Many of us have a large collection of physical media sitting around, whether that’s CDs, vinyl records, or cassettes. Unfortunately, there isn’t nearly as much to do with them as there used to be—you’d be hard-pressed to find a modern vehicle that runs CDs, much less cassettes.
This is how I got all the benefits of my personal media collection in my vehicle without using up any space on my phone.
## Why Run a Personal Music Server, and How Do They Work?
I started collecting CDs and vinyl records after yet another Spotify song disappeared from my playlist without warning. But I had one problem: I couldn’t easily take them with me in my car, since it has no CD or record player.
Luckily, it’s easy enough to digitize physical media. The trouble is taking it all with you once you convert it. File size and storage become significant problems. High-quality media—whether ripped from a CD or purchased in FLAC from Qobuz—takes up a lot of space.
If you’re an avid collector and digitizer, it’s easy to accumulate a media library tens or even hundreds of gigabytes in size. My phone just doesn’t have that much extra storage—I’m constantly running out as it stands.
If you set up a music server, storage isn’t much of an issue. You can easily attach a 1TB external SSD or even a USB flash drive. When you run out of storage, just attach another.
In many ways, a personal media server works almost exactly like Spotify or Apple Music, except instead of streaming songs from their libraries, you stream from your own library.
All you need to do is create a digital copy of your CDs, load them onto a small computer that will serve the music to your phone, and install it in your car.
## How I Set Up a Music Server in My Car
There are two main components to this setup: the **server** and the **client**. The server provides the music, and the client plays it back.
### Setting Up the Server
I set up the server using Navidrome on a Raspberry Pi 4. I chose Navidrome because it’s very easy to install and use. If you’d also like to store and stream video, you might consider something like Jellyfin instead.
Getting Navidrome up and running is straightforward:
1. **Install a lightweight OS on your Raspberry Pi.**
I went with a headless version of Raspberry Pi OS. When prompted to apply OS customization settings, make sure you click “Edit Settings” and enter your Wi-Fi network details so you can connect via SSH. Otherwise, you’ll need a keyboard and monitor connected to the Pi to manage it.
2. **Install Navidrome.**
Follow the instructions on the Navidrome website for the pre-built binary. It’s just a matter of downloading and installing a DEB file. Everything else is handled automatically. The default settings worked perfectly for me.
3. **Set up the Pi as a Wi-Fi access point.**
This lets you connect your phone directly to the server without relying on any external network. Navidrome supports this out of the box with a single command:
“`
sudo nmcli device wifi hotspot ssid
“`
After running this, the network became visible on my phone immediately.
4. **Configure the hotspot to launch automatically on boot:**
– Run `nmtui` on your Raspberry Pi.
– Navigate to **Edit a connection**.
– Select your hotspot (mine was named ExampleHotspot).
– Uncheck the box labeled “Automatically connect” to ensure the hotspot starts every time you boot the Pi.
The hard part was done!
The only remaining step was to set up the Pi to automatically mount my external SSD when connected and configure Navidrome to look for music on that drive.
### The Client: Playing Music from the Server
There are many clients compatible with Navidrome, but I chose **Symfonium** because it works well with Android Auto, which was important for my setup.
Symfonium only requires a few configuration details:
– The IP address of your music server with port `4533`.
– Your Navidrome username and password.
When your Raspberry Pi serves as both the hotspot and the media server, the server IP address is the same as the gateway address. To find it, run `ip a` in the terminal and look for the `wlan0 inet` entry. For me, this was `10.42.0.1`.
Once configured, you have seamless access to your entire music library through Symfonium.
## Final Thoughts and Future Plans
The server works remarkably well as is, but it has one drawback: adding new music isn’t as easy as I’d like. I currently have to physically disconnect the external drive, connect it to my PC, add new music, then reattach it to the Raspberry Pi.
Once the weather warms up, I plan to permanently wire this setup into my car and add a second wireless adapter. This will handle automatically syncing music from my home network—eliminating the need for manual music transfers altogether.
—
If you have a large personal collection of music and want an easy way to enjoy it on the go without compromising phone storage, setting up your own music server is a great solution. Give it a try and rediscover your favorite albums anytime, anywhere!
https://www.howtogeek.com/turned-a-raspberry-pi-into-an-in-car-media-server/