Introduction

Subsonic Music Server is a media streaming server that you can install to the same machine where your media collection is saved.

Subsonic also allows you to use several devices such a Chromecast or Sonos and offers a free version or a paid version totaling $1 per month.

Here, we will show you how to install Subsonic to your Ubuntu or Fedora Shell™.

Prerequisites

Before we can open ports to additional traffic, you must purchase a $1 dedicated IP address.

If you skip this step this tutorial will not work.

Follow the tutorial below:

How to Purchase and Active a Dedicated IP address for your Shell™

 

How to Install to Ubuntu

Install Java

To install Subsonic Music Server, we must first install Java. Enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre

You must download Subsonic .deb installation package. Enter the following command:

wget https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/subsonic-public/download/subsonnic-6.1.6.deb

You can also download the most recent version from here.

Install the file using the following command:

sudo yum install --nogpgcheck subsonic-6.1.6.deb

The installer will configure Subsonic to start automatically when booting your system. After the installation is complete you can open the Subsonic web page on your web browser by entering: http://localhost:4040.

How to Change the Default User

By default, the Subsonic process is run as the root user. To improve security it is strongly advised that you run it as a dedicated user with less powerful privileges. You can specify this user by setting the SUBSONIC_USER variable in:

/etc/sysconfig/subsonic

Note that non-root users are by default not allowed to use ports below 1024. Also make sure to grant the user write permissions in the music directories, otherwise changing album art and tags will fail.

Advanced settings

To change additional parameters, you can edit the SUBSONIC_ARGS variable in /etc/default/subsonic. Restart Subsonic by entering:

sudo service subsonic restart

How to Troubleshoot Subsonic Music Server

To check logs, go to /var/subsonic. Enter:

cat /var/subsonic

 

How to Install to Fedora

Install Java

To install Subsonic, you must first install Java. Enter the following command:

sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk

You must download Subsonic .rpm installation package. Enter the following command:

wget https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/subsonic-public/download/subsonic-6.1.6.rpm

You can also download the most recent version from here.

Install the file using the following command:

sudo yum install --nogpgcheck subsonic-6.1.6.rpm

The installer will configure Subsonic to start automatically when booting your system. After the installation is complete you can open the Subsonic web page on your web browser by entering: http://localhost:4040.

How to Change the Default User

By default, the Subsonic process is run as the root user. To improve security it is strongly advised that you run it as a dedicated user with less powerful privileges. You can specify this user by setting the SUBSONIC_USER variable in:

/etc/sysconfig/subsonic

Note that non-root users are by default not allowed to use ports below 1024. Also make sure to grant the user write permissions in the music directories, otherwise changing album art and tags will fail.

Advanced settings

To change additional parameters, you can edit the SUBSONIC_ARGS variable in /etc/default/subsonic. Restart Subsonic by entering:

sudo service subsonic restart

How to Troubleshoot Subsonic Music Server

To check logs, go to /var/subsonic. Enter:

cat /var/subsonic