Music Server Alternatives

General Discussions Lounge
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I’ve been looking around for an alternative music server; does anybody have any suggestions? I’m willing to walk away from a lifetime Plex Pass to get a functional library.

Requirements:

  • My audio files are well-tagged. Use that.
  • Chromecast audio support
  • Local server for my 10,000 track 60GB library. (not much compared to many of you, I know)
  • Mobile app

Not interested in a barebones DLNA solution, and don’t mind paying, but rather not a subscription.

[Mod-Edit: off-topic post; moved into its own thread]

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MPD, Roon, InnuOS

What are your gripes with Plex? I’ve recently changed from Roon to Plex (controlled through Plexamp) and it’s been remarkably hassle-free.

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Odd. I replied to this thread Music tracks need genre - #84 by DomiGisin and instead it created a new thread. This isn’t off-topic, it’s a solution to Plex’ poor music management

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I’m curious about your definition of „on topic“ by which your question for an alternative server solution belongs in a feature suggestion asking for tracks to support genre tags.

It seemed very much off topic to me, hence I’ve moved it.

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Is there another solution? The request for track-specific tag support has been out there for years with nothing apparently done, so I think it’s appropriate to ask for something that can provide a solution for everybody in the original thread.

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First, no it’s probably not appropriate to ask about competing services in the public Plex forums and honestly it kind of blows my mind that they even allow that and furthermore that somehow you can come to the conclusion that it was appropriate to ask that in the first place. Would you walk into a Five Guys and ask them to show you where a better burger joint is? Probably not. Second, you posted this in a thread requesting a feature and discussing how the feature may be implemented, what they want from it, etc. So again, probably not appropriate as passive aggressively asking for another service does nothing to improve the conversation. Third, you could spend 10 minutes of your precious time on google and find a whole host of alternatives, and try them to see if they meet your needs.

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Sure, I agree it’s probably not particularly kosher to ask about competing services. :slight_smile:

If only you knew how many hours (probably days cumulatively) I have spent researching other options. What actually shut me down the most was Google Music closing down. But even they had bad limitations (like max limits of songs per playlist).

However, I see a lot of people for a lot of years frustrated at no solution. What do you propose I do? I’ve voted, I’ve commented, I’ve supported Plex with a PlexPass subscription. The stony silence from Plex themselves is decidedly unhelpful.

I agree with another frustrated user, where if Plex has no plans to implement per-track metadata, just tell us so and be done with it.

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Roon seems promising. What made you switch to Plex?

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Price, and clunky apps that don’t feel at home on their OS. That said their approach is a little more professional and focused when it comes to metadata, and I miss the ability to set up a parametric equaliser or apply room correction.
Worth it if you’re really serious about your music, but for casual listening I felt it overkill.

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From our flairs we have a lifetime supply or pay monthly for burgers; at the table…

Plexburger - My current daily meal, classic hamburger, DVR garlic fries are great, no you cannot add cheese and no you cannot remove onions. Adding things like bacon when the it still doesn’t have tomato. Could be the best burger around with some tweaks (I have been filling out the comment card for years, not sure if they read those). Also has a second similar burger-amp, and you wonder why they don’t just add that extra patty to the main burger. Probably stick with this one since I bought a lifetime supply.

Sonosburger - Doesn’t serve burgers with more than 64,000 patties, some people want more. Slow from ordering to table, sometimes the order is wrong, when it is they just give you the next item on the menu. Low service for the most expensive place, but nice when not busy. I go here occasionally.

NASburger - Parts provided, patty is refrigerated, just need to find the right temp to cook it to. Provided access to the kitchen, but I wasn’t sure if the grill has enough heat for it, didn’t want to buy another grill.

Roonburger - Provided a frozen patty, bun, toppings, wrapped cheese slice, and access to the kitchen. Assemble and hope you get it right. No fries. Instructions unclear, possible to overcook. I went back to Plexburger.

Linuxburger - Free flour, yeast, water, egg, a live cow, tomato seeds, lettuce seeds, onion seeds. “You have all the tools you need.” It will make a mess. You might even put a whole plexburger inside of a linux burger. I did this once, impractical to eat daily.

@la5rocks

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11

I use emby. When you compare how EASY it works with music compared to plex, it’s just silly. It pulls the embedded tags and you can sort everything by genre by default (no need for playlists and stuff), or by artists, albums, composers etc if you need that.
You can cast to chromecast devices and there’s an android app for it.
It’s very lighweight and it scans the files really quickly.
The downside is that it’s rather simple and unrefined and I found some features that are missing. I would love something like Plexamp for emby.
There’s also Jellyfin but I feel like they go the Plex way of doing things.

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@bogdan2011 I’ve checked out Emby, and it indeed makes genre available, without any fuss. Worth considering, for sure, since info is per-track. I have used iTunes Grouping to “tag” tracks, but neither Plex nor Emby lets me get those tags. Both support tagging tracks with tags, if I can figure out how to transfer all my tags.

I like how I can authenticate to Emby without using Emby Connect, as I use my system offline as well. Plex can do this, with some work, by turning off authentication completely for specific destinations.

Then, how to use the tags. Emby quickly shows me tracks grouped by tag, not bad.

Still nothing I’ve seen yet in any product comes anywhere close to iTunes smart playlists, where I can combine multiple criteria on any field in the database.