====== MPD ======

**MPD** (__M__usic __P__layer __D__aemon) is a light-weight server for streaming music. Because it's a //server// you'll also need a client to tell the server what to do, but this setup means you can run the server on one computer, and use a number of other devices to control it.

===== Notes on Clients =====

  * [[ncmpcpp]] - [[Curses]]-based client that seems more full-featured than any of the available GUI ones. Good tag management, which includes being [[Picard]]-friendly. Because my NAS doen't have any kind of audio hardware I still need a [[music player]] that can handle streams ([[MPlayer]], [[ffmpeg]], [[vlc]], etc.---even a [[web browser|web browser]] works) to actually hear the audio.
  * [[MPDroid]] - It's the only [[Android]] client in [[F-Droid]] that works on [[samsung_sm-t330|my old tablet]] (Android 4.4).
  * [[MALP]] - Android client that's pretty similar to [[MPDroid]], but kinda still being worked on. Playlist management features are lacking. I prefer MPDroid.
  * [[Ymuse]] - Simple GUI client.

==== Haven't Tried ====

Just listing some GUI clients I might try at some point.

  * Ario [[arch>ario]] [[http://ario-player.sourceforge.net/]] - [[foobar_2000|Foobar]]ish layout
  * Cantata [[arch>cantata]] [[github>CDrummond/cantata]] - Finished
  * Xfmpc [[arch>xfmpc]] [[https://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfmpc]]
  * Sonata [[aur>sonata]] [[https://www.nongnu.org/sonata/]
  * Ymuse [[aur>ymuse]] [[https://yktoo.com/en/software/ymuse/]]
  * Ympd [[aur>ympd-git]] [[https://ympd.org/]]
  * QMPDClient [[aur>qmpdclient]] [[https://bitcheese.net/QMPDClient/]]
  * myMPD [[github>jcorporation/myMPD]] - Light, browser-based client.
  * Maximum MPD [[github>rbackhouse/MaximumMPD]] - Semms to have a good UI and features, but doesn't do streaming?
  * There are some [[rofi]]-based ones that seem interesting too...
    * [[https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?K=rofi+mpd]]
    * [[github>carnager/clerk]]

===== Guide =====
==== QNAP ====

Notes on using **MPD** on a [[qnap_ts-231p]]. Setup to work on my local network only.

I used this package from a third-party repository (see: [[https://qnapclub.eu/en/howto/1|Install our repository]], if needed).

  * https://www.qnapclub.eu/en/qpkg/510

NB: Qnapclub is basically dead now, but the MPD package on it's replacement is currently not available due to an error (https://www.myqnap.org/?s=mpd)

The files you need are in ''/opt/MPD/'', to start you'll want to get into the config. file at ''/opt/MPD/etc/mpd.conf''

(It's also worth mentioning that the error log file is at ''/opt/MPD/var/log/mpd/mpd.log'')

A lot of the defaults of fine, but:

  * Check your ''music_directory'' and ''playlist_directory''
  * Check your ''user''
  * I can't remember what was set initially, but you can comment out ''bind_to_address'', as the default works.
  * Review ''log_level'', ''gapless_mp3_playback'', ''restore_paused'', ''save_absolute_paths_in_playlists'', ''auto_update''.
  * Check the password stuff.
  * Curl input plugin's just for Internet stuff so I disabled it.
  * ''audio_output'' depends on your usage. My NAS has no soundcard, so I disabled ALSA and enabled HTTPD. If you want to use it to host an Internet accessible stream look at Shout. You can have multiple, and select which are active with your client.
    * Give your stream a fun name :)
    * Check the quality settings.
    * Default ''format'' was only mono! Change it to ''"44100:16:2"''
    * And the rest of the file is up to you again.
    * If you don't want your output to be resampled you can add and set to ''"no"'' ''auto_resample'', ''auto_channels'', and ''auto_format''

When the config's ready you can start or restart MPD through the NAS's web interface, or through running ''./mpd --kill'' from ''/opt/MPD/bin'' (it will restart itself).

You don't need to forward ports unless you want to access MPD from outside the local network.

Only option I have for output is HTTPD. This has a bit of lag when doing things like skipping songs and starting that is //slightly// annoying, so if you can use something else I recommend doing that.

=== My Config ===

Here's the contents of mine, for reference:

<code>
music_directory         "/share/Multimedia/Music"
playlist_directory      "/share/Multimedia/Music/playlists/mpd"
db_file                 "/opt/MPD/var/lib/mpd/tag_cache"
log_file                "/opt/MPD/var/log/mpd/mpd.log"
pid_file                "/opt/MPD/var/run/mpd/pid"
state_file              "/opt/MPD/var/lib/mpd/state"
sticker_file            "/opt/MPD/var/lib/mpd/sticker.sql"
 
user                    "[...]"
password                "[...]"
#default_permissions    "[...]"

#log_level                              "default"
gapless_mp3_playback                    "no"
#restore_paused                         "no"
save_absolute_paths_in_playlists        "no"
auto_update                             "yes"

audio_output {
        type            "httpd"
        name            "MPD QNAP HTTPD"
        port            "8000"
#       quality         "5.0"
        bitrate         "320"
        format          "44100:16:2"
        max_clients     "0"
        always_on       "yes"
        tags            "yes"
}

#replaygain                     "album"
#replaygain_preamp              "0"
#replaygain_missing_preamp      "0"
#replaygain_limit               "yes"
#volume_normalization           "no"

filesystem_charset              "UTF-8"
</code>

==== Playlists ====

Got stuck on this for a bit because it's weird.

The ''playlist_directory'' you configure is meant for [[playlists|playlists]] made with MPD. Deceptively, it uses ''.m3u'' files, but they're not standard (m3u is barely a standard...): They're a [[plaintext|plain]] list of file paths relative to configured ''music_directory'', they work just fine with [[Unicode]], they  don't use the ''#EXTM3U'' header, and if you create them outside of MPD and put them here they won't read the first line.

You can, however, load many kinds of playlists from other directories, but I've had mixed results with this: [[MPDroid]] doesn't seem to see playlists in ''music_directory'', so I've only had luck using absolute paths; [[ncmpcpp]] shows playlists from ''playlist_directory'' and ''music_directory'' on the browse page, and the ones in ''music_directory'' work fine with relative paths.

If you do want to manually make playlists by hand, or by exporting from your [[music_player]], give them an ''.m3u'' extension, leave the first line blank, make the paths relative to the configured ''music_directory'', and don't add anything else.

So they should look something like this:

<code>

Bowie, David/[1974] Diamond Dogs (30th Anniversary Edition)/1,06 Rebel Rebel.mp3
Bowie, David/[1973] Aladdin Sane (30th Anniversary Edition)/2,11 John I'm Only Dancing (Sax Version).mp3
Bowie, David/[1973] Pin Ups/08 Sorrow.mp3
Bowie, David/[1975] Young Americans/08 Fame.mp3
Bowie, David/[1972] The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars/10 Suffragette City.mp3
Bowie, David/[1971] Hunky Dory/02 Oh! You Pretty Things.mp3
Bowie, David/[1971] Hunky Dory/12 Bombers (previously unreleased) [bonus].mp3
Bowie, David/[1983] Let's Dance/01 Modern Love.mp3
Bowie, David/[1975] Young Americans/01 Young Americans.mp3
</code>

If you load this in MPD, then resave it, it'll sort out that first line silliness.

==== Cover Art ====

MPD now supports cover art. It'll grab any image in the same directory as the file called ''cover.[png|jpg|tiff|bmp]''.

===== See Also =====

  * [[https://www.musicpd.org/|www.musicpd.org]]
  * [[archw>Music Player Daemon]] on the Arch wiki.
    * [[archw>Music Player Daemon/Tips and tricks]]
  * [[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/MPD|MPD]] on the [[Gentoo]] wiki.
  * [[https://mpd.fandom.com/|Music Player Daemon Wiki]]

{{tag>audio music guide config self-hosting recommendations software}}