Ok so I'm sick of paying for spotify just to listen to music that I own as an mp3, the main appeal of spotify for me was the abillity to have a huge library of music available on the go without using up my limited amount of sd space on my phone. So i've decided to set up a music server to replace my use of spotify.
So I was wondering who else has done this or is currently making use of a music server. And if you can give me some tips / point me in the right direction like;
What music server to actually use.
What android client would be best to access and play the music.
I was thinking of just using a samba file server and using ES File Explorer to do this however I want a more elegant solution :)
If you want to be able to access your media remotely, then smb share is out of the question. Do. Not. Route. That. Over. The. Internet. Don't.
What I would do is give Plex a shot. The android client is 5 bucks I think, the server software is free, and it is by far one of the best if not the best media server platforms I've ever used.
If you don't like Plex and want a more cloud like experience I'd try owncloud.
I run mpd as my main music player as it is. Recently discovered it had streaming capabilities.
It takes a config option where you open up both an http feed to the audio stream, and then another port for actual client control.
Whenever I'm at work, I just plug in my headphones, launch ncmpcpp on my laptop, which is configured to connect to mpd on my home server, then turn off the speaker audio streams--don't want to shit scare the roommates by max volume electro house blasting out of my room suddenly without me there--and turn on the audio-over-http stream. Then use VLC to connect to the audio-over-http stream and boom.
I would look into Subsonic. I set it up purely out of curiosity when a co-worker of mine mentioned it and it was extremely easy to use and setup. I have no needs to stream my music but I would recommend Subsonic for anybody who does. It will also stream any video but I have set up Plex to do that so I have no need for it. They have apps for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and even Chrome.
"beefy" Idk, man. Been running plex in my freenas for a while. It's only an fx-4100 which is the equivalent of the phenom x4. Tested with 12 simultaneous high-bitrate bluray rips and cpu usage was at around 30%.
I mean, I wouldn't to it on an atom, but, a mid range desktop part should be just fine.
Huh. It outperformed my A10-5800k that I was using for a while in terms of CPU usage. That being said, it was also my main machine at the time that I would do everything on.
Maybe missing something on this, but why would you need mpd and vlc? Could you not use vlc alone to send playlist to stream? and by having vlc set for stream and mpd to play local would not have to change other audio settings.
I use BUTT and IDJC currently. BUTT would seem a simpler option to pair with mpd than vlc.
I will recommend Subsonic again. It is a great piece of software and easy to set up. If you want to keep using mobile clients after your trial period of a month is exceeded you will have to donate at least a dollar per month, I believe. But that should be no problem. --> http://subsonic.org
I think you might be looking for MPD, I have used that several year back. But gave up on it because my Linux knowledge at that time was very limited. I believe you can setup a server with it, and there are tons of Clients written to work with MPD.
I will do some research and see if I can find any guides on it or some more details. As for android clients I'm not sure.
I set up a mpd server but I couldnt figure out how to stream it to the device all I managed to do was use it as a remote media management and play audio through my speakers attached to the server and when I set up streaming there was no sound from my phone.
Sorry, it was early, perhaps I worded myself poorly.
mpd is running on my desktop, it is also streaming out over the internet, thus meaning my desktop is effectively my music server.
I can connect to the stream remotely on the internet via my phone using the MPDroid app. On my laptop the solution is a bit clunkier, since I use VLC to listen, and ncmpcpp to control, since controlling mpd, and listening to mpd, are considered different services that are run through different ports.