I’ve tried a few options over the years, including SMB and NFS, XBMC as well as HTML with javascript I found online.
I don’t have a large collection of music (fewer than 100 albums), so hand coding things was actually one of the quicker options to setup. That’s despite then hassle of hand coding the URL to each FLAC file as well as the album art. But sometimes the javascript doesn’t handle large collections of FLAC and each implementation I tried had different quirks so I’ve sunk a lot of time into that in other ways without a satisfactory result.
I’ve heard of Emby, Jellyfin, Plex, Roon and Servio. I just need something that’s simple to set up and access. I don’t need fancy features beyond the ability to play the music with a pleasant UI that can be accessed from the web (HTTP, not HTTPS). I’d be running this from a Raspberry Pi 3B which already has the lighttpd server running.
I’m also considering just getting a portable, 128GB FLAC player with a minijack connection and moving on with my life without getting involved in networking at all.
Any recommendations for an uncomplicated way to approach to doing this?
Edit: Thanks so much for the helpful and enthusiastic comments! I tried Navidrome and had it up and running in ten minutes thanks to this tutorial video: https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=7V5UUJlSknY
I had to install docker-compose on the RPi. Then I got an error which turned out to be because I also needed a separate docker daemon which I installed following these instructions: https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/docker-tutorial/raspberry-pi-docker
In just 10+ minutes I had my music collection accessible from all my devices - thanks again!
I use Jellyfin in a way that sounds like what you want. You run a Jellyfin server wherever your FLACs are, access it via the web, and play things through your browser — or through Finamp on Android, in my case.
Jellyfin + Symphonium as a client on android 💯
I can vouch for Jellyfin - Nothing harder than setting up docker and connecting via Finamp. Been a very “set it and forget it” experience for me.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web IP Internet Protocol NAS Network-Attached Storage Plex Brand of media server package SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native VPN Virtual Private Network
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Plex is probably the easiest and most convenient, I think jellyfin is viable too, but I don’t use it.
If you’ve got the money, Roon or Audirvana are the gold standard of self hosted music
If you want something similar, but free, look into things like volumio or subsonic based solutions.
Seconding Plex / Plexamp if the use case involves streaming remotely. Probably the easiest to get up and running for remote access.
I’m not sure about the capabilities of hosting on a Pi, but it should be straightforward to run a couple different apps in parallel to test and compare features (I’m currently doing exactly that with Plex and Jellyfin)
If you already have a NAS, (since SMB was mentioned, I’m assuming there’s some sort of NAS setup going) then you may even be able to host Plex directly on the NAS. It likely won’t be powerful enough for things like video transcoding, but just audio should be fine.
I’ve been very happy with Navidrome. I have it accessible on a subdomain, so I can just use it from wherever I want. Feishin is a great frontend for Linux desktop, and Tempo is a great frontend for Android.
My friend uses Jellyfin instead of Navidrome, and he’s also happy with it. Both the frontends that I mentioned work with Jellyfin as well.
Second Navidrome. I use it with the android app Symfonium and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
dankpods used vlc on a ipod touch
Looks like you may have made a decision already, but wanted to give Polaris a mention. Been using that on my home server, has a nice Web-UI and a mobile app on F-Droid as well.
I prefer Airsonic-Advanced over Navidrome when using the web interface. Airsonic-Advanced and the Substreamer android app are a nice combo. You can run both severs side by side if you are setting up docker containers.
Thanks. I’m happy enough with Navidrome but if I can try ASA in parallel I might give it a try sometime.
I really like the turntable effect in the Navidrome web app, though :)
I used Plex for a long time but moved to Jellyfin after reading about the general direction Plex is going (trying to commercialize it, partner up with industry, make it more than just a self hosted media service).
Both have what you’re looking for.
I would say Plex is slightly easier and has the benefit of PlexAmp (available for Linux, Windows, and mobile).
That being said, Jellyfin is about the same ease to get set up, but it’s just a tad less polished, but in sort of a nice way. It feels more like “yours”, if that makes sense.
For both, I recommend hosting them in Docker, using Docker Compose, and using the LinuxServer version. LinuxServer maintains updated software, packaged in an easy to install format and they help you out with sample Docker Compose files and explanations to get things running.
Currently I use Jellyfin and found it simple enough to setup. My personal setup is https on the public internet using Caddy as a reverse proxy to handle the https part, but you can set it up for local network access only using http.
Jellyfin itself is not the greatest music player ever, (UI is more setup for movies and tv) but there are music-centric apps that use it as a backend that are really good, for most platforms. On my phone and tablet, I really like Finamp, and on the desktop I use Sonixd.
I’m also considering just getting a portable, 128GB FLAC player with a minijack connection and moving on with my life without getting involved in networking at all.
I used this setup for the better part of 20 years. Nothing wrong with it, my music collection simply expanded to the point where it simply wasn’t feasible to store all of it on my iPod anymore and from day to day I never really know what I’m going to be in the mood to listen to. Setting up a streaming service made more sense for me.
I use Plex (Plexamp) and I can not complain. I don’t really access via the web browser however, I use the app for dedicated music playback.
ReadyMedia (formerly MiniDLNA) works fine for me as a container via podman on a raspberry pi.
podman run -d --name=minidlna \ --net host \ -v dir/to/music:/media/audio \ -e MINIDLNA_MEDIA_DIR_1=A,/media/audio \ -e MINIDLNA_FRIENDLY_NAME=Music \ --restart on-failure:3 \ --platform linux/arm64 \ docker.io/vladgh/minidlna:latestNo http interface though for playback. Still very simple and does the job for me.
That looks quick to get going
I’m using a Jellyfin server with Symonium on android. It’s almost as good as plexamp, but sadly not available on other platforms. Symfonium will work with any media player that uses subsonic. My current jellyfin implementation is http with a VPN for external use.
Jellyfin should work fine for what you’re looking for. I haven’t run it on a Pi but it should work on that. You’ll be able to play music using the web ui as well as mobile apps if that’s your thing. It can also transcode on the fly so if your current browser/device/whatever can’t play .flac directly it’ll automatically transcode the playback to .mp3 or whatever it needs to be.
There are some other self hosted music/streaming projects you could take a look at that are much more built out for music playback specifically. Look into Airsonic-Advanced or Navidrome for example - I’ve been meaning to check them out myself but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I’m using Jellyfin, but navidrome worked just as well when I tried it
I have a RaspberryPi with a Plex container sitting upstairs. Works like a charm
