Custom music streaming

Those of you, who don’t use traditional streaming services, like spotify, apple music, tidal, deezer, etc etc, do you stream music in some other way? What is your approach?
Do you use something like Qnap or Synology music streaming? Do you hack something together, with tools like cherry music? Or perhaps something simpler, just accessing your library on local network with UAPP or Neutron?

My entire music collection is uploaded on Google Play Music (for free) for on-the-go use, like when I am at work.
For home use, it’s always my local files since they are also higher quality (~100 GB). I even have backups. I like my collection permanent in nature, not on someone else’s servers.

I have a Synology NAS running Plex. With the Android Plex app, I can stream my music from anywhere. I can also sync a playlist to my phone and have it automatically add/remove media to/from my phone as I modify the playlist. It’s pretty slick.

doesnt that require the paid version of plex?

No. You can use Plex for absolutely for Free. The paid version, or Plex Pass has extra features that you may not necessarily use. The biggest value is if you have a TV/Movie collection as well. I have toyed with the idea of writing a Plex guide- specific to music as Plex is probably more in my wheel house than than fancy HiFI equipment.

The extra features are Lyrics, Auto Generated playlists, cover art and bios. So essentially “Custom Music Streaming” based on your music library.

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Yes. $5 per month is pretty darn reasonable, though.

Edit: (The syncing part definitely requires the paid version. I’m not sure about some of the other parts since I’m a subscriber)

They switched things to where you can run Tidal as part of Plex. At a rate of $8.99 and you don’t have to provide your own content.

But if you have your own FLAC or MP3s, and want to stream them OTG you could stream on Plex 100% for free.

Though on your phone, you may need to purchase the Plex App, unless you access your server over a browser, which I wouldn’t recommend.

i wouldnt say its reasonable, as it is using your hardware, files, and connection. as a one time payment for software? okey. as a subscription? no

Well, I guess whether or not their premium services are reasonable is a subjective opinion. Much of it can be had for free. Their infrastructure is what enables the connectivity between mobile devices and your Plex server. They are also providing a metadata service including artist bios, artwork, lyrics, etc.

As a software developer, I’m in favor of supporting companies that provide a useful product so their developers can get paid and continue enhancing the application.

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Those of you running the Plex Android app, how did you find the battery drain? The last time I tried streaming my library with it Plex chugged down battery like a college freshman chugs down alcohol (at least they do where I live). Way more so than Spotify (granted I was streaming FLACs) but even when I wasn’t streaming it sat in the background chewing up CPU cycles and consequentially battery.

No issues at all with the battery drain, but I’m not streaming data. I use the sync feature to copy a playlist of FLAC files. No issues with the app idling in the background, either.

I use Emby, but now there is a fork it called Jellyfin, running on a repurposed pc that is now a Linux server. It does music and video streaming duty for me, but it can do a lot more like photos and live tv. Emby does offer a paid subscription that unlocks more features, but Jellyfin is totally free. The downside of using Jellyfin is that it supports fewer platforms, but you can just use the web interface if your platform isn’t supported. I want to switch to Jellyfin, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

The problem with these is that the setup can be a bit involved, especially for Jellyfin, but when you set up everything correctly it’s just as easy to use as Plex.

You can get a lifetime sub to Plex pass for $120 I think, and it also goes on sale for $75 fairly regularly.