I tried to summarize my answer to your question briefly. But there’s multiple layers to this answer, and I can tell I was just rambling a fair bit. I’m really into music as a hobby, so I’m kind of sorting my own thoughts out while I type this out.
To tldr it if you don’t wanna read a wall of text:
I just don’t feel the need to host exclusively to one platform right now. Different programs fit different use cases that are useful to have, even if what that specific use-case is ends up being rather niche. I’m checking things out, seeing what I like, what I don’t, and naturally gravitating towards whatever ends up working for me. But I’m keeping my options open.
My original post:
Yeah one app to rule them all is a nice goal to have. But since we’re getting every function split off anyways, I figure there’s no harm in exploring other unitaskers for each function instead of depending on a multi-tool that won’t exist anymore.
As to why I have another server program. Few reasons.
For starters, Symfonium works great for mobile but I don’t believe it has a Windows app. I also only just recently learned about it so I’m learning the ins and outs, having Plexamp as a fallback is nice while I poke around the interface and figure out how it works. It may eventually be my main way of listening to music on mobile, or it may not, I don’t have a lot of faith in Plex right now so I’m preparing for a future where they decide to break more things. Right now, as things stand with the current version of Plex and Plexamp I am fairly happy with it. But since we’re getting forced into an uncertain future with an undependable updated suite of programs, and growing monetization schemes, I don’t have any confidence that will be permanent. That’s why I dual-up on Plexamp and Symfonium as far as android is concerned for now.
Windows is a really interesting one for me though. With that same Navidrome server I’m using to connect to Symfonium I’m able to connect to Navidrome through browser. I also found this wrapper or front-end, whatever you’d call it, named aonsoku that takes the Navidrome browser experience and makes it look really good.
The benefit of Navidrome for me is that it works on windows where Symfonium I don’t think does. And it also means I can make friends accounts to access it without having to walk them through the different Plex programs, walk them through configuring their default Plex configuration to unpin the streaming service upsell crap, pinning the libraries they care about, or if they use Plexamp properly walking them through how to navigate different libraries and blahblah. That last one is a huge benefit for me since I can send them a URL to Navidrome, give them their credentials, and instantly in their browser they can just go for it. It’s insanely simple.
With aonsoku I even removed the login requirement entirely so there’s even less friction. And without a login requirement I can link directly to a song I might want to share with them. Currently if I wanted to use Plexamp to link them a song I’d either have to convince them to make a Plex account, install it, then I’ll have to tell them which library, album, and artist. Or I’d have to download it to my local machine, then send it over discord or cloud. All super annoying. But with Navidrome I can just… “Here’s a link. Good song, right?” without any BS at all.
Frictionless.
It’s really nice because the hardest thing with the Plex server is just getting people willing to even deal with any of this. Like you want to share this hobby and media with family and close friends, but the natural inclination is “that’s way too much work. That’s overwhelming.” And then they don’t.
I use Plex, and Navidrome. As of this week I’ve added Jellyfin to the list. The resource overhead is so minimal I don’t think I’m ever going to sweat it or notice. Which gives me a reason to not need to go exclusive with any of them. They’re already configured. They’re all drawing from the same library.
Symfonium and Plexamp gives me a choice between two options for mobile music listening. I’m still getting used to it. Whether or not it becomes my default go-to or not is something only time will be able to tell. But just because I have Symfonium doesn’t mean I necessarily need to immediately delete and cleanup all Plex stuff.
Despite having Navidrome I’m still using Plexamp on windows because while I love being able to share music without friction there are things about Plexamp I do like, like the built-in EQ profiles. And my playlists are already on there. Actually, I thought there was more than those two things keeping me on Plexamp. But I guess not.
I also use Foobar, but I’m using the EOLE theme and it sometimes gets a little weird because it keeps wanting to resize itself onto my left monitor and I don’t know why. So that’s why I’d use Plexamp over that. But between that and Navidrome, I suppose I don’t have a lot of reasons to keep using Plexamp at this point.
Guess it boils down to momentum. Mental cost of switching to something new.
Huh. Weird.
