Music Server

My requirements for a Music Server were the following:

• it must be able to play live streams from internet radio stations
• it has to be able to output to AirPlay as I use two old Apple TVs as connectors to my speakers
• it should run on a Raspberry Pi; running on Pi 4 would be nice, as I have several of them, but requiring a Pi 5 would not cause serious issues

After some research in the Web, I found OwnTone.

Installation of OwnTone

The starting page for the installation of OwnTone in general can be found here. It provides links to detailed instructions for the different targets.

As I want to install it on a Raspberry Pi, I used the description provided here.

1. General Preparations

   I installed the latest Raspberry Pi OS, using the Imager; at the time of writing (2024-08-04) this is the 64-bit Bookworm version, with Desktop and SSH enabled.

   Next I installed some basic software (described here) and Java (described here) and then I configured the software.

   I switched off WiFi and assigned a fixed IP address to the music server.

2. Create the Folders for the Music

   I decided to store the files in the users home folder; there already exists a folder Music. So I created the necessary folders there:

   cd ~/Music
   mkdir Audiobooks Compilations Podcasts
   

3. Add the repository key for the OwnTone repository:

   wget -q -O - http://www.gyfgafguf.dk/raspbian/owntone.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor --output /usr/share/keyrings/owntone-archive-keyring.gpg
   

4. Add the repository for Bookworm :

   sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owntone.list http://www.gyfgafguf.dk/raspbian/owntone-bookworm.list
   

   According to the documentation, there are also versions for *Bullseye’ and ‘Buster’ available.

5. Install the software

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install owntone -y
   

6. For the next steps, it is useful when OwnTone is currently not running, therefore we make sure that it does not run:

   sudo service owntone stop
   

7. Move the data files to the target location in the home folder.

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/owntone/cache ~/.local/share/owntone/log
   sudo mv /var/cache/owntone/* ~/.local/share/owntone/cache/
   sudo chmod <user>:<group>  ~/.local/share/owntone/cache/*
   sudo rmdir /var/cache/owntone
   sudo rm /var/log/owntone
        
   

8. Edit the configuration file /etc/owntone.conf to suit the individual needs. The line numbers may vary.

   …
    10 general {
    11     # Username
    12     # Make sure the user has read access to the library directories you set
    13     # below, and full access to the databases, log and local audio
    14     uid = "<user>"
    15 
    16     # Database location
    17     db_path = "/home/<user>/.local/share/owntone/cache/songs3.db"
    18 
    19     # Database backup location
    20     # Uncomment and specify a full path to enable abilty to use REST endpoint
    21     # to initiate backup of songs3.db
    22     db_backup_path = "/home/<user>/.local/share/owntone/cache/songs3.bak"
    23 
    24     # Log file and level
    25     # Available levels: fatal, log, warning, info, debug, spam
    26     logfile = "/home/<user>/.local/share/owntone/log/owntone.log"
    27     loglevel = log
    28 
   …
    54 
    55     # Location of cache database
    56     cache_path = "/home/<user>/.local/share/owntone/cache/cache.db"
    57
   …
    70 }
    71 
    72 # Library configuration
    73 library {
    74     # Name of the library as displayed by the clients (%h: hostname). If you
    75     # change the name after pairing with Remote you may have to re-pair.
    76     name = "Music on %h"
    77 
    78     # TCP port to listen on. Default port is 3689 (daap)
    79     port = 3689
   …
    84     # Directories to index
    85     directories = { "/home/<user>/Music" }
   …
   235 
   236     # Allows creating, deleting and modifying m3u playlists in the library directories.
   237     # Only supported by the player web interface and some mpd clients
   238     # Defaults to being disabled.
   239     allow_modifying_stored_playlists = true
   …
   246     # By default OwnTone will - like iTunes - clear the playqueue if
   247     # playback stops. Setting clear_queue_on_stop_disable to true will keep
   248     # the playlist like MPD does. Note that some dacp clients do not show
   249     # the playqueue if playback is stopped.
   250     clear_queue_on_stop_disable = true
   251 }
   252 
   …
   

   I do not have a speaker system directly connected to the music server, therefore the local audio output is disabled.

   …
   252 
   253 # Local audio output
   254 #audio {
   255     # Name - used in the speaker list in Remote
   256 #   nickname = "Computer"
   257
   …
   294 #}
   295 
   …
   

9. Start/restart the OwnTone service:

   sudo service owntone start
   

10. Wait for the library scan to complete. The progress can be followed with one of the commands below:

    tail -f /home/<user>/.local/share/owntone/log/owntone.log
    sudo service owntone status
    journalctl -xeu owntone.service
    systemctl status owntone.service
    

11. Connect to the music server with a browser through the URL http://<server>:3689/ and finish the configuration there.

Finally I had to move the music files to the ~/Music folder to make it available.

For internet radio stations, I have created a Radio.m3u in ~/Music that contains the links to the respective streams.