How I manage my music on Linux
I wanted to take the time to talk about how I manage my music on Linux. I use the following tools:
morituri, to rip CDs,beets, to manage my music library,mopidy, as a music server,ncmpcpp, as a music server client,SSHelperandrsync, to sync music to my phone.
Ripping a CD: morituri
I use morituri to rip CDs.
I just got a CD with a book I bought, Her name is Calla‘s album Navigator. I will use it as an example in this blog post.
Finding the drive’s offset
You only have to do this once (for each CD drive). Insert a CD in your drive, then run rip offset find. Use a wellknown album: Her name is Calla‘s album was “not found in AccurateRip database”, so I tried again with Franz Ferdinand‘s album of the same name.
$ rip offset find
Checking device /dev/cdrom
Album not found in AccurateRip database.
$ # Changing the CD to something that might have a better chance of being included in the database
$ rip offset find
Checking device /dev/cdrom
Trying read offset 6 ...
Trying read offset 48 ...
Trying read offset 102 ...
Offset of device is likely 102, confirming ...
Read offset of device is: 102.Ripping a CD to FLAC
We wil rip the CD to FLAC, a loss-less open-source codec. 102 is the offset we found above.
$ mkdir Her_Name_Is_Calla_-_Navigator
$ cd Her_Name_Is_Calla_-_Navigator
$ rip cd rip --offset 102
Checking device /dev/sr0
CDDB disc id: a60e080c
MusicBrainz disc id mxCOjvkQ7UxZIWQf6._MXdeNdk0-
MusicBrainz lookup URL http://mm.musicbrainz.org/bare/cdlookup.html?toc=1+12+269576+150+14387+33156+41485+63566+85189+123198+148717+154783+186693+199010+251815&tracks=12&id=mxCOjvkQ7UxZIWQf6._MXdeNdk0-
Disc duration: 00:59:52.346, 12 audio tracks
Error: NotFoundException(ResponseError(),)
Continuing without metadata
Submit this disc to MusicBrainz at the above URL.Eh, what’s going on here? Well, morituri tries to find the CD on MusicBrainz to automatically tag it. MusicBrainz is like Wikipedia, but for bands, albums, and other music releases.. In this case, the CD was not recognized, and it’s suggested we add it to MusicBrainz ourselves.
After logging in, we can continue the process of creating the CD on MusicBrainz.
Now that we created the release, our ripping should go fine. I had to click the link one more time to link the TOC of the CD to the release, but everything went smoothly after that.
Now that the rip is complete, we can import these files into beets.
Importing and tagging files: beets for organisation
I use beets to manage my music library.
Importing files into beets
After setting up a library, you can start to import music. You use beet import for this. As an example, let’s import the album we ripped earlier.
$ beet import Her\ Name\ Is\ Calla\ -\ Navigator /home/thomas/tmp/Her_Name_Is_Calla_-_Navigator/album/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (12 items)
Tagging:
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator
URL:
http://musicbrainz.org/release/8d1604ad-8351-4467-bbbc-3da68973a404
(Similarity: 100.0%) (CD, 2014)
As you can see, beets will also contact MusicBrainz, where it finds the album. I like to have all of my music backed by MusicBrainz, that way, I know the metadata is always correct.
The power of beets is correcting music. For example, if the artist name on the FLAC files was “her name is calla”, beets would offer to correct this to Her Name Is Calla.
We can check that beets imported the album:
$ beet ls her name is calla
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - I Was on the Back of a Nightingale
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - The Roots Run Deep
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - It's Called, 'Daisy'
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Ragman Roll
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Meridian Arc
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Navigator
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Burial
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - A Second Life
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - It Was Flood
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Whale Fall: A Journal
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Dreamlands
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Perfect PrimeLooks great! Now we actually want to listen to this. But first, I’ll talk a little about my beets setup.
beets setup
This is my ~/.config/beets/config.yaml:
directory: ~/music
library: ~/.beets_library.blb
import:
copy: yespaths:
default: $albumartist - $album ($year)%aunique{}/$track $titleplugins: discogs fetchart missing lastimport lastgenre lyrics web thumbnails scrub convertlastfm:
user: siycklastgenre:
count: 1convert:
copy_album_art: yes
dest: /home/thomas/converted_music
Music directory and library
I use the idiomatic ~/music as a place to store my music. This is where beets will store my music. ~/.beets_library.blb stores beets‘ music library (as a SQL database).
Import style
copy: yes makes beets copy the files, instead of moving them. That way, nothing I’m working on suddenly disappears. Moving is obviously faster though, you might want to consider it.
Path
The paths defines how albums will be stored in the music directory. I like the Artist name - Album name (year)/Track number - Track name convention, which is expressed by $albumartist - $album ($year)%aunique{}/$track $title. $albumartist is the artist responsible for the album (there can be tracks of different artists on one album), this keeps the album together. %aunique adds a unique identifier in case there are duplicate names.
Plugins
Here are some of the plugins I use I wanted to highlight:
fetchartwill grab album covers from the web, and add them to your librarylastgenrewill get the genre for songs from last.fmlyricswill get track lyrics from a variety of sourcesscrubwill remove extra tags not used or added bybeetsfrom music filesconvertis used to convert music to other formats
Convert
These settings are for when I’m converting music. I convert to MP3 to save space on my phone, I don’t really need FLACs there. copy_album_art will copy album art (obviously), dest selects a destination folder.
Playing music: mopidy as the music server
I use mopidy as a music player. I used to use plain old mpd, but mopidy is more flexible. I installed it using apt.
My configuration
[mpd]
hostname = ::[scrobbler]
username = siyck
password = XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX[local]
media_dir = /home/thomas/music
excluded_file_extensions =
.m4a
.directory
.html
.jpeg
.jpg
.log
.nfo
.png
.txt[soundcloud]
auth_token = X-XXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
hostname = :: binds to all local addresses. The [scrobbler] setup is used to scrobble to last.fm.
In [local], the music directory is defined. I also define some excludes: the defaults and .m4a, since the latest mopidy struggles to play those.
And lastly, an auth token to play music from Soundcloud.
Making mopidy scan for new music in the library
mopidy isn’t constantly watching the library for changes, we have to let it know about them. mopidy local scan does exactly that.
After scanning, restart mopidy:
$ killall mopidy
$ mopidy &Playing music: ncmpcpp
I use ncmpcpp as an mpd frontend. mopidy presents itself as an mpd-compatible server, which means other mpd clients work for it too.
I’m not going to fully introduce ncmpcpp here, but you can switch to the list of albums by pressing 4, then use the mouse or arrow keys to navigate. Searching is simple too: /, your query, and enter. You can play tracks by pressing enter, and queue them using space. For more on ncmpcpp, check out the Arch Wiki.
ncmpcpp config
One thing that annoys me, is that ncmpcpp sorts by artist by default, and not albumArtist. You can change this in the Media Library view, but to change the default, edit ~/.ncmpcpp/config:
media_library_primary_tag = "album_artist"Control through Android: MPDroid
mopidy is mpd-compatible. This means that you can use most mpd clients to control it. For example, I control my laptop’s mopidy remotely using MPDroid.
Syncing to my phone
I don’t always have my laptop with me, but I don’t want to be musicless during those times. I carry my phone with me pretty much all the time, so wouldn’t it be an idea to put music on that?
Converting
Music is converted using the beet convert command. I already talked about the configuration of that command earlier. Now we’re actually going to use it. beet convert will convert all the files in your library, this may take a very long time. For now, we will convert a small subset.
Using beet ls, we check what files will be selected for a query. We try out the query calla, this will match tracks in which the word calla appears:
$ beet ls calla
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - I Was on the Back of a Nightingale
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - The Roots Run Deep
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - It's Called, 'Daisy'
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Ragman Roll
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Meridian Arc
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Navigator
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Burial
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - A Second Life
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - It Was Flood
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Whale Fall: A Journal
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - DreamlandsLooks reasonable. Let’s convert them!
$ beet convert calla
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - I Was on the Back of a Nightingale
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - The Roots Run Deep
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - It's Called, 'Daisy'
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Ragman Roll
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Meridian Arc
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Navigator
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Burial
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - A Second Life
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - It Was Flood
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Whale Fall: A Journal
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Dreamlands
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator - Perfect Prime
Convert? (Y/n)
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/04 Ragman Roll.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/01 I Was on the Back of a Nightingale.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/05 Meridian Arc.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/02 The Roots Run Deep.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/06 Navigator.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/07 Burial.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/08 A Second Life.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/03 It's Called, 'Daisy'.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/08 A Second Life.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/09 It Was Flood.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/03 It's Called, 'Daisy'.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/10 Whale Fall_ A Journal.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/01 I Was on the Back of a Nightingale.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/11 Dreamlands.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/02 The Roots Run Deep.flac
convert: Encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/12 Perfect Prime.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/05 Meridian Arc.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/10 Whale Fall_ A Journal.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/04 Ragman Roll.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/07 Burial.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/12 Perfect Prime.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/09 It Was Flood.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/06 Navigator.flac
convert: Finished encoding /home/thomas/music/Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/11 Dreamlands.flac
$ ls ~/converted_music/Her\ Name\ Is\ Calla\ -\ Navigator\ \(2014\)
01 I Was on the Back of a Nightingale.mp3 07 Burial.mp3
02 The Roots Run Deep.mp3 08 A Second Life.mp3
03 It's Called, 'Daisy'.mp3 09 It Was Flood.mp3
04 Ragman Roll.mp3 10 Whale Fall_ A Journal.mp3
05 Meridian Arc.mp3 11 Dreamlands.mp3
06 Navigator.mp3 12 Perfect Prime.mp3Looks like it worked!
Selecting
My phone is too small to carry my entire music library. That’s why I make a selection of what music to put on it. I manage this in a directory ~/phone_music, this is the directory that will be synced to my phone. All that this directory contains, is a bunch of symlinks to ~/converted_music/... folders.
We will select the album from before by symlinking it:
~/phone_music$ ln -s ../converted_music/Her\ Name\ Is\ Calla\ -\ Navigator\ \(2014\)/I wrote a little script to automate this the first time:
#!/bin/bashfor FILE in ../converted_music/*; do
echo "$FILE y/n?";
read CHOICE;
if [ "$CHOICE" = "y" ]; then
echo linking $FILE to $(basename "$FILE")
BASENAME=$(basename "$FILE")
ln -s "$FILE" "$BASENAME"
echo "$FILE linked";
fi;
done;
rsync server on my phone: SSHelper
I tested out multiple solutions for syncing to my phone (Samba server on my laptop, USB OTG cable, mounting my phone…) but none were particulary reliable or handy. The solution I came up with was running a server on my phone, and rsyncing from my laptop.
SSHelper goes on my Android. After running, I rsync into it from my laptop.
Now I run rsync to synchronize:
$ rsync -avzL --no-perms --no-times --size-only --info=progress2 -e 'ssh -p 2222' . 192.168.1.103:SDCard/MusicSSHelper Version 7.9 Copyright 2014, P. Lutus
Default password is "admin" (recommend: change it)
thomas@192.168.1.103's password:
sending incremental file list
0 0% 0.00kB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#0, ir-chk=1000/3131)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/01 I Was on the Back of a Nightingale.mp3
4,208,841 0% 2.35MB/s 0:00:01 (xfr#1, ir-chk=1006/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/02 The Roots Run Deep.mp3
10,320,332 0% 1.44MB/s 0:00:06 (xfr#2, ir-chk=1016/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/03 It's Called, 'Daisy'.mp3
13,354,276 0% 1.39MB/s 0:00:09 (xfr#3, ir-chk=1015/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/04 Ragman Roll.mp3
19,973,344 0% 1.31MB/s 0:00:14 (xfr#4, ir-chk=1014/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/05 Meridian Arc.mp3
26,848,527 0% 1.26MB/s 0:00:20 (xfr#5, ir-chk=1013/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/06 Navigator.mp3
38,621,591 0% 1.25MB/s 0:00:29 (xfr#6, ir-chk=1012/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/07 Burial.mp3
46,411,725 0% 1.24MB/s 0:00:35 (xfr#7, ir-chk=1011/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/08 A Second Life.mp3
48,063,182 0% 1.25MB/s 0:00:36 (xfr#8, ir-chk=1010/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/09 It Was Flood.mp3
57,304,507 0% 1.24MB/s 0:00:44 (xfr#9, ir-chk=1009/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/10 Whale Fall_ A Journal.mp3
61,930,675 0% 1.16MB/s 0:00:50 (xfr#10, ir-chk=1008/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/11 Dreamlands.mp3
78,548,445 0% 1.11MB/s 0:01:07 (xfr#11, ir-chk=1007/3162)
Her Name Is Calla - Navigator (2014)/12 Perfect Prime.mp3
83,451,398 0% 1.07MB/s 0:01:14 (xfr#12, ir-chk=1004/4276)sent 83,384,321 bytes received 2,601 bytes 1,048,892.10 bytes/sec
total size is 42,082,835,611 speedup is 504.67
The beautiful thing is that rsync is built to be robust: if it’s interrupted, for any reason, you can just continue later.
Listening on my phone
I used to use Google Play Music, but I’ve recently made the switch to Poweramp. I’m not sure if I’ll continue using it. Play Music feels very intuitive and is a breeze to use.
Keeping track: last.fm
last.fm may have a reputation as a dead site, I still use it to track my music.
mopidy
mopidy has a scrobbling plugin aptly called Mopidy-Scrobbler. Configuration is easy:
$ cat ~/.config/mopidy/mopidy.conf
...
[scrobbler]
username = siyck
password = XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...On my phone
On my Android phone, I use Simple Last.fm Scrobbler, a no-nonsense scrobbler. It features a cache, in which it stores scrobbles if you’re offline, to scrobble them when you’re back online.
Legality
What we did here was ripping a CD for personal use. We also placed it on our phone. In Belgium, this is legal, as it falls under “private copies”. For more information, see here. Obviously, uploading this to the internet or a Bittorrent network is not legal, and not ethical either.
