How to Self-Host Navidrome (Music Streaming)

Navidrome is a lightweight, self-hosted music server that streams your own collection to any device. It's compatible with the Subsonic API, so it works with a whole ecosystem of polished mobile and desktop apps. This guide installs it with Docker and gets your library streaming. It's remarkably efficient — it runs comfortably on the smallest VPS plans.

Why Navidrome?

• Your music, no subscription: stream the albums you own, everywhere.
• Great apps: the Subsonic API means you can use excellent third-party clients on every platform.
• Tiny footprint: written in Go, it uses very little RAM and starts instantly.

Prerequisites

• A VPS with Docker installed — run Docker on a VPS.
• Your music files uploaded to the server, e.g. under /srv/music.
• A domain with an A record, e.g. music.example.com.

Deploy Navidrome

mkdir -p ~/navidrome && cd ~/navidrome

services:
  navidrome:
    image: deluan/navidrome:latest
    container_name: navidrome
    restart: unless-stopped
    user: 1000:1000
    environment:
      - ND_SCANSCHEDULE=1h
      - ND_LOGLEVEL=info
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
      - /srv/music:/music:ro
    ports:
      - "4533:4533"

docker compose up -d

Navidrome mounts your music read-only and scans it on the schedule you set. Open http://your-server-ip:4533 and create the first admin user.

Put it behind HTTPS

Front Navidrome with Caddy so you stream over a secure URL:

music.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:4533
}

Then restrict the firewall:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable

Get your music onto the server

Upload your library with rsync (it resumes and only copies changes):

rsync -avP ~/Music/ user@your-server-ip:/srv/music/

Good tags make Navidrome shine — clean artist, album and track metadata means better browsing and cover art. Trigger a rescan from Settings after a big upload.

Stream from your phone

Navidrome's web player works everywhere, but the mobile experience is best through a Subsonic-compatible app. Install one, add a server with your https://music.example.com URL and Navidrome credentials, and your whole library — with offline downloads, playlists and scrobbling — is in your pocket. It pairs naturally with a media library like Jellyfin if you also self-host video.

Tag your library for a great experience

Navidrome reads everything it knows about your music from the files' metadata tags, so a well-tagged library is the difference between tidy browsing and a mess. Before or after uploading, run your collection through a tagger like MusicBrainz Picard to fill in:

• Artist, Album Artist, Album, Title, Track number — the essentials for correct grouping.
• Year and Genre — for browsing and smart playlists.
• Embedded cover art — so albums show artwork everywhere.

Getting *Album Artist* right in particular fixes the classic "compilation split into twelve one-track albums" problem. After a big tagging pass, trigger a rescan from *Settings* so Navidrome picks up the changes.

Playlists, transcoding and users

A few features round out the experience:

• Playlists: build them in the web player or any Subsonic app; Navidrome also imports .m3u playlist files placed in your music folder.
• On-the-fly transcoding: set per-client bitrate limits so mobile streams use less data without you re-encoding anything.
• Multiple users and sharing: each user gets their own favourites, play counts and playlists, and you can generate share links for specific albums or tracks.
• Scrobbling: connect Last.fm or ListenBrainz to keep your listening history if you like tracking it.

Keep the container updated with a quick docker compose pull && docker compose up -d to pick up new features.

Getting your music onto the server

Navidrome streams files that live on the VPS, so upload your collection first. rsync is the reliable way — it resumes and only copies what's changed, which matters for a large library:

rsync -avP ~/Music/ user@your-server-ip:/srv/music/

Keep the library on a dedicated block storage volume mounted at /srv/music so you can grow it without rebuilding the container. Navidrome mounts the folder read-only, so it never modifies your files — all its state (playlists, play counts, users) lives in its own data directory, which is the thing to back up.

Point the scan schedule (ND_SCANSCHEDULE) at an interval that suits how often you add music, or trigger a manual rescan from *Settings* after a big upload. Once your tags are clean and the library is scanned, you have a fast, private streaming service that follows you to any device with a Subsonic app — no monthly fee, no tracking, just your music.

FAQ

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