What is the Shoutcast Directory Tester user agent ?

The Shoutcast Directory Tester user agent is what shoutcast.com uses to check that you are streaming something on your radio. They do this every time you connect to your radio and before they list you. You can stop it by changing your encoder configuration to disable making your radio listing public. This would stop you being listed on shoutcast.com and probably cause you to have less listeners. Being listed on shoutcast.com is a great way to promote your radio station in our opinion and a major reason why people choose a Shoutcast Server over an Icecast Server.

Just to add a little bit more information on this matter, it has only been used fairly recently. I can remember when I was streaming radio back in 2009 and there wasn't a listener that popped in for the first few seconds or so. It did confuse me a bit so I had a quick look on Google and found out what it was... and was informed it was the Directory Tester.

It also grabs all of the genres, aim, title etc... all of the encoder settings basically, and lists you on the SHOUTCast site.