Setting up a music server?

I've poked around some posts that seemed to be related, but didn't really see anything along the lines of what I'm looking for (although I'm sure I'm missing something)

What I'd like to do is set up a server so that my gf & i can listen to our music files remotely. So the idea would be something that would list which mp3s/etc (preferably would handle aac & ogg as well) stored on the server, and could request it to play (preferably streamed). Another good thing here would be a password protection/account potential so that the whole world couldn't come in and access it.

What I don't want to do (which is what I saw most people talking about) is set up a constantly running internet radio site which is constantly running (and I realize that's against the TOS), this would be on a per-request basis only.

If you have to ask, it'll be shut down in a minute.

Fire up ORB and run it off your home machine.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for discount.

P.S. Don't be dumb enough to tell everyone. Do you call the police department and say, "I'll be speeding up the interstate at 100 mph this afternoon. Just me and my gf."Edited by wholly on 12/20/07 08:00 PM (server time).

Errr ...

What I'm looking for is a web page that would have a listing of albums/songs. One could click on a song and it would play on my current machine, or say do something like click on an album and have it play all of that. Ideally it would be not unlike iTunes in turns of play options.

Please tell me how something like that would violate the banning of running an active persistent process. What I'm looking for might not exist, and that's fine, but I fail to see how what I'm imagining breaks the persistent process rule as it'd just essentially be something like a PHP type of setup, which people run all of the time.

How would that be different than say, Gallery, which has the explicit support of Dreamhost via their 1-click installs? Or the CMS software that they provide?

Why not run it off of my home machine? Because my upstream bandwith is crap, which is the whole reason why I host my server here now. I use the barest, slimmest fraction of the resources which I pay for and I'm looking for ways to at least make it simply a slim fraction.

So you are not interested in setting up a "streaming server" at all... you just want a repository of files. A "streaming server" (ala "shoutcast". etc) *would* be a "persistent process", and that is how you initially described what you wanted to do. wink

In reply to:
What I'm looking for is a web page that would have a listing of albums/songs. One could click on a song and it would play on my current machine

So, at the most elemental level, just upload your media files to a web-accessible directory; the default DreamHost indexing configuration for apache will display a list of files when you browse to that directory. You can also do just what you described: build a webpage that has "a listing of albums/songs", upload the music to your site, and "link" the "listings" to the files.

If you want "albums", upload "playlist files" your music player will recognize as such. Plugins for most browsers will now "automagically" stream certain media file types, or use the media player tools available at media.dreamhost.com. If you really want to build an "itunes clone", "good luck with that"; there is a *lot* involved in such an application - *way* beyond something that can be detailed in this forum.

In reply to:
I use the barest, slimmest fraction of the resources which I pay for and I'm looking for ways to at least make it simply a slim fraction.

It sounds to me like you are confusing your "quota" with "space you have rented" or some such other notion, and that is not at all what your hosting fee at DreamHost provides. You don't *nearly "pay for" the amount of bandwidth or storage indicated by your quota.

DreamHost's allowing you to use that much bandwidth and/or storage is contingent upon you using it in a manner that is consistent with the TOS.

You have a potential problem with the TOS in the area of copyright infringement if you are intending to upload music you do not have the right to "distribute", and then serving it from your DreamHost server. It probably would be a good idea to review the material on the DreamHost abuse Center so you have a better idea of how that relates to what you are proposing to do.

Additionally, you are likely to find yourself in a bit of a "Catch 22" TOS wise with what you are considering doing as it relates to paragraph 6 of the "Material Products" section).

If you characterize what you are doing as "serving a website", then you are likely to end up in violation for "distributing" copyrighted material without permission, and if you characterize it as a "personal music archive", you have a potential problem with that paragraph I just mentioned.

--rlparker

In reply to:
So you are not interested in setting up a "streaming server" at all... you just want a repository of files. A "streaming server" (ala "shoutcast". etc) *would* be a "persistent process", and that is how you initially described what you wanted to do.

Fair enough. In my non-expert mind, they're all kind of the same. :)

In reply to:
If you want "albums", upload "playlist files" your music player will recognize as such. Plugins for most browsers will now "automagically" stream certain media file types, or use the media player tools available at media.dreamhost.com. If you really want to build an "itunes clone", "good luck with that"; there is a *lot* involved in such an application - *way* beyond something that can be detailed in this forum.

Interesting, I hadn't looked at that media.dreamhost.com page. I was looking for a bit more than just using file indexing, although by going w/ the iTunes analogy I wans't really expecting something that fleshed out. I just thought that perhaps this was a problem someone else had already solved at some point. If not, no big deal.

In reply to:
t sounds to me like you are confusing your "quota" with "space you have rented" or some such other notion, and that is not at all what your hosting fee at DreamHost provides. You don't *nearly "pay for" the amount of bandwidth or storage indicated by your quota.

I understand the concept of overselling, shared services and other such things. My point was that I use much less than 1% of my bandwith quotas, so doing something like this (after doing some back of the envelope math) wouldn't significantly change that. I handle email for 3-4 people and a small gallery site for about 10 folks. In the long and short of things, I'm a mote of dust in my overall consumption of resources.

In reply to:
You have a potential problem with the TOS in the area of copyright infringement if you are intending to upload music you do not have the right to "distribute"

We don't have any music material that's not actually owned by us (IOW: I pay for my music). That's also why I wanted to lock it down (although I suppose I could do that by simply protecting the directory tree that this would hypothetically sit in), so that malcontents wouldn't be able to download things either.

Granted the media companies want to make it so that space shifting the contents of a CD is a violation, but that's another topic for another day (and one that I vehemently disagree with).

In reply to:
We don't have any music material that's not actually owned by us (IOW: I pay for my music). That's also why I wanted to lock it down (although I suppose I could do that by simply protecting the directory tree that this would hypothetically sit in), so that malcontents wouldn't be able to download things either.

I understand your position on that (and don't necessarily disagree with your sentiments), but I suspect you know full well that your description of "owning" the music for which you have purchased media (and a license for certain uses) is not consistent with the current state of U.S. copyright law. I won't argue any of that with you. wink

In reply to:
Granted the media companies want to make it so that space shifting the contents of a CD is a violation, but that's another topic for another day (and one that I vehemently disagree with).

That's all well and good, and I agree it is "another topic" (and one I have no interest in re-hasing), but you might consider that, irrespective of how you perceive the issue, you will still be bound by the DreamHost TOS (did you read the material on the DreamHost Abuse Center that clarifies DreamHost's TOS prohibition on "distributing" copyrighted material, and how they define "distributing"?).

While protecting the content from being accessed by the "public" is certainly wise, I'm not sure that act alone puts you in the clear; "distributing" can mean making it available to even a single other person (and that ignores the arguable "fair use" of the "space-shift" anyway).

You should do what you want; I was just pointing out that, by your own description of what you want to do, you have a potential problem with the TOS in that area. For the purposes of this discussion, I think the TOS concern is probably more relevant than the "legal" or "illegal" status of your "space-shifted" files. It doesn't really matter how you define what you are doing at some level, as certain aspects of what you propose are clearly defined in the TOS, and clarified on the Abuse Center pages, as being prohibited. wink

The practical reality, however, is that a "small" amount of storage / bandwidth used to "privately" serve a few music files may well (and quite probably would) stay "beneath the radar" and present no problem for you...but I wanted to make sure you understood that it *could* create a problem.

PAX!

--rlparker

I was just trying to encourage you to avoid a situation like This

It happens all the time and people show up here complaining like the other customers could do anything and it ALWAYS comes down to someone posted a copy of a movie to your site without your knowledge.

Just know that it happens. Sorry if you think I was saying you were a thief. That was not what I intended. I may have been saying that (in the eyes of the RIAA) you might be a BAD Thief.

Although I have to say I don't run my life worried about what the RIAA thinks of me. They've gotten plenty of my money in the past and I will continue to support the artists.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for discount.