Is MPD right for remote streaming in this scenario?

Question

I have an always-on Linux (Ubuntu) server at home, on which I could store all my music (I just have to move it from my desktop). What I want to achieve is to be able to listen to my music from work, without having to download all of it, or bring it over on a USB drive.

How I'm thinking of doing this:

• Setup MPD on my server and enable the built-in http streaming feature;
• At work, stream from my server using Rhythmbox, and control the playback using an MPD client, such as GMPC.

It seems a bit clunky to use both Rhythmbox and GMPC for this, but then again, it should work, right?

Are there any (desktop) MPD clients that also support streaming, so that I don't have to run two programs at work?

I could also use my Android phone for this (I use headphones anyway), I can see that there are a couple of apps that also do streaming. However, this will kill my battery.

Or, maybe MPD is just not right for this, and there are other, more suited solutions out there that I was not able to find?

Answer 1

Check out Subsonic. It does what you want very nicely; I've been using it for years and am still quite pleased with it. It allows remote streaming via a web browser, and even supports HTTPS. There's a license fee (~US$25) after the one-month trial period, I believe.

If anyone knows anything about using MPD with beets, I'd love to hear about it!