Comments on: How to listen to music?

By: Decisions on Listening to Music | The Changelog

Decisions on Listening to Music | The Changelog — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:31:00 +0000

[...] couple of days ago, I commented about my thoughts on finding a better way to listen to music, and asked for suggestions. I’ve checked out the avenues suggested, and here are my thoughts so [...]

By: jargon

jargon — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 16:48:34 +0000

If you find yourself without means to stream, you could try my python script that I use for syncing my playlists: https://github.com/jargonsum/syncplaylist

It’s command line and very basic, so far. Does the job nicely, imo.

By: rjc

rjc — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:32:48 +0000

I use MPD as well, using a client on my Android phone for control and streaming.
A friend of mine uses Logitech Media Server (Squeezebox server) with SqueezPlay – GPL and BSD licensed respectively.

By: Marand

Marand — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 23:29:05 +0000

I saw this on the Planet Debian feed and came to suggest MPD as well.

The streaming works pretty well for me; the hardest part was figuring out what path to use to listen to the stream*. You can either stream via icecast, or mpd can use an internal httpd for streaming. Stick with the internal httpd if you want simplicity, at least to start: icecast adds an extra layer of complexity that you probably don’t care about right now. Multiple outputs allowed simultaneously, too, so you can do things like play locally with pulseaudio or alsa, while streaming at the same time.

The http stream works in any player that supports streaming, so nearly any computer or mobile device should work. Winamp or MPDroid works well enough for Android, and on a PC I find myself using vlc’s ncurses frontend for simplicity. There are also many front-end options for controlling the playback. My picks are MPDroid on Android, ncmcpp on the CLI, and Ario in X.

Any MPD client (regardless of location) should be able to modify the playlist and control playback, but MPD doesn’t do things like rating or metadata handling directly. Individual clients can implement features on top of MPD, such as Ario displaying album art, so it may be possible to do ratings in some form. I’m not certain about that, since I rarely use rating systems in audio players.

* I had to use, for example, 127.0.0.1:800/playlist.m3u instead of just the address+port, but it wasn’t immediately obvious from configuration or documentation.

By: lachlan

lachlan — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 22:01:49 +0000

I use nfs locally for my computers.
Minidlna for my tv/phone locally
Streeme or ampache over the internet.

You could look for one solution but I haven’t found anything perfect yet.

By: John Goerzen

John Goerzen — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:48:20 +0000

Wow, Subsonic looks very interesting. Thank you.

By: James Curbo

James Curbo — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:56:05 +0000

Subsonic and its various clients will do what you want I think. I have a Subsonic server on my Mac Mini (it runs on Linux too, it’s Java). There is a Web client, I use it on my iPhone and I know there are Android clients as well.

There’s also Logitech Media Server (previous the Squeezebox server) which is GPLd but I haven’t used it in a long time and I’m not sure what the state of clients is for it.

By: Matt Pankratz

Matt Pankratz — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:19:29 +0000

I purchase all of my music via Amazon because all purchases get stored in their Cloud. Then, I download and dump back to Google music for backup.

Playing from the “cloud” via a browser client is what I’ve found to be most flexible.

By: Michel

Michel — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:14:50 +0000

I’d recommend streaming music with pulseaudio via rtp multicast.
The general gist is -> Install pulseaudio on top of alsa. If theres no soundcard on your server available there will be a dummy. Afterwards – create a multicast rtp sender.
Then run a music player of your choice or if running headless – i’d recommend vlc with ncurses interface plus http interface.
This way you can connect to your server, return to your screen session and edit your playlist. Or use the vlc webinterface.
Wherever you’d like to listen to music just install pulseaudio + enable the multicast reciever.

By: John Goerzen

John Goerzen — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:12:56 +0000

That looks appealing. Well, if I can get the streaming to work effortlessly, at least. The server is in my basement so direct audio output from it isn’t necessarily useful ;-)

By: Elessar

Elessar — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:42:05 +0000

You might try MPD streaming to an Icecast server, or directly with its integrated HTTP streaming server.

By: Eric Kow

Eric Kow — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:21:08 +0000

At the risk of being unhelpfully old-fashioned, I just grab the stream from an Internet radio station in iTunes. http://www.fipradio.fr/ (French radio station which is oddly popular in the coastal English city of Brighton)