My experience with Navidrome
This is a post about the whole path it took me to get from the old days of Google Music to Navidrome, and some views on the topic. Maybe this is something that interest you, in this case give a read.
All feedback is welcome.
https://jeferson.me/blog/2026/09/04/lostfiyOpen linkView original on piefed.social
7 replies
Love Navidrome, it's one of the best pieces of software in my life. I'm one of those lucky/obsessive people that never stopped maintaining a music collection in the era of streaming. I think I used Spotify for about 6 months in total, but always came back to my own collection, especially when I could upload the whole thing to Google Play Music to access it anywhere. After GPM was killed I started self-hosting with the OG Subsonic server but soon switched to Navidrome.
As a comment to your post, if everything you have is purchased via Bandcamp, I find their own app pretty reasonable for on-the-go streaming, but they actually recently added their own Subsonic-compatible implementation, so you can connect to that server with whatever Navidrome client app you use as well: https://blog.bandcamp.com/2026/07/16/discover-improvements-and-subsonic-implementation/ I think this really makes switching to a Bandcamp-based streaming library significantly more accessible for any folks that don't have the desire/willingness/knowledge to set up their own fully self-hosted system.
I kind of feel the same. But I had changed my country of living, and left way to much behind my back. But I wasn't fully on the streaming/physical, I was kind of in the middle. Some stuff physical, and also streaming for some stuff.
I like the idea, but I'm so afraid of the rug pull that I can't get back on this. I'll keep my music on my drive and live like that for some time. Even knowing that the HDDs are getting pricier by the day I want to keep with me for now on. But I like the idea, give you the files, but also provide the option to stream.
I think I still have a tab open with/about Navidome somewhere up my long list of open tabs 😬
I've a tabs manager because I've waaaay to many tabs open at any given time.
One thing i haven't done but i know some people like is getting song recommendations. Ive heard some success in using listenbrainz for that. Might be worth checking out if you want to still get recommendations. Navidrome scrobbling
It's interesting, but don't fit my "view" on the topic.
I'm paying more attention to what I'm listening, and focusing on what I consume.
I don't want the "algorithm" to decide for me, I want to make the decision.
Nice writeup! Agree with the ownership part absolutely, and the alternative software is quite good indeed XD
Just dropping in here that you should absolutely try Nicotine+ for finding basically anything