Music and radio

What you need

1. Be in a voice channel. !play, !play-now and !play-radio bring the bot into your voice channel; without one, the bot replies "You must be in a voice channel to use this command.".
2. Stay in the same channel as the bot to control playback (pause, volume, queue…). Otherwise: "You must be in the same voice channel as me to use this command.". The bot only plays in one voice channel at a time per community: while it plays somewhere, !play typed from another voice channel gets that same reply.
3. Permissions for the bot in the voice channel: View channel, Connect and Speak. If one is missing, the bot replies "I am missing the Connect, Speak permission to do that." for 5 seconds.

Music or radio, not both

Music and radio use two different players that can't run at the same time. If a radio is playing, !play replies "I'm already playing a radio station, please stop it first."; if music is playing, !play-radio replies "I am already playing music, please stop it first.". Use !stop to switch from one to the other.

Automatic stop

When no member is left in the bot's voice channel (bots don't count), the music or radio stops right away and the bot leaves the channel. The same happens if someone disconnects the bot.

After the bot restarts

If the bot restarts (update, maintenance) while music is playing, it resumes it on its own when it comes back: same voice channel, same queue, same position in the track, same volume, same loop, and paused if it was. The restart must last less than 10 minutes and someone must still be in the voice channel. A new player message is then posted. A radio doesn't come back: start it again with !play-radio.

To stop members from cutting each other's music, some actions are reserved for the person who requested the current track (the "requester").

¹ A member with the Fluxer Administrator permission can use !next, !loop, !stop and the ⏭️ Skip and ⏹️ Stop reactions without being in the voice channel.

The requester rule: while the requester of the current track is in the bot's voice channel, only they (or a member with the Administrator permission) can control it. If they left the channel, anyone in the channel can. Otherwise the bot replies "You are not the one who requested this track, so you can't control it.".

!play searches for a track (by name or by link) and plays it, or adds it to the end of the queue if something is already playing. The bot joins your voice channel if it isn't there yet, at 100% volume.

1. Join a voice channel.
2. Type !play followed by the track name or a link: !play Café Lo-Fi Session. Fluxer has no suggestions while you type: the bot plays the first result of the search. Add the artist's name to get it right.
3. The bot confirms "Song added to queue: title". This reply disappears after 5 seconds, along with your command.
4. The player message shows up in the channel (or updates) as soon as the track starts.

What you can type

Play right away: !play-now

On Discord, /play has a "Play now" mode. On Fluxer, it's a separate command, !play-now:

Since !play-now cuts the current track, it follows the requester rule while a track is playing.

As soon as the first track starts, Dispatch.IO posts a "player" message in the channel where !play was first typed. That same message is updated on every new track, pause, resume, volume change or queue change.

Buttons as reactions

Fluxer doesn't have buttons for bots yet: under the player message, a legend line ("⏮️ Previous · ⏸️ Pause · ▶️ Resume · ⏭️ Skip · ⏹️ Stop") and the same emojis as reactions replace them. Click a reaction to "press" it: the bot removes it right away, so you can click again. The bot may show its own versions of these emojis.

Reactions follow the same rules as the commands: they are reserved for the requester of the current track. If you're not allowed, the bot shows the reason for 5 seconds in the channel, mentioning you. Confirmations ("The music has been paused by …") are public. Reactions work for as long as the message is the current player's, with no time limit. How reactions work in general is explained in Buttons, forms and replies on Fluxer.

During and after playback

• Unplayable track: if a track can't be played (deleted, private, unavailable), the bot says so for a few seconds in the channel ("title couldn't be played: skipping to the next one.") and starts the next one.
• Dropout: if a track is cut off midway, the bot restarts it where it was.
• Queue finished: the message stays with the title "Unknown", without its legend or reactions, and the bot stays connected to the voice channel. Add a track with !play.
• Message deleted: if someone deletes the player message, the bot posts a new one at the next track.
• Player stopped (!stop, ⏹️ reaction, empty voice channel): the player message is deleted.

!pause and !resume pause and then restart the current track. The player message switches to "Paused" or "Playing". The radio can't be paused: use !stop.

!next skips to the next track in the queue. What !previous does depends on when you type it:

!loop turns on loop playback, either for the current track or for the whole queue.

!loop works like a switch: if a loop is already on (whatever its mode), the command turns it off. To switch modes, run !loop once to turn it off, then a second time with the new mode.

!queue shows, shuffles or clears the queue, or jumps to a track. It only works with music (not with the radio), and you need to be in the bot's voice channel.

When the queue spans several pages, the bot puts ◀️ ▶️ under its reply: only you can turn the pages, for 5 minutes. A track's number is the one shown in the list.

Shuffling, clearing or jumping to a track changes what the whole channel hears: these three actions follow the requester rule. Viewing the queue is open to the whole channel.

!play-radio starts a live radio station in your voice channel.

1. Join a voice channel (with no music playing).
2. Type !play-radio followed by the station name: !play-radio France Inter.
3. The bot joins your voice channel, starts the radio and replies "Playing now: France Inter", with the ⏹️ Stop the radio legend and the matching reaction.

Finding the station: Dispatch.IO knows about thirty stations (NRJ, France Inter, franceinfo, FIP, Radio Nova, Skyrock, TSF Jazz, Lofi Radio…), the same as the Radios page of the dashboard player. Part of the name is enough when it points to one station: !radio nova starts Radio Nova. For a station outside that list, the bot looks it up in an online radio directory with the name you typed.

The ⏹️ Stop the radio reaction only works for the person who started the radio; other members' reactions are removed with no effect. Any member in the bot's voice channel can also stop it with !stop. Running !play-radio again from the same voice channel switches station (the old message loses its reaction). When the radio stops (reaction, !stop, empty voice channel, stream cut several times in a row), its message says "The radio playback has been stopped." and its reaction goes away.

During a radio, !title shows its name and !volume sets its volume. The radio can't be paused.

!title shows what is playing: the full track card for music, or the station name for a radio.

For music, the card repeats the player message information (title, author, up-to-date progress, volume, requester, queue, state) and adds a link to the source when it's recognised: Listen on YouTube or Listen on SoundCloud.

!volume sets the volume of the music or the radio, from 0 to 100%. For music, the Volume line of the player message is updated. The setting applies to everyone in the voice channel.

• Music: the volume follows the requester rule, like !pause or !next.
• Radio: any member in the bot's voice channel can set it.

!stop stops what is playing and disconnects the bot from the voice channel.

• Music: follows the requester rule; a member with the Administrator permission can do it from anywhere. The player message is deleted and the queue is lost.
• Radio: any member in the bot's voice channel can stop it. The radio message says it was stopped.

For other issues, see the Troubleshooting page.

• Music player: how the music module works and the dashboard player.
• Buttons, forms and replies on Fluxer: how the bot's reactions work.
• Permissions and roles: the permissions the bot needs.
• All commands: the full list of commands.