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Topic: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)? (Read 11923 times) previous topic - next topic
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Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

I've been living under a rock, I know, but here goes:
I know audio streaming services is the way of the future, but I also have quite a collection of MP3s, that I would like to be able to listen to. Up until now I have had my computer connected to my stereo and listened to them that way. But that's not really doing it for me anymore - I would like myself and the kids to be able to select what to hear directly from our phones and not having to locate my music by browsing folders with Foobar.
I have an old netbook that could hold most of my collection and I would like to repurpose it just for audio (and connected to my stereo). Is there a software that would allow me to control my music from tablets and phones using wifi?
Thanks.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #1 –
The solution I've chosen is to have all of my music on a NAS with media server functionality. I use the app BubbleUPNP on my Android phone to browse the library and create playlists, and it supports streaming to DLNA and Chromecast (among other protocols). I have a Chromecast Audio connected to each of my three stereos, and stream from BubbleUPNP to them individually or collectively for multi-room playback.

You can also use Google Play Music directly, it allows you to upload up to 50,000 of your own tracks, to be streamed to up to 10 devices, which should cover most families. Obviously it can also stream to the Chromecast.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #2 –
Although the product line has been discontinued, Logitech Media Server still has a lot going for it: Free server software, free player software, free/cheap controller apps, robust user community.  Pretty much does exactly what you want.

Server: http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download
Forum: http://forums.slimdevices.com/

That said, it's hard to disagree that Chromecast Audio is the "up and coming" solution.  The most critical complaint I see being that -- using DLNA for local music playback -- CA is not gapless nor does it support ReplayGain.  You're to be forgiven if you don't know what these are but if you're moving to a networked music solution you probably want to learn about them.  LMS having been developed from the start to support music playback has long had both of these capabilities.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Apesbrain on
Although the product line has been discontinued, Logitech Media Server still has a lot going for it: Free server software, free player software, free/cheap controller apps, robust user community.  Pretty much does exactly what you want.

Server: http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download
Forum: http://forums.slimdevices.com/

Agree on the Logitech Media Server route. I use it and players (some hardware, some software) for whole-house audio, managing library (~90,000 tracks), etc. Excellent system and good (and creative) user group.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #4 –
The Synology NAS products are far and way the best NAS-as-media-server solution available. Synology releases very decent media center / player apps for Andriod, Apple and even Windows phone, with album views, playlists, online/offline playing (over the internet too) and so on. They're expensive but worth it. IMO, other NAS products are just toys in comparison.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #5 –
I suggest you'd take a look at Volumio, RuneAudio or Moode Audio.
These are linux distributions running on a raspberry pi (cost ~35$/~40€), turning it into a network audio player.

All three are forks from the now defunct RasPiFi project and are based on the music player daemon for playback. 
They can play music either from a USB drive, a network share or a UPnP/DLNA server.

They can be configured and controlled via a html interface, but since they are full linux distros you can also dig deeper into the system via ssh.

The most convenient way to control those however is an mpd client like MPDroid for Android. This way you can easily browse the music database and control playback.

An additional USB audio device or an i2s module like the HiFiBerry is higly recommended as the analog out of the raspberry is pretty weak (the RasPi doesn't even have it's own dedicated DAC, somehow messes around with PWM to generate an audio signal. Also power supply for the audio circuitry is insufficent, but hey, what do you expect of a 35$ computer?).

Also, an active USB hub is recommended if you want to connect power-hungry devices like hard drives without an external power supply.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #6 –
My solution of choice is Ampache or Subsonic.  They are servers you let scan your music.  They both provide a web front end, and there are desktop and mobile clients.  I forward one port on my firewall, and I can listen to my music on my phone, tablet, or PC from anywhere with an Internet connection.

The mobile clients for phone and tablet will let you cache and pin music, so it's available offline.  Plus, default behavior is to cache anything to plays, so your most popular stuff tends to get cached.

I have the whole family hooked into it now.

Where the actual music files sit doesn't matter.  As long as the server can see them, it can stream them.  I know some NASes allow you to install software and have a packages for Subsonic or Ampache available.

https://www.subsonic.org

https://www.ampache.org

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #7 –
You might find ROON interesting. Its a fairly new system. I've been testing it and it's impressive (and flexible in terms of endpoints).

https://roonlabs.com/
https://community.roonlabs.com/

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
You can also use Google Play Music directly, it allows you to upload up to 50,000 of your own tracks, to be streamed to up to 10 devices, which should cover most families. Obviously it can also stream to the Chromecast.

I recommend this unless you are opposed to Google knowing your listening habits.  Buy a Chromecast Audio for $35 and hook it to your stereo.  Even lower cost solution but not as elegant would be to buy a 1/8" male stereo to RCA male adaptor cord and run your stereo directly from your phones.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: garym on
Quote from: Apesbrain on
Although the product line has been discontinued, Logitech Media Server still has a lot going for it: Free server software, free player software, free/cheap controller apps, robust user community.  Pretty much does exactly what you want.

Server: http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download
Forum: http://forums.slimdevices.com/

Agree on the Logitech Media Server route. I use it and players (some hardware, some software) for whole-house audio, managing library (~90,000 tracks), etc. Excellent system and good (and creative) user group.
There is even a raspberry pi client: piCorePlayer

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: garym on
You might find ROON interesting. Its a fairly new system. I've been testing it and it's impressive (and flexible in terms of endpoints).

https://roonlabs.com/
https://community.roonlabs.com/



Roon sounds a lot like Plex.  Plex, of course, does video too.  But if you get a PlexPass, the music player will show artist bios, convert dates and give you links to videos on Vevo and YouTube.  Does Roon do lyrics?

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #11 –
Another vote for Logitech Media Server.

Supports ReplayGain, .cue sheets, gapless playback, every codec I throw at it, perfectly synchronized multi-room playback, last.fm scrobbling, multi-value tags, etc. It integrates several streaming services such as Spotify as well (no Amazon, though, and getting Google Play Music to work is tricky).

As controllers, you can use an Android/iOS/Win Phone app, any computer with a web browser, old Logitech gear, or DIY gear (touchscreen-based or physical buttons-based or remote control-based or ...)

It is very versatile when it comes to playback clients as well, there's even (albeit somewhat incomplete) support for uPnP/DLNA players, AirPlay devices, and Chromecasts. There are very solid app-based solutions for Android, iOS and Fire OS devices.

But I guess the preferred playback clients nowadays are Raspberry Pis. In case you're looking to connect a player to an AVR, RPi based players are extremely cheap. A Raspberry Pi Zero or B+ can be had for well under 50 dollars/euros/pounds (including the cost of a WiFi dongle, a case, and a USB power supply). If you need analog audio outs, you need to factor in the cost of a DAC (Hifiberry or such). The best OS for RPis is the aforementioned picoreplayer.

In difference to multi-room audio solutions for Sonos, Denon and the like, you need a device which runs the server software (Logitech Media Server). That can be the same RPi which runs the client (but in that case, I'd recommend going for an RPi 2 or 3). Or you can run it on your NAS. For example, Synology provides relatively current builds of Logitech Media Server for its NAS devices (you need to enable "show beta versions" in the package manager).

Another disadvantage as compared to Sonos is that there aren't any all-in-one devices like the Play:1 available apart from some used Logitech gear (which may be obtained via ebay and such). Well, you could actually integrate a Play:1 as it supports DLNA. But it's a bit of a hack and you don't get all of the features you would get with an RPi or a Logitech squeezebox device.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: gottogo99 on
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
You can also use Google Play Music directly, it allows you to upload up to 50,000 of your own tracks, to be streamed to up to 10 devices, which should cover most families. Obviously it can also stream to the Chromecast.

I recommend this unless you are opposed to Google knowing your listening habits.  Buy a Chromecast Audio for $35 and hook it to your stereo.  Even lower cost solution but not as elegant would be to buy a 1/8" male stereo to RCA male adaptor cord and run your stereo directly from your phones.

I think Google really hit a winner with the CCA, actually the whole casting thing in general.

For ~$100 I have synchronized multi-room streaming to three rooms, with integration to just about every app I can think of using. And if I use BubbleUPNP (less than $5) on my phone, I can stream directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, Tidal and a couple of other services that currently do not support Chromecast.

I know Sonos offers more features and cross-app playlists, but at $350 per room for their equivalent to the CCA, they'd better be worried about what Google is doing.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #13 –
One more vote for Logitech Media Server. I've been using the Squeezebox ecosystem since 2005, and have yet to see anything better (although I've not investigated Roon, which has had some good reports). Unlike Sonos, it's an open system and there's a rich variety of third-party plugins that support all manner of things you might like to add.

One obvious approach to getting a server up and running is to install Vortexbox on any spare PC you have lying around. It's based on Fedora Linux, and needs very little hardware. I run mine on a 1.5GHz VIA C7 with just 1GB RAM, and it comfortably supports 4 players. As others have said, a RPi2 will do the job. (Edit - forgot to say that you can't run Vortexbox on a RPi - it's only for Intel CPUs)

Not only does Vortexbox give you LMS, it also has a DAAP server (for iTunes) and DLNA server should you desire either of those. (I personally have had little success with DLNA - it seems a fundamentally flawed protocol).

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #14 –
Quote from: cliveb on
One obvious approach to getting a server up and running is to install Vortexbox on any spare PC you have lying around. It's based on Fedora Linux, and needs very little hardware.

Agree on Vortexbox. I use Vortexbox on the server I use to support my Squeezebox ecosystem. It runs on a small, fanless computer that is in cabinet in back of my house, running 24/7. It serves my own music  (and internet radio) to 4 different squeezebox players around my house (which can be synched to play the same thing or all play something different).  All controlled from my laptop, my ipad, or my iphone.
http://vortexbox.org/about

edit; the Vortexbox also runs PLEX which serves video files to the PLEX app  in my ROKU.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #15 –
Thank you to all of you - I appreciate every input, so I don't have to start my research from scratch. In time I think I'll be trying most of the suggestions in this thread. I think I will start out with the Squeezebox solution, then when time permits try out both the RPi and Chromecast solutions. Thanks again to all of you.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #16 –
Quote from: apastuszak on
Quote from: garym on
You might find ROON interesting. Its a fairly new system. I've been testing it and it's impressive (and flexible in terms of endpoints).

https://roonlabs.com/
https://community.roonlabs.com/



Roon sounds a lot like Plex.  Plex, of course, does video too.  But if you get a PlexPass, the music player will show artist bios, convert dates and give you links to videos on Vevo and YouTube.  Does Roon do lyrics?
I have an Amazon Fire Stick and, while Plex is generally excellent (I only use it for video), it will repeatedly overwrite metadata with what it thinks is correct, even when it isn't. A small problem, but irritating.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #17 –
Have you tried MonkeyMote as a Foobar front-end on mobile devices?  I believe there are two versions - one specifically for Foobar2000.

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #18 –
Few years ago i played with Daphile, and it worked quite OK. It's small preconfigured linux distro.
TAPE LOADING ERROR

Re: Is there an "audio center" software (like Kodi but for Audio)?

Reply #19 –
bubbleupnp+its plugin for foobar for me.