How to Stream Local Music Library Remotely?

Jud · August 8, 2019

Thanks @AudioBob for some excellent options. The OneDrive idea was appealing, but I'm just over 1TB of music right now, and OneDrive starts getting a little more expensive after that. I also didn't feel much like paying for two cloud services (I use Backblaze for backup, the unlimited plan, with which I'm pleased).

I had looked at Squeezebox plus iPeng, but the idea that I would have to run a VPN to have any sort of security was off-putting.

I originally tried Airsonic, but didn't find the documentation as clear and simple as Subsonic, so for the moment I'm trying the latter. Play:Sub as an iPhone client was highly rated, but for some reason the app crashed for me every time I launched it after pointing it at my music collection. I tried iSub, but felt it was too much fuss figuring out how to avoid transcoding.

AVSub provides full resolution "out of the box." I'm happily now at the "initial proof of concept" stage with Subsonic as a music server via the Web and AVSub as an iPhone client, no limitations on the amount of music I can have in my library and able to play nearly all resolutions (even, it's claimed, DSD using DoP). 4G LTE cell service will support up to 24/96 in my experience; for higher resolution you'd need Wi-Fi. I've been listening on daily walks and in the car (though here in the mountain West population density is low enough and the topography variable enough that cell service while driving can be spotty).

What I need to teach myself now is how to secure the website (use https instead of the current http, which I don't want to do for any length of time). I'm sure use of Let's Encrypt and setting up a reverse proxy with nginx is relative child's play, but I'm enough of a Linux tyro that I haven't quite been able to manage it. It would also be nice to learn how to secure things further. For example, I notice Nextcloud has a 2FA app. That looks like a good idea.

Edit: Ah, one other possibility I should mention: JRiver allows you to play your own or others' playlists, and Just Works. It must be playlists and not full albums, though. If you're the sort of person who loves to create playlists, this could be just the thing for you. I'm a little too lazy to be one of those people. I'd like to stream my own collection in full, one or several albums at a time, or let serendipity create the playlist by setting playback to random.

ShawnC · August 8, 2019

7 hours ago, Jud said:

Edit: Ah, one other possibility I should mention: JRiver allows you to play your own or others' playlists, and Just Works. It must be playlists and not full albums, though. If you're the sort of person who loves to create playlists, this could be just the thing for you. I'm a little too lazy to be one of those people. I'd like to stream my own collection in full, one or several albums at a time, or let serendipity create the playlist by setting playback to random.

It's been awhile since I used Jriver streaming from home, but I could do all those things above and stream any album in full. It's just like using there regular software. They have had some mobile app problems in the past but I never did while using it. I was using an iPhone to stream when I did.

What I liked about Jriver's playlists is that you can get really picky on how you want a playlist to be created. For example, I had a work out playlist that only played songs from Rock or Metal genres, they were 3 stars or better with over 200 beats per minute and were less than 5 minutes long in order to keep the music fresh and fast for the workout.

I'm not trying push Jriver, just making sure you have all information correct. I use Roon only these days and for streaming I just found it's easier to load up the phone with songs and stream Qobuz or iHeart radio.

It's been interesting to hear all the other services that you've been looking into. I hope Roon's next major update will include streaming, which they are working on.

Good luck,

Shawn

jriver · August 8, 2019

Jud,

You're thinking of our new Cloudplay streaming. You're correct that this is limited to playlists because of licensing.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Cloudplay

Shawnc is talking about using JRiver Media Center's Library Server to serve your local files. You can then connect to it from a phone or another copy of MC. You can use the client to control MC or as a remote player, from your LAN or the Internet.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Network

Most JRiver remotes support this.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Remotes