The Firefly Media Server (formerly mt-daap) is a fast DAAP server that is simple to install and even easier to configure. Firefly resides on a single Linux machine that doesn’t have to be a powerhouse. In fact, you can install this lightweight server on Ubuntu Server and you’re almost ready to go. In this article you will see how to do just that – install and configure Firefly Media Server on Ubuntu Server.

Features

The Firefly server has all of the features you will want in a DAAP server:

• Supports Unix/POSIX
• Beta for Windows in the works
• On the fly transcoding of OGG, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and WM
• User-created smart playlist support
• Integrates with iTunes and many other DAAP-supporting media players
• Serve streaming radio stations

Installation

Since we are installing on a Ubuntu Server, the installation is simple:

1. Open up a terminal (or just log into your servers’ console)
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install mt-daap
3. Enter your user password

That’s it. Now it’s time to set it up.

Configuration file

There is only one configuration file for Firefly: /etc/mt-daapd.conf. This file is quite easy to set up. For a basic DAAP server, out of the box, there is really only one option you must configure. If you open up the configuration file look for the line:

mp3_dir = /home/media/music

This is the line you will need to change to reflect the directory you will serve your media from. For my setup I created a new sub-directory in /opt called music. Do this with the command:

sudo mkdir /opt/media

Now you have to make that directory readable by the DAAP server with the command:

sudo chmod ug+r -R /opt/media

Now all files and sub-directories created with the /opt/media directory will have the proper permissions such that the DAAP server can serve up the files.

Of course what you have just set up is a very basic DAAP server. There are a lot of other options within the configuration file you can set up, such as:

• servername: This is the name your DAAP server will broadcast. By default the server will be listed as Firefly RELEASE_NUMBER HOSTNAME (Where RELEASE_NUMBER is the release number of the Firefly installation and HOSTNAME is the hostname of the server.)
• password protection: This will cause any user attempting to access the DAAP server to have to enter a password in order to see the files.
• port: If you need to use a port other than the default (3689), configure it here.
• extensions: The file types you want to allow to be served by your DAAP server.
• Valid codectypes: These are the configurations for the format conversion. There are already lines for this in the configuration file – you just have to uncomment the ones you want to add for internal conversion.
• rescan_interval: If you want to enable background scanning you need to uncomment this entry and set an interval. This will enable you to add new files without having to restart the DAAP server to pick up the new files. Very handy if you frequently add new files.

There are other configuration options, but those are the ones you will want to focus on first.

Start the daemon

After your configuration file is complete, go ahead and move your media files into the directory and then start the server with the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/mt-daap start

With the server up and running you can fire up a DAAP enabled client, like iTunes or Songbird (Note: Songbird requires the addition of a DAAP add on), and you should automatically see the files on the DAAP server.

Final thoughts

Setting up a DAAP server is a great idea for a small internal network where you want to be able to share out a multi-media library. Anyone looking to set this up, and has a Linux server up and running, would do well to give Firefly a try. The simplicity, size, and speed of this server makes it the perfect candidate.

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Songbird is able to import the iTunes music library and playlists if iTunes is installed on the computer system as well. It does not really make sense to use both iTunes and Songbird unless iTunes is used to purchase music and fill music gadgets like the iPod or iPhone as Songbird provides an equal – and sometimes even advanced – functionality otherwise.

Users who do not use iTunes can import music easily by adding folders from the local computer system. Songbird will automatically recognize tags and categorize the music accordingly. One of the most interesting features is the support for plugins. A handful of plugins are installed by default unless the user opts out of the installation. Plugins expand the functionality of the music manager. Available are for example a Shoutcast Internet radio browser and player, the Last.fm radio player, concert information, various skins and interface enhancements and dozens of additional plugins that sound mighty useful.

Especially the plugins make Songbird a viable alternative to other music players.

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I continue to use Windows Media Player and Media Monkey for my music collection management, but I watch progress on Songbird and like to check out new releases as they become available.

I love the concept behind Songbird and I love what’s been created so far, however it still is a little lacking to become my default media player.

The aim however is for Songbird 1.0 to be out by December this year, with regular updates in the months leading up to then. Development seems to be on schedule and accelerating as Songbird gathers steam.

Songbird 0.7 comes with the following changes:

Refreshed UI: refined look and feel. Essentially an iTunes clone-style interface, however it really is a major improvement on the old ‘Rubber Ducky’ theme, although it may take a few minutes to get used to. I personally love it.
New setup assistant
Smart playlists: Another iTunes inspired feature, but a good one at that. I nice addition to the growing Songbird feature list.
Last.fm support:No longer necessary to download a separate plugin for Lastfm integration, it comes built in and scrobbles your library for you.
GStreamer on all platforms:“This is our first cross platform release using GStreamer as our new media core, by default it handles all FLAC playback on Windows/Mac (or you can enable GStreamer to handle more codecs)”
Faster Media scanning and reading: I definitely noticed this, Songbird is handling my 8000 item library pretty smoothly now.
Lower memory usage: Another welcome improvement.

Here is a shot of the new interface:

Incidentally Songbird has created some really simple ways for anyone to theme the program which is great news for the less technical minded people like me.

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Flock is one very good example and I’ve written about it on gHacks before. Songbird is another, and I have only just begun using this one myself.

I love the concept behind Songbird, and I like the software itself, unfortunately I think the biggest thing letting it down at this point in time is somewhat slow development. It’s not a criticism, but it does make it harder for Songbird to begin gaining a significant market share.

Version 0.6.1 offers some welcome improvements including support for 10 000 song libraries, performance enhancements, better media library searching,

I’ve been playing around with it for a couple days now, and while I’m not fully converted at this point, I’m seeing a product which looks extremely promising once it matures. If it can gain the kind of community which Firefox has then it has a very real chance of rapidly gaining rapid popularity. It’s greatest strength is that it can be extended like Firefox, although at this point it doesn’t quite have the sheer volume of add-ons, but as I said, creating a community will change this.

Considering the move towards cloud computing, online music streaming and always being connected Songbird is making innovative progress towards the kind of media player for the future. Windows Media Player is woefully inadequate for this kind of use, iTunes is too locked in.

It would be very much in stores like Amazons’ interest for this to happen as Songbird, unlike iTunes, offers song purchase choices to multiple online sites. Couple that with a iTunes-like interface and iPod support and we can say goodbye to DRM songs from Apple!

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The first start will give you the impression that songbird is big, really big and loaded with features. You see a list of menu items on the left side which consist of your song library, podcasts, radio stations and the like. Clicking on a link loads the website of that service and the available songs in the same window. You have the options to play and download the songs, subscribe to the website, add the song to the playlist or the library while at the same time surfing the website that offers those songs.

A great feature is that you use songbird to play the song which means you can use the controls like pause, play, forward in songbird and don’t rely on plugins in your browser anymore.

Songbird makes it really easy to find new music or more music from artists that you know about. You can search various services for new files, for example singinfish, google, yahoo and emusic. What you do is enter a search term, hit enter and the website of that service loads the search results. Once loaded songbird again displays two content areas, first the website with the content and at the bottom all the mp3 files that are currently available on that page.

You can drag and drop files to your library, playlist, download them and play them in songbird. All working flawlessly.

There is no iPod interaction as of now, at least none that I was able to detect in the short time that I’ve been using songbird.

The developers plan to build in some additional features like extensions which work the same way as they are in firefox and thunderbird and the ability to import and burn songs from CD.

Songbird is probably not the best media player when it comes to playing songs, it feels a little bit clumsly and loaded with features but it defiantly is the best when it comes to interaction between web and player. If you are using lots of podcasts, radio stations and the like songbird should be your number one choice.

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