Configuration

[Note:] Extensive post-installation steps are covered here. Minimal post-installation configuration required is the execution of the command mppinit. If the MPD music library is located in the default $HOME/Music directory then no further configuration may be necessary. See the Quickstart section.

After installing MusicPlayerPlus there are several recommended configuration steps. If not already configured, the MPD server will need to know where to locate your music library. This can be configured by editing the MusicPlayerPlus configuration file ~/.config/mpprc and running the command mppinit sync.

Client Configuration (required)

Initialize the MusicPlayerPlus configuration by executing the command:

mppinit

Examine the generated configuration in ~/.config/mpprc and make any desired changes.

The client configuration performed by mppinit includes the configuration of an MPD user service. The configuration, files, and folders used by this user level MPD service are stored in ~/.config/mpd/. Examine the generated MPD configuration file ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf.

MusicPlayerPlus Configuration File

MusicPlayerPlus 2.0.1 release 3 and later provides the configuration file ~/.config/mpprc which serves as the primary source for MusicPlayerPlus user configurable settings. This configuration file is the “source of truth” for several settings including the music library location. Settings in mpprc are propogated throughout several other component’s configurations.

The settings in mpprc are dynamic and preserved across command invocations. The dynamic nature of this configuration file means that options specified on the mpplus command line or in the mpplus menu system are written back out to ~/.config/mpprc so the next invocation of mpplus will use the previous invocation’s options and settings as the default.

The default installed mpprc contains:

## MusicPlayerPlus runtime configuration
#
#  After modifying any of the following settings, run the command:
#    mppinit sync
#  as your normal MusicPlayerPlus user

## Music library location
#
MUSIC_DIR="~/Music"

# MPD client
MPD_CLIENT="mpcplus"

## General settings
#
# To enable any of these, set to 1
# For example, to enable cover art display in tmux sessions set COVER_ART=1
#
# Play audio during asciimatics animations
AUDIO=1
# Display cover art in tmux sessions
COVER_ART=1
# Display mpcplus and mppcava in a tmux session
USE_TMUX=1

## Terminal emulator / display mode
#
#  Can be one of: console, current, gnome, kitty, retro, simple, tilix
#  Where:
#    'console' will force a tmux session
#    'current' will force a tmux session in the current terminal window
#    'gnome' will use the gnome-terminal emulator if installed
#    'kitty' will use the Kitty terminal emulator if installed
#    'retro' will use cool-retro-term if installed
#    'simple' will use the ST terminal emulator if installed
#    'tilix' will use the Tilix terminal emulator if installed
#  Default fallback if none specified or not available is Kitty
#
#  Uncomment the preferred mode
#MPP_MODE=console
#MPP_MODE=current
#MPP_MODE=gnome
#MPP_MODE=retro
#MPP_MODE=simple
#MPP_MODE=tilix
MPP_MODE=kitty

## Service access
#
# The Bandcamp username can be found by visiting Bandcamp 'Settings' -> 'Fan'
# If you do not have a Bandcamp account, leave blank
BANDCAMP_USER=

# The Discogs username can be found by visiting discogs.com. Login, use the
# dropdown of your user icon in the upper right corner, click on 'Profile'.
# Your Discogs username is the last component of the profile URL.
DISCOGS_USER=
# The Discogs API token can be found by visiting
# https://www.discogs.com/settings/developers
DISCOGS_TOKEN=
# Location of the generated custom Discogs Obsidian vault
# Can be anywhere you have write permission
DISCOGS_DIR="~/Documents/Obsidian/Discogs"

# Your Last.fm username, api key, and api secret
# If you do not have a Last.fm account, leave blank
LASTFM_USER=
LASTFM_APIKEY=
LASTFM_SECRET=

# The Soundcloud user slug can be found by logging in to Soundcloud
# click on the username at top right then 'Profile'. The user slug
# is the last component of the URL when viewing your Soundcloud Profile.
# If you do not have a Soundcloud account, leave blank
SOUNDCLOUD_SLUG=

# Your Spotify client id and client secret
# If you do not have a Spotify account, leave blank
SPOTIFY_CLIENT=
SPOTIFY_SECRET=

# Your YouTube api key
# If you do not have a YouTube account, leave blank
YOUTUBE_APIKEY=

After mppinit completes the MusicPlayerPlus initialization, edit the ~/.config/mpprc configuration file and run mppinit sync.

MPD Music Directory Configuration

[Note:] MusicPlayerPlus version 1.0.3 release 1 and later perform an automated MPD user configuration and systemd service activation. This is performed by the mppinit command. MusicPlayerPlus 1.0.3r1 and later installations need not perform the following manual procedures but users may wish to review the automated MPD configuration and alter the default MPD music directory location.

The default MPD and mpcplus music directory is set to:

$HOME/Music

If your media library resides in another location then perform the following steps and run mppinit sync:

• Edit $HOME/.config/mpprc and set the MUSIC_DIR entry to the location of your music library (e.g. vi ~/.config/mpprc)

• Run the mppinit sync command

For example, to set the MPD music directory to the /u/audio/music directory, edit $HOME/.config/mpprc and change the MUSIC_DIR setting:

MUSIC_DIR="/u/audio/music"

The MUSIC_DIR location must be writeable by your user.

Any time the MPD music directory is manually modified, run mppinit sync.

Initializing the Beets media library management system

[Note:] Beets is NOT the now defunct music service purchased by Apple. It is an open source media library management system.

MusicPlayerPlus includes the Beets media library management system and preconfigured settings to allow easy integration with MPD and mpcplus. Beets is an application that catalogs your music collection, automatically improving its metadata. It then provides a suite of tools for manipulating and accessing your music. Beets includes an extensive set of plugins that can be used to enhance and extend the functionality of the media library management Beets provides. Many Beets plugins are installed and configured automatically by MusicPlayerPlus.

To get started using the Beets media library management system, it is necessary to import your music library into the Beets database. This process catalogs your music collection and improves its metadata. The default Beets configuration provided by MusicPlayerPlus moves and tags files in the music library during this process. It adds music library data to the Beets database. To import your music library into Beets, issue the following command:

mppinit import

or to skip WAV format media conversion and just perform the Beets import:

mpplus -I

[Note:] If additional songs or albums are added to the music library after the initial Beets import is performed, simply rerun mppinit import or beet import /path/to/new/items to import any new library items. To remove duplicates and retrieve metadata for the newly imported items, run mppinit metadata.

After importing the music library into Beets, try playing something with:

beet play QUERY

Where ‘QUERY’ is a valid Beets query. This can be a simple string like “blue” or “love” or a more complicated expression as described in the Beets query documentation. The Beets play plugin should match the query string to songs in your music library, add those songs to the MPD queue, and play them. Use beet ls QUERY to see what would be played.

[Note:] MusicPlayerPlus has configured the Beets play plugin to use the command /usr/share/musicplayerplus/scripts/mpcplay.sh to play media with this plugin. This script clears the MPD queue, adds any songs matching the query to the queue, and plays the MPD queue. In addition, two arguments are supported: --shuffle and --debug. These additional arguments are passed using the --args feature. For example, to play all media matching the string “velvet” and shuffle the order of play, issue the command beet play --args --shuffle velvet.

Example usage of the beet play command:

• beet play velvet

• beet play playlist:1970s

• beet play --args --shuffle playlist:1990s

• beet play --args "--debug --shuffle" green eyes

For instructions on Beets media library setup and use see the MusicPlayerPlus Beets README.

Learn more about the Beets media library management system at https://beets.io/

Additional metadata analysis and retrieval

MusicPlayerPlus includes three methods for augmenting music library metadata through acoustic analysis. These three methods are:

• AcousticBrainz metadata retrieval (deprecated)

  • initialized with mppinit -a metadata

• Blissify acoustic analysis of the MPD music library

  • initialized with mppinit -b metadata

• Essentia acoustic analysis and Beets metadata retrieval

  • initialized with mppinit -e metadata

Acoustic analysis with Blissify

Acoustic analysis with Blissify does not require a prior Beets import. The Blissify acoustic analysis creates a song similarity database for all the songs in the MPD music library. Initialize the Blissify database with the command blissify update <mpd music directory>. For example, assuming the default MPD music directory:

blissify update ~/Music

Blissify database initialization would have been automatically performed during setup if metadata initialization were done with:

mppinit -b metadata

After initialization of the Blissify database, the blissify command can be used to create an MPD playlist based on song similarities. For example, to make a 30 song playlist that queues the closest song to the currently playing song, then the closest song to the second song, etc, effectively making a “path” through the songs, execute the command:

blissify playlist --seed-song 30

To save the current MPD playlist (queue), execute the command:

mpc save <playlist-name>

Note that the acoustic analysis and database creation performed by Blissify does not update the Beets library database. In order to add this additional acoustic metadata to the Beets library it is necessary to perform an acoustic analysis with Essentia or acoustic metadata retrieval with AcousticBrainz, both described in the next sections.

Acoustic analysis with Essentia

After completing the Beets music library import with either mppinit import or mpplus -I, additional Beets metadata can be retrieved with the command:

mppinit -e metadata

This will identify and delete duplicate tracks, retrieve album genres, download album cover art, and optionally analyze and retrieve metadata for all songs in the music library using the Essentia extractor and Essentia trained models.

MusicPlayerPlus mppinit -e metadata uses Essentia for extracting acoustic characteristics of music, including low-level spectral information, rhythm, keys, scales, and much more, and automatic annotation by genres, moods, and instrumentation.

This is the same sort of thing that AcousticBrainz does but the AcousticBrainz project is no longer collecting data and will be withdrawn in 2023. MusicPlayerPlus provides the same functionality using pre-compiled and packaged Essentia binaries and models.

However, the process of analyzing, extracting, and retrieving metadata can be time consuming for a large music library. The mppinit -e metadata command performs several metadata retrieval steps in a non-interactive manner and in the background so it can be left unattended if desired.

Acoustic retrieval with AcousticBrainz

While it still exists the AcousticBrainz service can be queried to provide a relatively quick way to update the Beets library with additional acoustic metadata. The AcousticBrainz service has already analyzed the acoustic characteristics of songs in the MusicBrainz catalog. To retrieve this metadata for songs in your music library, after Beets import is complete, run the command mppinit -a metadata. Or, at any time after Beets import run the command beet acousticbrainz. The AcousticBrainz service is no longer updated and will be retired in 2023.

The individual metadata retrieval steps performed automatically by mppinit [-a|-b|-e] metadata can be performed manually using the instructions in the MusicPlayerPlus Beets README.

Activating the YAMS scrobbler for Last.fm

YAMS is an acronym for “Yet Another MPD Scrobbler”. When YAMS is configured and running, any songs, artists, or albums played through MPD get “scrobbled” to Last.fm. This enables a tracking of your listening patterns and habits, creating a fairly extensive set of statistics viewable on Last.fm.

Features:

• Authenticate with the new Last.fm Scrobbling API v2.0 - without the need to input/store your username/password locally.

• Update your profile’s “Now Playing” track via Last.fm’s “Now Playing” API

• Save failed scrobbles to a disk and upload them at a later date.

• Timing configuration (e.g. scrobble percentage, real world timing values for scrobbling, etc.).

• Prevent accidental duplicate scrobbles on rewind/playback restart/etc.

• Automatic daemonization and config file generation.

In order to activate the YAMS scrobbler you will need an account with Last.fm. Free accounts with Last.fm include many of the service features and can provide extensive listening history statistics. If you do not wish to use Last.fm to analyze MPD track plays then this optional setup step can be ignored and no action is required as MusicPlayerPlus disables YAMS by default. Disable a previously activated YAMS service with the command mpplus -y.

Activate the YAMS scrobbler for Last.fm with the command:

mpplus -Y

The activation process must be run in a terminal window and will provide you with a URL. Copy the URL and navigate to it using a web browser. This will take you to Last.fm to authenticate if not already logged in and authorize YAMS access. Once access is authorized there is no need to authenticate for future Last.fm access with YAMS. There is also no need to manually run the yams command as a user service is activated to run it automatically. Basically, nothing else to do, just play music and it will be scrobbled by YAMS.

YAMS creates a configuration file $HOME/.config/yams/yams.yml.

Using YAMScrobbler with Libre.fm

YAMS works fine with Libre.fm, a Free Software replacement for Last.fm. If you prefer to use Libre.fm rather than Last.fm, do the following:

• Set the base_url config variable to https://libre.fm/2.0/ in $HOME/.config/yams/yams.yml (don’t forget the trailing slash!)

• Delete any leftover .lastfm_session files

• Authenticate like you normally would with Last.fm, however replace last.fm with libre.fm in the authorization URL printed out by YAMS

MPD Audio Output Configuration

Adjust the audio_output settings in ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf. MPD must have at least one audio_output configured and in order to use the spectrum visualizer as configured by default it is necessary to configure a second audio_output in MPD.

The default MPD audio_output setting is PulseAudio. To modify the MPD audio output, uncomment one of ALSA, PulseAudio, or PipeWire and restart MPD.

A FIFO audio_output is used as a data source for the spectrum visualizer. To configure this output, add the following to ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf:

audio_output {
    type            "fifo"
    name            "Visualizer feed"
    path            "~/.config/mpd/mpd.fifo"
    format          "44100:16:2"
}

An example ALSA audio_output configuration in ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf:

audio_output {
	type		"alsa"
	name		"ALSA"
    buffer_time "50000"   # (50ms); default is 500000 microseconds (0.5s)
#	device		"hw:0,0"	# optional
#	mixer_type      "hardware"      # optional
#	mixer_device	"default"	# optional
#	mixer_control	"PCM"		# optional
#	mixer_index	"0"		# optional
}

Or, to use PulseAudio:

audio_output {
    type  "pulse"
    name  "pulse audio"
    device         "pulse"
    mixer_type      "hardware"
}

Output with PipeWire can also be configured:

audio_output {
    type  "pipewire"
    name  "PipeWire Sound Server"
}

MPD is a powerful and flexible music player server with many configuration options. Additional MPD configuration may be desired. See the MPD User’s Manual

Fuzzy Finder Configuration

The fzmp command lists, searches, and selects media from the MPD library using the fzf fuzzy finder command line utility. A default fzmp configuration file for each user is created when the mppinit command is executed. The fzmp configuration file is located at:

~/.config/mpcplus/fzmp.conf

The initial default fzmp configuration should suffice for most use cases. Some of the interactive key bindings may need to be modified if they are already in use by other utilities. For example, the default key binding to switch to playlist view is ‘F1’ but the xfce4-terminal command binds ‘F1’ by default to its help window. In this case either the fzmp playlist view key binding must be changed or the XFCE4 terminal help window shortcut must be disabled.

To disable the XFCE4 terminal help window shortcut, in xfce4-terminal select:

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced

Select the Disable help window shortcut key (F1 by default) and Close the Preferences dialog. The XFCE4 terminal help window shortcut will no longer be bound to ‘F1’ and no modification to the playlist view key binding for fzmp would be necessary.

To modify the fzmp playlist view key binding, edit the fzmp configuration file ~/.config/mpcplus/fzmp.conf and add a line like the following:

playlist_view_key F6

This revised configuration would change the playlist view key binding from ‘F1’ to ‘F6’ and the XFCE4 terminal help window shortcut could remain enabled and bound to ‘F1’.

Several other fzmp bindings and options can be configured. See man fzmp for details.

Start MPD

[Note:] MusicPlayerPlus version 1.0.3 release 1 and later perform an automated MPD user configuration and systemd service activation. Initialization with mppinit for these installations should automatically start the user MPD service. No further action should be required for MusicPlayerPlus v1.0.3r1 or later installations.

Status of the MPD service can be checked with:

systemctl --user status mpd.service

Installation and initialization of MusicPlayerPlus prior to v1.0.3r1 will need to start mpd as a system-wide service by executing the commands:

sudo systemctl start mpd

If you want MPD to start automatically on subsequent reboots, run:

sudo systemctl enable mpd

Alternatively, if you want MPD to start automatically when a client attempts to connect:

sudo systemctl enable mpd.socket

System verification checks

Once the music directory has been set correctly, album art downloaded, music library imported, and mppinit sync has completed initialization, some system checks can optionally be performed.

• Verify the mpd service is running and if not then start it:

  • systemctl --user is-active mpd.service

  • systemctl --user start mpd.service

• Update the MPD client database:

  • mpc update

• Verify the mpd service is enabled and if not enable it

  • systemctl --user is-enabled mpd.service

  • systemctl --user enable mpd.service

• Play music with mpplus

  • See the online mpcpluskeys cheat sheet or man mpcpluskeys for help navigating the mpplus windows

  • See the online mpplus man page or man mpplus for different ways to invoke the mpplus command

Initialize Music Database

[Note:] MusicPlayerPlus version 1.0.3 release 1 and later perform an automated MPD music database initialization during execution of mppinit.

For versions of MusicPlayerPlus prior to v1.0.3r1, initialize the music database with an MPD client and update the database. The mpcplus MPD client can be used for this or the standard mpc MPD client can be used. With mpcplus, launch the mpcplus MPD client, verify the client window has focus, and type u to update the database. With mpc simply execute the command mpc update.

If your music library is very large this process can take several minutes to complete. Once the music database has been updated you should see the songs, albums, and playlists in your music library appear in the client view.

Installing Mopidy

To install, configure, and activate Mopidy issue the command mppinit mopidy. After Mopidy initialization completes, open http://<ip address>:6680/iris. After adding music to the local music library, run mopidy local scan.

[Note:] In order to use the Mopidy-Beets extension, perform a mppinit import and optionally mppinit metadata prior to mppinit mopidy.

The default music server in MusicPlayerPlus is the Music Player Daemon (MPD). An alternate music server, Mopidy, is supported and can perform the same functions as MPD, is compatible with MPD clients, and can be extended to offer many more features.

Activating Mopidy will first deactivate MPD. The MusicPlayerPlus Mopidy activation runs as a user level system service. Configuration for Mopidy and Mopidy extensions resides in $HOME/.config/mopidy/. The MusicPlayerPlus activation of Mopidy auto-configures Mopidy and the installed extensions.

In addition to the bundled Mopidy extensions, the mppinit mopidy command installs the following Mopidy extensions:

• Mopidy-Beets

  • Mopidy extension for playing music from Beets’ web plugin

• Mopidy-Iris

  • A comprehensive and mobile-friendly client that presents your library and extensions in a user-friendly and intuitive interface. Built using React and Redux

  • Open http://<ip address>:6680/iris

• Mopidy-Mobile

  • Fully control a Mopidy music server from your mobile device

  • Android App available on Google Play

  • Other devices open http://IP_Address:6680 in a browser

• Mopidy-Mpd

  • Mopidy extension for controlling Mopidy from MPD clients

• Mopidy-Podcast

  • Mopidy extension for searching and browsing podcasts

• Mopidy-Podcast-iTunes

  • Mopidy extension for searching and browsing iTunes podcasts

• Mopidy-TuneIn

  • A backend for playing music from the TuneIn online radio service

• Mopidy-Scrobbler

  • Mopidy extension for scrobbling music to Last.fm

  • Requires Last.fm username/password added to ~/.config/mopidy/mopidy.conf

Additional Mopidy extensions can be installed and configured. For example, to stream Spotify with Mopidy, install and configure the Mopidy-Spotify extension. Learn more at https://mopidy.com/ext/

To view the effective Mopidy configuration run the command mopidy config. This will display the full Mopidy configuration with passwords masked out so that you can safely share the output with others for debugging.

[Note:] The Mopidy MPD extension provides compatibility with MPD clients but does not implement all MPD features. MPD is much more powerful and flexible in terms of its configurable inputs and outputs. After activating Mopidy some features may not work the same as they did with MPD. For example, spectrum visualization may fail or player stats may not be available. However, Mopidy offers many features unavailable with MPD. It’s a tradeoff.

To re-activate MPD and disable Mopidy, issue the command mppinit mpd. Easily switch back and forth between MPD and Mopidy with mppinit mpd and mppinit mopidy. Note that MusicPlayerPlus continues to use the configured MUSIC_DIR as the master music library location. To change the location of the music library, edit ~/.config/mpprc, set MUSIC_DIR to the new location, and run mppinit sync to synchronize the music library location across Beets, MPD, Mopidy, and downloaders.

Installing Navidrome

The default music server in MusicPlayerPlus is the Music Player Daemon (MPD). An alternate music server and streamer, Navidrome, is also supported. To install, configure, and activate Navidrome issue the command:

mppinit navidrome

The MusicPlayerPlus Navidrome activation runs as a user level system service. Configuration for Navidrome resides in $HOME/.config/navidrome/navidrome.toml. The MusicPlayerPlus activation of Navidrome auto-configures, starts, and enables the Navidrome service. The Navidrome log file can be found at $HOME/.config/navidrome/navidrome.log.

After installing Navidrome, you need to create your first user. This will be your admin user, a super user that can manage all aspects of Navidrome, including the ability to manage other users. Browse to Navidrome’s homepage at http://localhost:4533

Fill out the username and password you want to use, confirm the password and click on the “Create Admin” button. You should now be able to browse and listen to all your music.

[Note:] It usually take a couple of minutes for your music to start appearing in Navidrome’s UI. Check the logs to see what is the scan progress.

[Security Note:] Navidrome comes with an embedded, full-featured HTTP server but in order to provide additional security (e.g. SSL) Navidrome should be run behind a reverse proxy like Nginx or Apache. MusicPlayerPlus does not configure a reverse proxy for Navidrome. See the Navidrome network configuration documentation at https://www.navidrome.org/docs/usage/security/ to get started securing Navidrome. To use the MusicPlayerPlus default configuration of Navidrome, use http://... rather than https://....

If all you want is a Navidrome streaming music server and you do not care about Beets library management, additional downloads, or a Mopidy server then setup can be accomplished with just mppinit followed by mppinit navidrome.

Navidrome clients

The Navidrome self-hosted music service can stream your music to many devices.

MusicPlayerPlus tested and recommended free open source Navidrome clients:

• iPhone/iPad

  • iSub

• Android

  • Dsub

• Linux/MacOS/Windows

  • Sonixd

Character based terminal/console Navidrome clients:

• Linux/Windows

  • Jellycli

• Linux

  • Stmp

Navidrome clients are not installed by MusicPlayerPlus. Install Navidrome clients using your device’s app store or following the installation instructions at the client link above.

If you do not have or wish to use a Navidrome client, then most modern browsers are supported Navidrome clients. To use a browser as a Navidrome web client, open the URL http://ip-address:4533 where ip-address is the IP address of the Navidrome server.

For a list of Airsonic compatible applications, see https://airsonic.github.io/docs/apps/

For a list of Subsonic compatible clients, see https://www.navidrome.org/docs/overview/#apps

Sonixd is a cross-platform desktop Subsonic client compatible with Navidrome. On Apple MacOS, install sonixd with Homebrew:

brew install --cask sonixd

Sublime is a native Subsonic client compatible with Navidrome for the Linux Desktop. See https://sublime-music.gitlab.io/sublime-music/index.html to install Sublime on a variety of Linux distributions.

Terminal Emulator Support

Supported terminal emulators in MusicPlayerPlus include kitty, tilix, gnome-terminal, st, and cool-retro-term. Kitty is the default terminal emulator used by MusicPlayerPlus except on Raspberry Pi OS where st is used as the default.

[Note:] The kitty terminal emulator is very cool. A default kitty theme is provided (the ‘Music Player Plus’ theme) and should suffice for most users. An alternate kitty theme can be configured using the kitty themes kitten. To use this kitten, run:

kitty +kitten themes

An alternate terminal emulator can be specified on the mpplus command line:

mpplus -c ... # indicates use the current terminal and a tmux session
mpplus -e ... # indicates use the simple terminal emulator (st)
mpplus -g ... # indicates use the gnome terminal emulator
mpplus -k ... # indicates use the kitty terminal emulator
mpplus -r ... # indicates use the cool-retro-term terminal emulator
mpplus -t ... # indicates use the tilix terminal emulator

If an alternate terminal emulator is not specified on the command line then the default will be used unless console mode is detected. Console mode is used when no DISPLAY can be opened (e.g. running on a console, running over SSH without a display, running on a headless server). In console mode MusicPlayerPlus utilizes tmux sessions to display the character-based music player mpcplus and spectrum visualizer mppcava.

The mppcava spectrum visualizer looks better when the font used by the terminal emulator in which it is running is a small sized font. Some terminal emulators rely on a profile from which they draw much of their configuration. Profiles are used in MusicPlayerPlus to provide an enhanced visual presentation.

In order to use the Gnome, Simple, or Tilix terminal emulators they must be installed manually (except on Raspberry Pi OS where the Simple terminal emulator is installed if no supported terminal emulator is found). If you wish to use the Gnome, Simple, or Tilix terminal emulators, then use your system’s package manager to install them prior to initializing MusicPlayerPlus with the mppinit command. If either or both of Gnome or Tilix terminal emulators are installed after MusicPlayerPlus initialization with mppinit then run mppinit profiles after installing gnome-terminal or tilix terminal emulator(s).

There are four terminal profiles in two terminal emulators used by MusicPlayerPlus. The gnome-terminal emulator and the tilix terminal emulator each have two custom profiles created during mppinit initialization. These profiles are named “MusicPlayer” and “Visualizer”.

The custom MusicPlayerPlus terminal profiles are used to provide font sizes and background transparencies that enhance the visual appeal of both the MusicPlayerPlus control window and the spectrum visualizer.

To modify these terminal emulator profiles, launch the desired terminal emulator and modify the desired profile in the Preferences dialog.

Discogs User Collection

MusicPlayerPlus includes support for the auto-generation of an Obsidian vault from either a Discogs user collection or a local music library. The extremely rich data available from Discogs can be used to generate markdown format files reflecting the artists, albums, tracks, and items in your collection or library. The generated markdown reflecting your Discogs collection or music library includes a preconfigured Obsidian vault along with plugins, settings, and theme. The Obsidian Dataview plugin can be used to query the Obsidian vault in a variety of ways similar to a database of your library. Several example Dataview queries are included.

In order to use this facility, both DISCOGS_USER and DISCOGS_TOKEN must be configured in $HOME/.config/mpprc. If these are set then the resulting Obsidian vault from the either the command mppinit discogs or mppinit discogs local will be located in the folder specified by DISCOGS_DIR in mpprc.

See the Obsidian Custom Discogs README for details on setup and maintenance of a Discogs Obsidian vault.

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.

[Summary] 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