UNDER THE DIAL

Music keeps the room. Mochi earns the interruption.

Mochi combines music you choose with brief news and weather breaks. The station only prepares scheduled bulletins while music is actively playing.

Last updated 24 August 2026

1. Choose the music

Use Spotify Premium through your own Spotify developer app, paste a YouTube video or playlist, or choose audio files from your device. Local files remain in the current browser session. YouTube stays visible in its official player.

2. Set the dial

Choose the subjects you follow, an approximate place for news context, a precise weather place if you want forecasts, and how often each kind of bulletin may appear. You also control bulletin length, voice, presenter pace, the news ident and whether music pauses.

3. Prepare a source-backed break

For news, Mochi searches current reporting and writes a short spoken edition using only facts supported by the linked publisher articles. For weather, it uses forecast data for the place you selected. Every prepared bulletin shows its source links or forecast provider on screen.

4. Speak it in the browser

Mochi uses the Kokoro speech model for every demo and bulletin. The first use downloads the model through Mochi; synthesis then runs in a dedicated browser worker so it does not block the page’s main thread. The written brand remains “Mochi”; the speech path pronounces it “MOH-chee”.

5. Hand the room back to music

If pausing is enabled, Mochi pauses the active provider, plays the complete bulletin, then asks the provider to resume. The end of the actual audio—not a guessed timer—controls that hand-back. Browsers can still refuse automatic restart, especially for YouTube, so its own Play button remains available.

Scheduled means actively listening

Scheduled generation runs only while local, Spotify or YouTube playback is active. If music stops, Mochi cancels an in-flight scheduled request and stops the station clocks. A bulletin you deliberately request can still be prepared without music playing.

Browser limits are real

Mochi is a web app, not a native background-audio app. iPhone and other devices may suspend it when the screen locks, another app takes over audio, or battery controls restrict the browser. Installing Mochi to a home screen makes it easier to open; it does not remove those platform limits.