Host a Subsonic music server on Windows Server
Subsonic is a media hosting tool for Windows and Linux. With it, users can host their own music files over a network for streaming purposes (like Spotify). So, follow this guide if you want to set up your own Spotify alternative on your Windows Server.
How to download and install Subsonic
Subsonic server is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. To use it on your Windows Server, head over to Subsonic.org. Once you are there, find the “Windows installation” option, and select it with the mouse.
Selecting “Windows installation” will scroll the page to “Windows installation.” In this section, find the setup EXE, and click on it with the mouse to download the Subsonic server EXE to your Windows Server system.
After downloading the EXE to your Windows Server, open File Explorer and select the “Downloads” folder. Then, double-click on the EXE to open up the Subsonic Server EXE file.
When the EXE file is open, you will see a message. This message says, “Welcome to the Subsonic Setup Wizard,” etc. Find the “Next” button, and click on it with the mouse to move to the next page in the installer.
After selecting the “Next” button, you will be tasked with setting the destination folder for the Subsonic server software. By default, it should detect your program files folder. However, you can change this by selecting “Browse.” When you’ve chosen the destination, click the “Install” button.
The installation will be quick. After installing Subsonic, you will see “Completing the Subsonic Setup Wizard.”
How to set up Subsonic
To set up Subsonic after installation, you must open a web browser. On Windows Server, launch Edge (or your preferred web browser.) Once it is open, navigate to localhost:4040. This address is the default Subsonic website address.
Note: If you wish to access Subsonic on a remote computer on your LAN, replace “localhost” with the Windows Server’s LAN IP.
Once on the Subsonic web UI, you’ll need to log in. You can log in with the default username/password: admin. After entering admin in both the “username” and “password” boxes, you will be greeted with the Subsonic UI interface.
On the Subsonic UI interface, you are instructed to change the password for the admin account. To do that, select the “Settings” button, then click on “Users,” and find the “Select user” drop-down menu.
Choose the drop-down menu, and select “admin.” Check the box next to “Change password.” From there, you can change your Subsonic admin password to something more secure.
How to add music to Subsonic
To add music files to your Subsonic, find the “Getting started” page and locate “2”. Next to “2,” you should see “Set up media folders.” Select it immediately to get to the media configuration area.
Once inside the media configuration area, add your music. For best results, add your music to the “C:\music” folder. However, this folder isn’t required. Subsonic server allows users to add any folder for media.
After specifying your Subsonic music folder, you’ll want to configure media scanning. If you do not configure this option, it will scan by default at “3:00”. To change it, find “Scan media folders” and change it to suit your needs. You may also want to change “Every day” to another option.
Once you’ve configured media scanning, you’ll want to scan your media files to populate the Subsonic music database. Select the “scan media folders now” button to start a scan with Subsonic.
When the Subsonic database is populated with music files from the Windows Server, it’s all ready to use. Give anyone the following LAN URL to listen to music.
http://windows-server-ip-address/
How to access Subsonic remotely
There are many benefits to keeping your Subsonic server on the LAN. However, you can configure the Subsonic server to access it outside the LAN (aka the internet). To configure remote access, do the following.
First, find the “Getting started” section on the “Home” area of the Subsonic web UI. Then, click on “Configure network settings.” To access your server outside the LAN, find the “Access your server over the internet using an easy-to-remember address.”
Next to “Access your server over the internet using an easy-to-remember address,” check the box. You’ll then need to add a personalized username. Please note the remote feature is a Subsonic Premium feature. You’ll need to get Premium to enjoy remote access past the free trial.
