Sonata Music Server

Warning

This project is in alpha: expect bugs, frequent changes, and incomplete features. Use at your own risk!

A self-hosted music streaming server fully compatible with the OpenSubsonic API, featuring a modern React web UI and a Python-based media scanner with mutagen for metadata extraction.

Features

• Full OpenSubsonic API (v1.16.1) compatibility — works with Symfonium, Tempo, DSub, Ultrasonic, etc.
• Modern, minimal dark web UI inspired by Navidrome
• Admin panel: user management, music libraries, scan control
• First registered user automatically becomes admin
• High-performance file scanner written in Python with mutagen
• On-the-fly audio transcoding via FFmpeg
• Range-request streaming with cover art extraction
• Playlist management, starred items, ratings, scrobble, bookmarks
• LDAP authentication support with automatic user provisioning

Architecture

┌──────────────┐     OpenSubsonic     ┌─────────────┐
│  Any Subsonic│ ──────────────────►  │             │
│    Client    │                      │   Django    │
└──────────────┘                      │   Backend   │
                                      │  (Port 8000)│
┌──────────────┐     REST /api/*      │             │
│  React Web   │ ──────────────────►  │   +Scanner  │
│      UI      │                      │   (Python)  │
└──────────────┘                      └─────────────┘

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Python 3.11 + Django 4.2 + DRF
Scanner	Python + mutagen (integrated)
Frontend	React 18 + TypeScript + Tailwind
Database	SQLite (dev)
Auth	Local + JWT + LDAP (optional)

Quick Start

# Clone and run setup
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

Then open http://localhost:5173 — the first user you register becomes admin.

Manual Setup

Backend

cd backend
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py runserver

Scanner

The scanner is integrated into the Django backend. No separate service needed.

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

OpenSubsonic API

All endpoints available at /rest/ (with or without .view suffix):

• System: ping, getLicense, getOpenSubsonicExtensions
• Browsing: getMusicFolders, getIndexes, getArtists, getArtist, getAlbum, getSong, getGenres, getMusicDirectory
• Search: search2, search3
• Lists: getAlbumList, getAlbumList2, getRandomSongs, getSongsByGenre, getStarred, getStarred2
• Playlists: getPlaylists, getPlaylist, createPlaylist, updatePlaylist, deletePlaylist
• Media: stream, download, getCoverArt, getAvatar, getLyrics
• Annotation: star, unstar, setRating, scrobble
• Users: getUser, getUsers, createUser, updateUser, changePassword, deleteUser
• Bookmarks: getBookmarks, createBookmark, deleteBookmark, getPlayQueue, savePlayQueue
• Radio: getInternetRadioStations, createInternetRadioStation, updateInternetRadioStation, deleteInternetRadioStation
• Sharing: getShares, createShare, updateShare, deleteShare
• Scan: getScanStatus, startScan

Configuration

Sonata uses a database-first configuration system. All settings (except database connection) are stored in the database and editable via the Admin UI.

How it works

1. Auto-generated security keys: On first startup, the server automatically generates and securely stores:

   • SECRET_KEY (Django security key)
   • SUBSONIC_ENCRYPTION_KEY (for password encryption)

2. Admin UI configuration: After logging in as admin, go to Admin → Server Settings to configure:

   • Server name, debug mode
   • User registration settings
   • CORS origins
   • JWT token lifetimes
   • Rate limiting
   • LDAP authentication
   • Regenerate security keys

Environment Variables (Optional)

Only set these if you need to override defaults:

Variable	Purpose	Default
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection (optional)	sqlite:///db.sqlite3
SECRET_KEY	Override auto-generated key	(auto-generated)

LDAP Authentication

LDAP can be configured via the Admin UI (Server Settings → LDAP). No .env file needed!

Quick setup:

1. Log in as admin
2. Go to Admin → Server Settings
3. Enable LDAP and fill in your server details:
   • Server URI: ldap://ldap.example.com
   • Bind DN: Service account for searching
   • User Search Base: ou=users,dc=example,dc=com
4. Save and LDAP users can immediately log in

System dependencies (if using LDAP):

# macOS
brew install openldap

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev

License

This project is open source and available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License. See the LICENSE file for details.