Putting this in Computer Hardware since I suspect people who'd know are most likely to look in here.

I've got a NAS (Synology) that serves plex and connected software, plus my backups.

I'd like to have a "plex for music" on my iPhone, hopefully something that handles a bit of complexity.

Actual Plex seems too video oriented. Most personal streaming apps on iOS just connect to dropbox or similar direct to disk type of thing.

What I'm hoping for is something that'd take over the XML library from my old itunes, with stuff like "date added", "plays" and so on, something that might handle smart playlists, something where there's a two way connection between server and client so you make playlists, rate songs and so on on the phone and that'd be saved on the server.

I don't want to pay a third party for cloud hosting, I have terabytes through current subscriptions (google, apple, microsoft, dropbox, maybe more?). Cloud hosting subscriptions are like toys in 80s cereal boxes, these days.

Does anyone here *use something like this*? Got any experience? Found anything good?

The free/open offerings are usually not really well documented/presented, so it's hard to gauge everything they can do - or if they do it well - except by asking people, so that's what I'm doing

- thanks!

 

Did you check Synology's own DS-Audio (Audiostation)? Would be the perfect fit I guess for what you described in your post.

 

I too have a synology NAS and use an IOS app called Flacbox and EverMusic to stream my audio to my iPhone and iPads. To be honest both apps look pretty much identical, I have just checked and they are both by the same developer so that will be why.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flacbox-hi-res-music-player/id1097564256

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/evermusic-cloud-music-player/id885367198

I did pay the upgrade to premium which I think was about $14.99, it does a good enough job for what I need.

 

Last edited: Oct 23, 2023

just use Synology's Audio Station (DS Audio client on phone), it can be accessed via QuickConnect so you won't need additional proxy/vpn,

it can play FLAC files losslessly, reliably - if they are NOT defined by CUE sheets

 

I have a VPS that is super cheap yearly, that I run Nextcloud on. I've got all my mp3s and ebooks on there. I looked it up and there are some iOS apps that you can stream from nextcloud, Cloudbeats was one and Tunebox was another one that I found. So I paid less than $20 for a the vps for the year, but its only 3cores and like 2.5 gigs of ram and 60gb, 10tb of bandwidth I think. It also only does nextcloud, cuz I use the other stuff too. I like the notepad because I'd probably pay more for Evernote for the year than the VPS. It also makes it really easy to share files with people on places like facebook, really big files. My kid lives in another State and hes a musician and so nextcloud is how I share programs and stuff with him.

It has a music app you can add on to and play music right the browser too, it does a pretty good job of organizing the stuff. I also got a few of my friends that I've setup accounts on it, and we use the Talk messaging client, as well as voice and stuff, I think its worth the 20 bucks I pay for the year. It was really easy to setup too. If thats something you wanna look let me know and I'll tell you where I get the VPS and how. Theres a sale page that they left up forever, and you can search to find it. I actually have 2 shared hosting accounts through them and 2 VPS's, but one I share with a friend who's a developer and working on some private torrent relay web app he calls the soviet lol. They only go up to 4 cores before you get into 20/month territory which I ain't rich like that.

 

I use Evermusic on iOS, the free version does the job quite fine and connects to all kinds of cloud services. I have a WD NAS which sucks in general and was a poor buying decision of mine but for that purpose I can‘t complain. Kind of use it to listen to check mixes of my own tracks when on the go and in the car. It supports mp3 as well as .aiff

 

For a self-hosted music server with full iOS support, two-way syncing, and metadata preservation, Airsonic (with the DSub iOS app) or Jellyfin are your best options. Both handle large libraries, smart playlists, play counts, and ratings, and all changes sync back to the server without relying on third-party cloud hosting.

 

PlexAmp is the mobile app for Plex, by Plex. It requires a premium Plex license, but it's one of the best music apps for selfhosted. I've tried many and nothing is even closed to polished like PlexAmp. You should check out the features before you bother with lesser alternatives.

For added context, I have two music libraries - one for general music which I share with friends and family, the other is for DAW renders that I only share with close collaborators. The smart playlist system is quite deep and Ai DJ is also good.

 

Wow I feel like I'm missing out after reading this. Really interesting at that rates and specs. I would check it

 

Jellyfin has FinAmp, it's own player. app for mobile (android /ios)
Inside jellyfin, you can add your music folder as an Audio library.