What are we building?

A personal music streaming server with Navidrome (v0.63.2) behind Traefik. By the end you browse your collection in the browser by album, artist and genre, stream on demand – and connect the app of your choice (Symfonium, DSub, play:Sub …) via the Subsonic standard to listen on the go too. Navidrome is remarkably resource-friendly (written in Go) and runs happily on a small VPS.

For audiobooks and podcasts it is the wrong tool, though: Navidrome thinks in albums and tracks, not chapters, and does not remember your listening position across devices. Use Audiobookshelf (Tutorial expected in September) for those – the two run side by side on the same server without trouble.

Prerequisites

• A server with Traefik running and Docker Compose
• A subdomain pointing at the server – YOUR_DOMAIN below
• Your music files (MP3, FLAC, …) with proper metadata (tags) – Navidrome builds the library from them

Step by step

Step 1: Create the project

Navidrome needs two folders: one for the music (read-only) and one for its database/index. Create the project:

mkdir -p /opt/navidrome/data /opt/navidrome/music && cd /opt/navidrome
chown -R 1000:1000 /opt/navidrome

Step 2: Get the music onto the server

Copy your music into the music folder – ideally cleanly structured (Artist/Album/Track.mp3). rsync over SSH is well suited for the transfer:

rsync -av --progress ~/Music/ root@YOUR_SERVER_IP:/opt/navidrome/music/

What matters is good metadata: Navidrome reads artist, album, title, year and cover from the files’ tags, not from the filenames. Poorly tagged files end up unsorted in the library.

Step 3: The Compose file

Replace YOUR_DOMAIN:

services:
  navidrome:
    image: deluan/navidrome:0.63.2
    restart: unless-stopped
    user: "1000:1000"
    environment:
      ND_MUSICFOLDER: /music
      ND_DATAFOLDER: /data
      ND_SCANNER_SCHEDULE: 1h        # look for new files hourly
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
      - ./music:/music:ro        # mount the music read-only
    networks: [proxy]
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.navidrome.rule=Host(`YOUR_DOMAIN`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.navidrome.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.navidrome.tls.certresolver=le"
      - "traefik.http.services.navidrome.loadbalancer.server.port=4533"

networks:
  proxy:
    external: true

The :ro on the music volume is deliberate: Navidrome should only read your files, never modify them. ND_SCANNER_SCHEDULE: 1h has it look for new music hourly.

Step 4: Start and check the scan

docker compose up -d

Navidrome scans the library on first start. You can follow it in the log:

docker compose logs | grep -i scan

Scanner: Completed processing folder audioCount=3 tracksImported=3
Scanner: Finished scanning all libraries duration=279ms

tracksImported shows how many tracks were recognized. For large collections the first scan takes correspondingly longer.

Step 5: Create the admin account

Open https://YOUR_DOMAIN/. On first access you create the administrator account:

Pick a username and a strong password. Afterwards you land directly in your library.

Step 6: Browse the library

The web interface shows your music by album, artist, genre and recently added – with cover grids and search:

Clicking an album opens the track list; double-clicking a track starts playback in the built-in player at the bottom:

Step 7: Connect mobile apps via Subsonic

Navidrome speaks the Subsonic API – an established standard supported by many music apps. That’s how you listen to your collection on the go with the app of your choice. In the app you enter:

• Server: https://YOUR_DOMAIN
• Username/password: your Navidrome account

Recommended apps: Symfonium or Tempo (Android), play:Sub or substreamer (iOS). Create separate user accounts for family members in the Navidrome settings instead of sharing the admin account.

When things go wrong

Maintenance & backups

• Updates. Occasionally bump the image tag (deluan/navidrome:0.63.2) to the current version and docker compose up -d; Navidrome migrates its database at start. The rest runs through your normal update process.
• Two-part backup. Your music is the valuable, irreplaceable part – it belongs in your Restic backup anyway (or you have it elsewhere). The data folder (Navidrome’s index, play statistics, playlists, user accounts) is small and should be backed up too; in a pinch it can also be rebuilt by a fresh scan.
• Low effort. After setup, maintenance mainly means dropping new music into the folder – the hourly scan handles the rest. As the collection grows, watch the disk space (df -h); music adds up fast.