Pi MusicBox v0.7 manual

What is it?

Pi MusicBox lets you listen to your music through your HiFi. Supporting Spotify, Google Music, Soundcloud, YouTube, Podcasts, Apple Airplay, UPnP/DLNA, Internet Radio, not to mention your vast mp3 collection. A music player which you can operate from your couch using a tablet, smartphone, notebook or desktop computer.

Connect your Raspberry Pi to your speaker system, install the software and enjoy listening to all your music!

Possibilities

Pi MusicBox is designed to be controlled over your home network from another computer, tablet or smartphone. In fact, any device with a modern web browser (Chrome 14+, Safari 6+, Firefox 11+, Internet Explorer 10+) can be your remote. You could also attach a keyboard or buttons for local operation if you wanted.

Connect your speakers directly via line out, HDMI or through an external USB or HAT soundcard. Play music from your SD Card or USB hard drive and use WiFi/ethernet to access music on network shares, internet radio as well as music from a number of supported streaming services. The software will detect as much of the configuration as possible at startup and configure the system for you automatically.

Requirements

The main requirements are a Raspberry Pi with a ‘good’ 5V power supply, a network connection for it and a 1GB or larger SD card. The latest, faster Raspberry Pis are the best choice but models A, B and B+ will still work. You’ll also need a way to listen using either a HiFi system, headphones (with pre-amp), a set of USB speakers or the speakers on a HDMI television. If you want to listen to Spotify you will need a Spotify Premium account.

A monitor/television is not necessary but might come in handy if you need to troubleshoot startup problems.

Networking

Pi MusicBox is designed to be controlled over your home network and needs to have a working network connection. If you can use an ethernet cable, you just need to plug it in and you’re done. Connecting via WiFi using a USB dongle, or the Raspberry Pi 3 / Zero W onboard WiFi, is also possible (see Wifi Network). Most USB WiFi dongles are supported but not all. If you are buying one, make sure it works in Raspbian. You’ll need to enter your WiFi network details before you start (see Initial Config).

Note

If you want to use a static IP address, you need to login and configure that yourself (see Getting Your Hands Dirty).

Installation

Download and unzip the latest “ready to eat” image available here and use Etcher to easily copy it to your SD Card (more information. The image has been tested on a 1GB SD card but a larger card will leave you with more free space and is preferable.

Initial Config

If using a WiFi connection you must enter your network details in settings.ini before you boot the system. You can also set other config options at this point but it’s generally a good idea to start with the minimum config required when booting for the first time. It’s easy to change other options later via the settings web page once you are up and running.

To do this, insert the SD Card into a computer (Windows, Mac, Linux), and open it in the file manager. It will contain a folder called config and within that will be a file called settings.ini. The file is structured as an ini file and should be opened in a text editor. All lines starting with a # are comments designed to help you and will be ignored by Pi Musicbox. Avoid changing the order or formatting of the non-commented out lines.

For details on specifically what WiFi settings you need to set, see Wifi Network.

Booting

Insert the SD Card in your Pi and then connect the speaker (turn the volume right down), network, and power cables. You may also wish to connect a monitor/television to the HDMI connector to follow the boot process but it’s not required.

Note

The system will reboot a few times during startup and, depending on which model Raspberry Pi you are using and what initial config you have set, this may take a few minutes. Please be patient.

Web Interface

Once the system is ready for use, the web interface will be available in your web browser at one (or more) of the following addresses:

* http://musicbox.local/
* http://musicbox/

Most modern web browser will require you to explicity enter the http:// part of the address or the trailing / as otherwise they will unhelpfully try to search the internet for what you’ve typed!

Note

Windows computers might require the installation of Apple Bonjour/iTunes for mDNS to work correctly.

Note

Linux computers might require the installation of Avahi fir mDNS to work correctly.

Warning

Android does not support mDNS and you might have to access your Pi MusicBox using it’s IP address rather than it’s hostname. This address is different on every network but will look something like http://192.168.1.5/ or http://10.1.100.2/. You will have to either look it up using a network utility, find it from your router status page, or just plug in a screen and you’ll see it displayed after startup. You can also install one of the many mDNS helper apps such as Zentri Discovery.

If, after waiting a few minutes, the web interface is still not responding, there might have been a problem during startup. The easiest thing to do at this point is plug in a screen and see the error message displayed. See Troubleshooting for more help.

Once your Pi Musicbox is running and accessible on the network, you’ll want to customise it and enable some music sources. The easiest way to do this is using the Settings web page which you’ll find listed in the navigation menu on the left side of the main page. Below that you’ll also find a link to the System page where you can safely shutdown and restart the system. Avoid just removing the power cable unless you enjoy SD card corruption.

Web Radio

To play streams from radio stations you like, you have to use a so called stream url. You cannot use container files like M3U, XSPF or PLS (yet), which are commonly available, you have to add the real stream. This stream url is hidden inside the .M3U or PLS file. To find this url, open the container file in a text editor.

A PLS file looks like this:

[playlist]
numberofentries=1
File1=http://vprbbc.streamguys.net:8000/vprbbc24.mp3
Title1=BBC World Service
Length1= 1
version=2

The stream url would be:

http://vprbbc.streamguys.net:8000/vprbbc24.mp3

M3U and XSPF files look different, but the stream url is always clearly visible.

You can find radio stations (PLS and M3U) using services like http://dir.xiph.org/ or http://listenlive.eu/ or http://dirble.com/.

Just add the stream url and the name of the station and press the Play button. The last 25 stations are saved locally using a browser cookie (not on the server yet, so you need to do it on every client you use).

MPD

Though the web based interface is recommended, you can also use native software which support the MPD (Music Player Daemon) protocol to control Pi MusicBox.

Apps and applications are available for all sorts of devices and operating systems. Not all of them work great with MusicBox though. For Android, MPDroid is recommended. On OS X, Theremin works (without search). On Linux, you can use the great working and wonderfully named console app ncmpcpp. On a Linux Desktop, GMPC and Sonata work well. On iOS, mPod and mPad. For Windows, clients are either not working great or untested.

More settings

A lot of things can be configured on Music Box. Edit the configuration file according to your needs. You have to reboot the Box to see the changes.

Wifi Network

If you connect a supported wifi dongle to your Pi, the MusicBox software should be able to detect and use it instead of a cable connection. Most dongles are supported, but not all. If you buy one, make sure it’s supported by Raspbian, the Linux distribution on which MusicBox is based. To make wifi work, you have to fill in the network name (SSID) and your password in the config file. Add these lines to the basic configuration above, or edit the default file supplied with MusicBox:

WIFI_NETWORK = 'mywifinetwork'
WIFI_PASSWORD = 'mypassword'

Substitute the mywifinetwork and mypassword with the correct values of your own network. For now, the wifi on Pi MusicBox only supports WPA(2) encrypted networks, configured via DHCP. As with a wired network, if you want to use a static address, WEP encryption or no encryption, you need to get into the console and configure it yourself (see Getting Your Hands Dirty).

Better Quality

The Pi can play the music from Spotify in different types of quality. The better the quality, the more data needs to be downloaded from Spotify. It’s called bitrate. Higher quality means a higher bitrate and a bit more use of your internet connection. Typical broadband connections should be able to support the highest bitrate easily. If you have a good connection to the internet, you can set the quality to high, but if your connection is slow or unstable, or you have usage limits on your connection, you can it lower and use less data. Possible rates are 96 (low, but acceptable quality, FM like), 160 (default) or 320 (highest quality, CD like).

Set the bitrate to high like this in the configuration file:

SPOTIFY_BITRATE = 320

Or set the bitrate to low like this:

SPOTIFY_BITRATE = 96

Sound Configuration

By default Pi MusicBox will send the sound to the analog headphone output on the Pi. This sound is good enough, but due to hardware constraints, not always great. If you want to have better sound, use the HDMI to connect the Pi to an amplifier, or connect an USB soundcard (also called USB DAC, Digital Audio Converter), USB speakers or USB headphones. Almost all types of USB speakers, headphones and DAC’s are supported, but if you buy one, make sure it’s Linux compatible. DAC’s with digital outputs are also available in many web stores.

When booting, Pi MusicBox will autodetect what is connected to the device and configure it accordingly. If you connect multiple devices, USB will be selected first as a sound output, HDMI after that, and lastly the analog output of the Pi itself. You can override this in the configuration file using the following line:

OUTPUT = 'analog'

If you include this, the default output will be the analog headphones jack of the Pi, even if you connected an USB device or an HDMI cable.

The options are: analog, hdmi, usb

Last FM

Another service supported by Pi MusicBox is Last FM. It collects the tracks you play, so you can discover new music. Go to http://www.last.fm/ to create an account if you don’t already have one. To let Last FM collect the tracks you play, fill in the credentials of this service:

LASTFM_USERNAME = 'lastfmuser'
LASTFM_PASSWORD = 'lastfmpassword'

SoundCloud

Another service supported by Pi MusicBox is SoundCloud, the service which lets you “Hear the world’s sounds”. To configure it, you need a special ID, a token. Get this token from http://www.mopidy.com/authenticate/ You have to login with your SoundCloud id to get the token. This information is not shared with the mopidy.com site. When you login, you’ll see a token appear on the page. Add this token to the ini file like this:

SOUNDCLOUD_TOKEN = '1 1111 111111'
SOUNDCLOUD_EXPLORE = 'electronic/Ambient, pop/New Wave, rock/Indie'

Where you replace the example 1 111 111111 by your token. Using the SOUNDCLOUD_EXPLORE configuration, you can configure the playlists you want to see in the interface.

Multi Room Audio

Pi MusicBox supports so called Multi Room Audio. You can have multiple Raspberry’s on your network, for example in different rooms. The devices need to have their own names to be accessible. Use this option to give your MusicBox a different name:

NAME = 'Kitchen'

The name you choose should be no longer than 9 characters and only contain normal characters and numbers in the name (no spaces, dots, etc).

After a new boot, the webinterface for playing music will be accessible via a new address. Where the default would be http://musicbox.local from devices that support Bojour/Avahi, when you change the name, it becomes http://newname.local. In the example above it would be:

http://kitchen.local/

It’s not possible to play different music on multiple devices using the same Spotify account at the same time. This is a limitation of Spotify. If you have multiple accounts, it of course is possible.

Security

Pi MusicBox is not totally secure and not intended to run outside a firewall, only in the cosy environment of your local network. The heart of MusicBox, is not protected enough to do that. Also, the passwords of Spotify and wifi are stored in plain text on the SD Card. This might be fixed in the future.

For more security, change the default password by setting this line:

MUSICBOX_PASSWORD = 'mypass'

where mypass is your new password. This will change the passwords of both the user musicbox and the user root. The password will be removed from the configuration file after it’s updated.

If you want, for more security to change the root password to something else, use this line:

ROOT_PASSWORD = 'mypass'

where mypass again is your new password.

Playing your own Music Files

Though Spotify boasts a library of over 20 million tracks, not all artists and songs are represented. So it would be nice to be able to play MP3 files for the missing songs, wouldn’t it? Well the good news is that Pi MusicBox supports playing local or networked MP3, FLAC or OGG files. The bad news is that it’s a tiny bit complicated in the current version (0.4). Also, the songs are not easily available in the webinterface. They are not in the playlists, you have to search for them to play them.

Networked Music

The easiest way to play your own music files, is via the Windows Network. To do that, edit the configuration file, so that MusicBox knows where your files are. This address could be a bit cryptic to a first time user. This is an example:

NETWORK_MOUNT_ADDRESS = '//192.168.1.5/musicshare'

or:

NETWORK_MOUNT_ADDRESS = '//mynasserver/shared/music'

The first part // is the way shares in the Windows Network are created. Just add it and forget it. The next part (mynasserver or 192.168.1.5) is the name or ip address of the server which hosts the file, and the last part /musicshare or /shared/music, tells MusicBox which share to mount. When your server is protected, you need to set the username and password for the Network share using the following configuration lines:

NETWORK_MOUNT_USER = 'username'
NETWORK_MOUNT_PASSWORD = 'password'

Scan Music

MusicBox will not see the files immediately. The music files needs to be scanned at boot, every time you add or remove files. This process can slowdown the boot of the MusicBox, so use it with care. MusicBox will scan the files using the following configuration lines:

SCAN_ONCE = 'true'

or:

SCAN_ALWAYS = 'true'

The names speak for themselves. Using SCAN_ONCE, the music files will only be scanned, yes, once. Use this if you don’t change the music files often. Use SCAN_ALWAYS if you change your music files a lot. This will enable you to change the files and reboot MusicBox. It will recognize the new files after the boot. But, again, the scanning process can slowdown the booting of MusicBox considerably.

Local Music

Pi MusicBox also has an option to store music files on the SD Card. This process is also a bit more complicated. Since MusicBox is created for a 1GB SD Card, or larger, the file system is also less than 1 GB. If you put MusicBox on a larger SD Card, the rest of the space on the card won’t be used, unless you resize the file system.

You can do this manually, on a computer using a partition manager, or you can let MusicBox try to resize it automatically. This process is tested, but not guaranteed to work. You could end up with a non working musicbox if the process fails. That’s most of the time no problem, since you can put the original MusicBox image on the SD Card again and start over. If you did a lot of customization, it’s recommended to backup your card first.

Using this line in the settings, Pi MusicBox will automatically resize the filesystem to the maximum size of the SD Card:

RESIZE_ONCE = 'true'

Put Files on the Card

Putting music files on the SD Card is only recommended on cards with a size larger than 1GB. MusicBox needs the 1GB for caching and other storage. After resizing an SD card with more storage, you can put your own music files on the Pi using either the Windows Network, or by mounting the root filesystem of the card on a Linux computer and copying the files. Leave at least 200MB of free space on the device.

To use the Windows Network, you have to have the workgroup name of the Windows Network set to the default name, WORKGROUP. If you want another name, you have to change it by hand in the file /etc/samba/smb.conf (see Getting Your Hands Dirty). Remember to let MusicBox scan the files at boot (see Scan Music)

Getting Your Hands Dirty

If you are willing to get your hands ‘dirty’, there are a lot more options to explore in Pi MusicBox. For this, you have to login to the box on the console, or via SSH. To login remotely via SSH, you will need to enable the SSH service. Do that by adding this line to your configuration file:

SSH_ENABLED = 'true'

Reboot. After that, you can connect to MusicBox via SSH.

Mopidy

The main ingredient of MusicBox is Mopidy, an open source music server developed by people from all over the world. It can be extended in a number of ways. By default, Pi MusicBox is set up using the best working extensions. But it can be extended to play music from e.g. SoundCloud, Google Music and Beets Music. More extensions are developed as you read.

How to add these extensions is beyond the scope of this document, but a lot of resources and documentation can be found on http://www.mopidy.com/. The developers can be reached on the mail list of Mopidy, https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/mopidy, or via IRC Chat on the #mopidy channel on Freenode.

rc.local

Another important piece of Pi MusicBox is the file /etc/rc.local. It’s a shell script. This is where the (sound) hardware is setup and the configuration is done. For example, the configuration file of Mopidy is created from rc.local. Edit this file is you want to add, change or remove features.

Working at Midnight

For Linux novices, a nice utility called Midnight Commander could be of use to browse the filesystem and edit files. It works like the age old DOS utility Norton Commander and it’s included in MusicBox. Start it using the command:

mc

Static Network

To use MusicBox in a network with static IP addresses, you have to edit the file /etc/network/interfaces.

The lines that configure the wired network, look like this:

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

An example file for a static wired network, you should change it to something like this:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

Fill in the correct ip addresses for your network.

Updating

When a new version of MusicBox is released, the only way to update it, is to do a new installation. You can update the kernel and other packages of the system manually, but changes in the files specific for MusicBox will not be updated, so it could eventually break things. Generally it’s not needed to update things, but if you really want, you could issue the command: rpi-update to get the latest kernel. This will take a while. Another command is apt-get update && apt-get dist upgrade. These commands take a while to run, so grab a coffee!

Fun & Questions

Enjoy your new way of listening to music! If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask them at The mailing list of Mopidy/MusicBox, or via chat. Addresses and instructions are on http://www.pimusicbox.com/.