tquadrat.org

Music Server

My requirements for a Music Server were the following:

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 followed the steps from the Linux Stuff page to install the basic software and Java, and to configure 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.