Services

MusicPlayerPlus Services and Clients

MusicPlayerPlus includes several services, some installed by default and others optionally installed with the mppinit command post-installation. Clients that can be used to access these services are also provided.

Services

The following services are included with MusicPlayerPlus:

• Music Player Daemon (MPD)
  • Installed, configured, and activated by default
• MPD Stats Service
  • Installed, configured, and activated by default
• Beets Web Plugin Service
  • Installed, configured, and activated by default
• Mopidy Music Server
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit mopidy
  • When activated, deactivates MPD, MPD Stats, and YAMS services
• Navidrome Music Streaming Server
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit navidrome
• YAMS Last.FM Scrobbler
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit yams

All of the MusicPlayerPlus services are user-level systemd services and can be controlled by the MusicPlayerPlus user without the need for root privilege. The mpplus -i interactive menu system includes menu entries for controlling each of these services as well as a status report on them by selecting the “Manage Music Services” from the Main Menu. Alternately, each service can be controlled from the command line using systemctl --user .... For example, to stop the MPD Stats Service, run the command systemctl --user stop mpdstats.

Which services should be installed and activated

Depending upon the use case and personal preference, a variety of combinations of MusicPlayerPlus services can be activated. Mopidy with the Mopidy-MPD extension conflicts with the MPD service. YAMS and MPD Stats only work with MPD. Therefore, if Mopidy is activated the MPD, YAMS, and MPD Stats services are automatically deactivated. Similarly, if the MPD service is reactivated, the YAMS and MPD Stats services are reactivated and Mopidy deactivated.

Choose which service you prefer, MPD or Mopidy, and activate it with either mppinit mopidy or mppinit mpd (after activating Mopidy then deciding to reactivate MPD). Using these two commands, mppinit mopidy and mppinit mpd, it is easy to switch between the two conflicting services.

The advantage of MPD is its stability, maturity, flexibility, power, and extensive configuration options. However, it is difficult to enable streaming with MPD. The advantage of Mopidy is its streaming capability and the variety of useful extensions, many of which are installed by default with mppinit mopidy.

An even better streaming solution is provided by Navidrome. Activating Navidrome enables access to the music library from any desktop, phone, tablet, or remote device with a browser. There are numerous Navidrome clients available for all devices and platforms. Activating Navidrome does not conflict with any of the other MusicPlayerPlus services so it can be streaming the music library while MPD or Mopidy is serving up the same library locally. Navidrome can optionally scrobble to Last.FM so if that option is enabled then deactivate the YAMS service.

Common Service Configurations

MusicPlayerPlus provides several different selections of services appropriate for a variety of use cases. All service configurations require a prior MusicPlayerPlus initialization with mppinit. Some common MusicPlayerPlus service configurations include:

• Basic Music Player Daemon
  • Configured automatically with mppinit
  • MPD enabled and active, all other services disabled
  • Use mpplus, mpcplus, mpc, etc to play music on local system
• Music Player Daemon plus Beets
  • Configured with mppinit import
  • MPD and Beets enabled and active, all other services disabled
  • Use beet ..., mpplus, mpcplus, mpc, to search, filter, play, …
  • Enables the Beets web plugin at http://<ip address>:8337
• Mopidy Music Server plus Beets
  • Configured with mppinit import, and mppinit mopidy
  • Mopidy and Beets enabled and active, other services disabled
  • Use beet ..., mpplus, mpcplus, mpc, to search, filter, play, …
  • Enables the Beets web plugin at http://<ip address>:8337
  • Enables the Mopidy web client at http://<ip address>:6680
• Navidrome Streaming plus Mopidy Music Server plus Beets
  • Configure with mppinit import, mppinit mopidy, mppinit navidrome
  • Navidrome, Mopidy and Beets enabled and active, other services disabled
  • Use beet ..., mpplus, mpcplus, mpc, to search, filter, play, …
  • Enables the Beets web plugin at http://<ip address>:8337
  • Enables the Mopidy web client at http://<ip address>:6680
  • Enables the Navidrome web client at http://<ip address>:4533
  • Supports many clients available for all desktops, tablets, and phones
  • Run mppinit import after new mppinit bandcamp|soundcloud downloads
• Navidrome Music Streaming Server without MPD/Mopidy/Beets
  • Configure with mppinit navidrome
  • No need for mppinit import|metadata|mopidy|yams
  • Use mpplus -i menu system to stop and disable all other services
    • Select “Manage Music Services” from the Main Menu
    • If active, Stop and Disable MPD, Mopidy, and Beets
  • Navidrome enabled and active, other services disabled
  • Enables the Navidrome web client at http://<ip address>:4533
  • Supports many clients available for all desktops, tablets, and phones
  • No need for mppinit import after mppinit bandcamp|soundcloud downloads

Clients

The following clients are included with MusicPlayerPlus:

• mpplus MusicPlayerPlus front-end
  • Installed by default, see man mpplus
  • Front-ends mpcplus MPD client and mppcava spectrum visualizer
  • Example: mpplus
• mpcplus character-based feature-full MPD client
  • Installed by default, see man mpcplus
  • Example: mpcplus
• mpc command-line MPD client
  • Installed by default, see man mpc
  • Examples: mpc stop, mpc current, mpc play
• beet command-line interface to Beets
  • Installed by default, see man beet
  • Examples: beet play jethro tull, beet info -l aqualung
• Beets web client
  • Installed by default
  • Open http://<ip address>:8337
• Mopidy web client
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit mopidy
  • Open http://<ip address>:6680
• Mopidy Iris web client
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit mopidy
  • Open http://<ip address>:6680/iris
• Mopidy-Mobile
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit mopidy
  • Open http://<ip address>:6680/mobile
• Navidrome web client
  • Installed, configured, and activated with mppinit navidrome
  • Open http://<ip address>:4533