Best open-source alternatives to Spotify

Navidrome is an open source music server designed for people who want to self-host a personal streaming service for their own collection. It organizes and serves a library through a modern web interface, and it can be used from browsers and mobile devices as well as through Subsonic-compatible clients. The project targets users with large music libraries and emphasizes low resource usage, broad audio format support, and automatic library monitoring. It also supports per-user playback state, playlists, favorites, lyrics, and on-the-fly transcoding, while offering installation options such as Docker, prebuilt binaries, or building from source.

Black Candy is a self-hosted music streaming server designed to act as a personal music center. It is intended for users who want to run their own media service rather than rely on a third-party streaming platform. The project is deployed primarily through Docker, with support for running the app container directly or via Docker Compose. It stores data on the host for persistence, can mount a media directory from the host, and supports either SQLite or PostgreSQL as the database backend. The README also points users to a public demo and notes that mobile companion apps are available in major app stores and as APK/F-Droid downloads.

Mopidy is a Python-based music server designed for people who want to stream and manage music from a variety of clients. It runs as a server rather than a full desktop application, letting users connect through MPD or web clients from phones, tablets, or computers. The project supports playback from local files and radio streams out of the box, with additional music sources such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play Music available through extensions. It is aimed at self-hosters, developers, and Raspberry Pi users who want a hackable audio backend. The README highlights that Mopidy can run in a terminal or in the background on Linux or macOS systems with network connectivity and audio output. Its extension system and Python, JSON-RPC, and JavaScript APIs make it suitable as a base for custom projects and integrations.

Ampache is a self-hosted, web-based media application for people who want to stream and manage their own music and video collections. It is designed around existing organized libraries and relies on embedded tags and filenames to present content with useful metadata, rather than acting as a media organizer itself. The project is aimed at users and administrators running their own server. The README describes support materials for admins and users, a documented API, and installation/configuration guidance. It also lists the server stack it expects, including a web server, PHP, Node.js for newer releases, and a MySQL-compatible database, which indicates it is meant to be deployed and maintained like a typical PHP web application.

Gonic is a self-hosted music server that implements the Subsonic server API and is intended for use with a wide range of Subsonic-compatible clients. It is aimed at people who want to browse and stream a personal music library while keeping their directory structure intact and optionally organizing content by tags. The project includes a web-based configuration interface and supports multiple users, making it useful for shared household or personal server setups. It can transcode audio on the fly, cache transcodes, run in jukebox mode for server-side playback, handle podcasts, and integrate with services such as Last.fm and ListenBrainz. Configuration is driven by environment variables or command-line flags, and the README documents installation from source and with Docker.

mStream is a personal music streaming server aimed at people who want to access their music library remotely from a home computer or self-hosted server. It is presented as a cross-platform solution that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD, with additional support for ARM devices such as the Raspberry Pi. The project includes a web app with features like gapless playback, a Milkdrop-style visualizer, playlist sharing, and file uploads via the file explorer. It offers several installation paths, including Docker, prebuilt binaries, and source installation, and it also points users to mobile apps for iOS and Android. The README indicates a lightweight server designed for large libraries and simple deployment.

Swing Music is a self-hosted music player designed for people who want to manage and stream their own local audio libraries without relying on a commercial streaming service. It runs as a web application, letting users open it in a browser to configure and play their collection, and it also includes an Android client for mobile listening. The project emphasizes music-library organization and listening features such as daily mixes, metadata normalization, album versioning, playlists, collections, statistics, lyrics, and Last.fm scrobbling. It supports multiple users and can be deployed either from prebuilt binaries or via Docker, while development setup is based on Python 3.11+ and uv. The README also notes required system packages like FFmpeg and libev for certain features and platforms.

Lyrion Music Server is a self-hosted streaming audio server designed to power Logitech Squeezebox hardware and compatible software emulators. It is intended for people who want to manage and play audio across supported players while keeping the server under their own control. The project can stream a local music library as well as content from many music services and internet radio stations, with additional capabilities provided through plugins. It is implemented in Perl and is described as running on a wide range of platforms, including Linux, macOS, Solaris, Windows, and even smaller systems such as Raspberry Pi-based devices and NAS hardware. The README points users to the project documentation for installation guidance.

Koel is an open-source music streaming application designed for people who want to self-host their own Spotify-like listening environment. It indexes a user's personal music library and serves it through a browser-based interface built with Laravel and Vue. The project focuses on playback and library management features such as playlists, smart playlists, scrobbling, podcasts, radio, and integrations with services like Last.fm, Spotify, and MusicBrainz. The README also notes an AI assistant for natural-language commands. A premium offering, Koel Plus, adds multi-user libraries, collaboration, SSO, cloud storage drivers, custom themes, and white-labeling for organizations.

Music Player Daemon (MPD) is a background music server designed for playing and managing audio collections. It stores information about the available music library, serves playback through the host machine's audio device, and lets clients control playback remotely. The project is aimed at users who want a flexible, network-accessible music player rather than a traditional desktop application. The README points users to the installation manual, user documentation, and developer documentation, indicating that MPD is meant to be integrated with separate client applications. It also documents the protocol specification, which suggests a clear client-server design for remote control, metadata access, and playlist operations.

moOde audio player is a web-based music player distribution built around MPD and aimed at Raspberry Pi users who want an audiophile-oriented listening environment. It presents itself as a redesigned successor to earlier WebUI audio player efforts, with a focus on a polished interface, stability, and a curated set of playback-related features. The project appears to be intended for self-hosted home audio setups rather than general-purpose media streaming. It emphasizes local storage for preferences and configuration, and it explicitly states that it does not use ads, subscriptions, cookies, or analytics/tracking. The README also points users to external setup documentation, release notes, and community forum support, suggesting that installation and troubleshooting are community-driven and documentation-backed.

Polaris is a self-hosted music streaming server aimed at people who want to access their own music libraries from any computer or mobile device. It emphasizes performance, responsiveness, and usability for very large collections, while presenting a polished web interface for everyday browsing and playback. The project supports running on Windows, Linux, BSD, or in Docker, and it includes configuration tools and documentation for installation and remote streaming access. It offers library browsing by album, artist, genre, and file tree, along with search, waveform visualization, customizable appearance, and multi-user support with separate playlists. The README also notes that the server includes interactive OpenAPI documentation for its API.

Meelo is a self-hosted music server aimed at music collectors who want a flexible way to browse and listen to their libraries. It is positioned similarly to projects like Plex, Jellyfin, Koel, and Black Candy, but emphasizes richer music-library organization and discovery features. The project supports common server-player capabilities such as playback, browsing, search, playlists, and libraries, while also adding more specialized handling for music videos, B-sides, rare tracks, releases, tracks, and versions. It can derive metadata from embedded tags or filenames, and it integrates with external music data sources like MusicBrainz, Genius, Wikipedia, ListenBrainz, and LastFM. The README indicates that setup requires some preparation and that the project is distributed as Docker images.

LMS is a self-hosted music streaming server designed for people who want to browse and play their own music library from a browser. It focuses on rich library organization and discovery, using tags, release metadata, MusicBrainz identifiers, and artist relationships to present large collections in a more structured way. The project is aimed at users who want more than basic file browsing: it includes recommendation features, radio-style playback, playlists, podcasts, lyrics, jukebox support, and audio transcoding. It also integrates with services like ListenBrainz and Last.fm, and exposes a Subsonic/OpenSubsonic-compatible API so that other clients can connect to it. The README indicates user management and multiple authentication backends, suggesting it can be deployed for shared access rather than only personal use.

Downtify is a self-hosted web application for people who want to turn Spotify links into locally stored audio files. It is aimed at users running a home server or personal media library who prefer to avoid Spotify API credentials, accounts, or paid plans. The project supports tracks, albums, playlists, and free-text searches, and presents the experience through a browser-based interface. Internally, it works by scraping Spotify’s public embed pages for metadata, searching YouTube Music for a matching recording, and then downloading and tagging the audio with tools like yt-dlp, ffmpeg, and mutagen. It also includes playlist monitoring, M3U export, a built-in browser player, and an organization mode that saves files in artist-based folders for compatibility with media servers such as Jellyfin, Navidrome, Plex, and Beets.

musikcube is a cross-platform, terminal-based music player and audio server written in C++. It is designed for use on Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Raspberry Pi systems, and it can also serve audio over the network for remote clients. The project is aimed at users who want a keyboard-driven, console-first music experience with library playback plus server features. In addition to the main desktop/terminal app, it includes a streaming server and can be remotely controlled through an Android app, with documentation available for installation, usage, and building from source.

Supysonic is a self-hosted music server implemented in Python that exposes the Subsonic server API. It is intended for people who want to run their own music backend and connect it to a compatible client of their choice. The README emphasizes initial setup through command-line tools, including creating an admin user, defining a library folder, scanning the library, and starting the server. The project supports common media-server features such as browsing music libraries, streaming audio, transcoding, playlists, cover art, ratings, and scrobbling to services like Last.fm and ListenBrainz. It also includes a jukebox mode and an optional daemon for watching library changes. Documentation is provided online, and the README notes that the default quickstart uses a temporary database unless a fuller setup is configured.

Stretto is an open source web-based music player for streaming and managing a personal music library. It is designed around a browser-based workflow: tracks are backed by YouTube or SoundCloud sources, and a companion Chrome extension downloads the tracks directly into the browser for playback. The project is aimed at users who want a self-hostable music experience with playlist import, library syncing, lyric fetching, and discovery features. It also supports Android use through Kiwi Browser as a progressive web app, and the README includes developer instructions for running it locally with Docker or without Docker.

Modern, web-based, convivial, multi-user and free music server.

Web-based media streamer and jukebox.