Music Players with Web GUI's

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chevrolux

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# 115756 5-Apr-2013 15:03

Right so at home I run a Raspberry Pi with Pianobar on it to stream Pandora to my place which is then pumped out around the home audio system. People who know Pianobar will know that it is purely command line based which is fine for me but I want to set up a similar system for my parents who aren't going to start an SSH session just to play the radio around the house.

Does anyone know of any decent command line programs that have had a GUI built for them. I am not stuck on using Pandora or Pianobox for that matter.
I had a quick go at using MPD with one of the GUI's and connecting that to last.fm but failed when it came to connecting to my last.fm account.

Obviously I lack knowledge in linux and have zero knowledge of PHP or anything like that so building a page myself is out of the question.

michaelmurfy

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# 793912 5-Apr-2013 15:09

What about MusicBox? I've been using it on some Pi's connected around the house (old 256mb versions I De-commissioned in favor of the 512mb versions for XBMC)

It's simple to get setup, just grab a 2gb or higher card, dd the image across (or use some kind of Windows image writer) and bazinga, you're set with your own music player complete with AirPlay, MPD and Spotify support - from here if you have any iOS devices you can AirPlay Pandora to it or use the web interface to stream Spotify.

Edit: You'll possibly want to grab a USB soundcard, since the Raspberry Pi's DAC isn't all to flash, also while you're at it grab a WiFi dongle so you can have it anywhere in the house :)

Since there is no volume control on the web-interface you can SSH into the Pi (using Putty) and run "alsamixer" to control the sound output, I am also looking for a option to integrate this into the webui when I find some spare time.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
A quick guide to picking the right ISP | The Router Guide | Community UniFi Cloud Controller | Ubiquiti Edgerouter Tutorial

robjg63

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# 793936 5-Apr-2013 15:58

How about putting openelc or raspbmc on the pi and then install a pandora plugin:
http://gitorious.org/~rivy/xbmc-pandora/rivy-xbmc-pandora

Dont know how well it works - but booting the pi straight into xbmc nices a nice enough interface and its easy to install plugins (usually).

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

michaelmurfy

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# 793940 5-Apr-2013 16:04

robjg63: How about putting openelc or raspbmc on the pi and then install a pandora plugin:
http://gitorious.org/~rivy/xbmc-pandora/rivy-xbmc-pandora

Dont know how well it works - but booting the pi straight into xbmc nices a nice enough interface and its easy to install plugins (usually).

Possibly overkill for what he's after. Musicbox is good since it's all prepped for Music Playback so he can install his own plugins if needed.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
A quick guide to picking the right ISP | The Router Guide | Community UniFi Cloud Controller | Ubiquiti Edgerouter Tutorial

chevrolux

4171 posts

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# 794723 7-Apr-2013 19:58

Sorry for the late reply...

Musicbox looks pretty sweet will have a play when i get a chance. Yea didnt want to go the xbmc route. Need to keep it simple for the parents lol.

tmadden

97 posts

Master Geek

# 795332 9-Apr-2013 07:06

One person supports this post

Clementine is a good, low resource, music player with a web GUI. The only drawback (in my opinion) is that you need a recent nightly build version to use it. It works very well with the Clementine Remote app for Android.

zANavAShi

119 posts

Master Geek

# 797020 10-Apr-2013 11:05

michaelmurfy: bazinga

LOL! Can I quote you on that? My trusty ole "cool bananas" is getting me some very strange looks from the younger generations

I ditto my friend's recommendation for Clementine - she's a very nifty wee player which, although still in early development, is still well worth a looksee IMO

I'm a big XBMC fan myself, but as Mr Bazinga says, probably a bit overkill in this instance.

G'luck!

michaelmurfy

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# 797802 11-Apr-2013 14:49

zANavAShi:
michaelmurfy: bazinga

LOL! Can I quote you on that? My trusty ole "cool bananas" is getting me some very strange looks from the younger generations

I ditto my friend's recommendation for Clementine - she's a very nifty wee player which, although still in early development, is still well worth a looksee IMO

I'm a big XBMC fan myself, but as Mr Bazinga says, probably a bit overkill in this instance.

G'luck!

haha that's no problems :) I love XBMC on my RPi's, it's just beautiful in general :)

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
A quick guide to picking the right ISP | The Router Guide | Community UniFi Cloud Controller | Ubiquiti Edgerouter Tutorial

rossmnz

507 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 797861 11-Apr-2013 16:22

Im currently experimenting with Musicbox on my Pi. Its the best setup I have found so far.

Couple of things:

1. Aint playing nicely with my el cheapo USB soundcard. Im hesitatant to splash cash on a quality DAC as aux audio is actually better on this than on other music setups Ive tried on the R Pi and it defeats the purpose of a cheap setup.

2. For the wifi dongle to work well on your Pi you will need a decent power source. My blackberry 5v 1A isnt enough it seems.

My wife has got the hang of the headless Pi and streaming airplay via iTunes or Spotify via MPoD iPhone app.

Cant seem to add my NAS collection of music to the MPoD app though and control all from one "remote" so perhaps you could help here Mr Murfy?

Main issue I have with this setup for "layman" useage is there is no easy way to turn off apart from SSH into it. guess it can be left on with the power it uses but meh....

Be keen to touch base with you guys on this project and monitor progress. Thus far got my Pi working great as:

1. openELEC media.

2. Portable basic PC

The force is strong with this one!