will be triggered by commercials, and news and talking, etc.
P.S.
It's different licensing but I live in a mobile home park and a long-long time ago they had a movie night where they showed VHS movies in the clubhouse. (That's how long-ago it was.) They got shut-down for showing movies "in public"! Crazy!!! I guess you're not supposed to have friends over to watch a movie or football game?
If you watch NFL games there is always a copyright announcement where they say something like, "any re-broadcast or descriptions of the game..." That cracks me up! I guess you're not supposed to say. "Wow, did you see the game where???" or "Did you see the play where...?"
Assuming that you are within range, you can use the ESP32 to receive streamed BLE (Bluetooth) music. Take a look at the A2DP library. ESP32 has two built-in I2S 8-bit DACs that may be good enough for your purposes, or you can use an external DAC for better audio quality.
I built a car audio system this way and the sound is at least as good as off-the--shelf units. My only concern in your application is that I don't know if multiple connections are supported (multiple receivers).
Probably just AM or FM radio. That is what i have seen used.
I have used arduino for around 2 years, and i have done several projects. Last year i did christmas lights with a simple relay. Know some HTML code and Python
Then you are probably looking for something like this
https://github.com/bitluni/ESP32AMRadioTransmitter
or search the internet for "Arduino AM FM Transmitter" ...
Thank you, this looks perfect. Can you find the code or a demonstration anywhere?
It's GitHub:
- Open the link and then
- Click on "View Code"
There's also a link to a video on YouTube...
Good luck!
Edit: I think you go better for a separate FM Transmitter with audio input. The bitluni project is nice but limited to a prerecorded sound...
And using a qualified product will release you from the responsibility for any jamming... 
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