Snapcast Based Players

[OzGav]

Documentation https://music-assistant.io/player-support/snapcast/

[DerPicknicker]

Hi @OzGav and @SantiagoSotoC ,

I wrote it today also in a different thread. But I think here is the better place to discuss.

How must the Snapcast config look if I want to control the Multiroom inside MA and MA is my only music source?

Would you be so kind and tell more about your setup?

Edit: Each player should be able to play different music from MA.

Thank you in advance!

[OzGav]

I wonder if the ios app is the problem. I just spun up snapserver on a RPi 1 and snapweb is enabled by default and it worked first go (and that never happens!)

[DerPicknicker]

@OzGav ... The snapweb does also not stream any content (Safari macOS)

@SantiagoSotoC I will see what I can do. The config is 100% DEFAULT just the snap web interface enabled. How should I contact you on discord?

[SantiagoSotoC]

@DerPicknicker says it happens to all his clients

[SantiagoSotoC]

@DerPicknicker Subscribe to the music assistant server, write in the snapcastm channel and I will write to you.

[DerPicknicker]

Hello together,

issues can be marked as resolved. The Player provider works fine with the latest beta. The issue is located on the IOS app.

Thank you for the support @SantiagoSotoC . It helped me a lot. And for everyone who is interested in Multiroom audio. The sync is mind blowing. You can't hear any difference.

[Bram-diederik]

Well I got the integration working but i am not happy.
This setup is excellent when music assistant is the main music control.
but at my system snapcast and home assistant are.
I will have issues integrating this method to my system.

Can you guys make it possible to limit the integration into one or more streams with a set name to snapcast.
And play music to those streams instead directly to a speaker.

I will have a bad time rewriting my asterisk extention generation to work with music assistant.

[Bram-diederik]

well ubuntu runs on testing so should have 0.27 my default. Op do 7 dec 2023 om 20:52 schreef DerPicknicker ***@***.***>:

…

@Bram-diederik <https://github.com/Bram-diederik> ... I am not using Debian. All those stuff runs on a Proxmox server as an LXC (Ubuntu) container. Why should I use backports instead of just downloading the latest deb file and install them instead? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1668 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMYKLXJYBDECZDMUILZH5JTYIIM75AVCNFSM6AAAAABAHVOMXWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TOOJTGI2TO> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: <music-assistant/hass-music-assistant/repo-discussions/1668/comments/7793257 @github.com>

[DutchJaFO]

A few clarifications in the instructions would help me understand the setup better.

First impressions / questions :

1. install snapcast server on a linux host
   No further tweaking needed here ?
   Is there a docker image that I can use instead ? (or is the snapcast server version a limiting factor here ?)
   I suppose I could add a linux server to my proxmox, so this may be an excuse to test try this. 😄

(2) install snapclient
Can I skip this if I want to use the android client ?

(3) Enable SnapWeb
Is this needed and do I do this on the snapcast server ?
Maybe swap this chapter with the snap client instructions and add an explanation for this.

[DutchJaFO]

Attempt 3 : selecting non default and picking Debian 11 (Bullseye) instead ...
Looks like this may be the ticket.

I think I need check where I'm downloading and running the apt-install step, because I was logged in as 'root' and in the 'root' directory.

[DutchJaFO]

yep ... it is working.
For those following along :
In step 2 (where you download the app package ) just make sure you're not in the 'root' directory.
I've changed directory to 'home' and that appeared to do the trick.

[DutchJaFO]

Final steps :

Step 1 : add a Linux LCX container to my Proxmox server
I followed this guide to install a Debian (Bullseye / v11) as a LCX container :
https://computingforgeeks.com/run-debian-ubuntu-in-lxc-container-on-promox/
This does require the non-default install. Where it asks for priveleged vs unpriveleged install I choose the latter.
Bookworm (v12) does not work as there appears to be a missing package that the snapcast server is using!

Step 2: install SnapServer
= open console on server

= change directory to 'home'
The default directory 'root' causes issues in next part !

= download the snapcast server package with this command :
wget https://github.com/badaix/snapcast/releases/download/v0.27.0/snapserver_0.27.0-1_amd64.deb

= Install snap
sudo apt install ./snapserver_0.27.0-1_amd64.deb

= make a note of the server ip because you'll need it when connecting snapcast clients !

Step 3 : download and install the android snapcast client
= use the server Ip from previous step to connect to the server.

[Bram-diederik]

Why dont use the debian backport i posted?

[DutchJaFO]

because I didn't see that part of the discussion and I don't know what a backport is.

Heck ... I had to use google to find a way to create a linux virtual machine on my proxmox server.
Still not sure if it is the best way to do so, but at least it was convenient with minimal thinking required while also giving me options if I need yet another linux virtual machine in the future.

[Pittermaennchen]

I would like to use an old android smartphone (connected with a Bluetooth speaker) as snapcast client.

But when I search for Snapdroid in Google's Play Store no app with that name shows up. :(

[agdamsbo]

Search for Snapcast on f-droid or follow this link: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.badaix.snapcast/

[Kudhoh]

Hi,
Is the snapcast server supposed to be shipped with the snapweb interface? When i go to ip:1780, i only see the snapcast default page :

I can interact with the server with snapdroid though.

Also, is it possible to define several streams like a snapcast server? (lbrespot, airplay...) I guess this is not supported as MA is supposed to interact directly with this server.

[Kudhoh]

Thanks, great work. My second point was about the possibility to use this server like a true snapserver and change its config to add streams
[stream] librespot:///<path/to/librespot>?name=<name>[&dryout_ms=2000][&username=<my username>&password=<my password>][&devicename=Snapcast][&bitrate=320][&wd_timeout=7800][&volume=100][&onevent=""][&normalize=false][&autoplay=false][&cache=""][&disable_audio_cache=false][&killall=false][&params=extra-params]

[OzGav]

I’m not understanding the use case, if you want to stream something we can do that through MA?

[Kudhoh]

A general use case I see is deploying a snapcast server on HA without the need of another Pi, for people not liking MA's interface. Not that I don't like it really, but I prefer using Spotify app. Just a preference.
The personnal use case I see is my gf uses Apple Music which is not available on MA at the moment (and I didn't give her permission to my HA instance anyway). That could go Apple App -> Snapserver (with shairport) -> Snapclient. I would switch stream to librespot or MA when I need.
Just a thought I had though, might be irrelevant.

[marcelveldt]

A general use case I see is deploying a snapcast server on HA without the need of another Pi, for people not liking MA's interface. Not that I don't like it really, but I prefer using Spotify app. Just a preference.

The personnal use case I see is my gf uses Apple Music which is not available on MA at the moment (and I didn't give her permission to my HA instance anyway). That could go Apple App -> Snapserver (with shairport) -> Snapclient. I would switch stream to librespot or MA when I need.

Just a thought I had though, might be irrelevant.

That functionality is coming to MA itself even.

[LeoSum8]

That functionality is coming to MA itself even.

Does that mean you are basically planning to spin up shairport or librespot instances from within MA and pipe their output through to connected players, all controlled via MA's webinterface?

[marc4s]

I had read in the changelog that snapcast is already integrated in MA. how to use it? especially the snapweb?

[DerPicknicker]

Install the latest image and enable the player provider. That's it.

The ports are the default ones (see the snapcast and snapweb GitHub for the ports)

[DutchJaFO]

that's odd ...
I'm running HA on 192.168.0.5 so I should be getting it on http://192.168.0.5:1780/ correct ?
So why is the (internal) snapcast client appearing on http://192.168.0.6:1780/ ??
I've definitely disabled/stopped the one on my system.

It would be nice to have a link to the snapcast webclient in the provider page.

[DerPicknicker]

Those ports are for snapweb yes - 1704/1705 are for the playback control.

[DutchJaFO]

looks like I've found the culprit on my system ...
I've managed to install snapcast onto proxmox itself, which is running at the 0.6 endpoint.
Now to remove it without killing my own system.

[marc4s]

ok now I got it with the :1780

per default not usable with reverseproxy.
is it "safe" to open the 1780 via reverseproxy (basic-auth) and do i need a special config to get this working via reverseproxy or is it lan/vpn only?
Or do i get a lot of people connecting it ;D

[marcelveldt]

snapcast is local lan only, not reverse proxy

[DerPicknicker]

DONT OPEN PRIVATE IP:PORTS .. It’s meant to be used only in a LOCAL NETWORK…

[riddley]

I'm too stupid to pick a player apparently. I click the "No player selected" thing and I see my snapcast player in the choices and I click on it and it opens the thing with the power icon, volume control and link-to-other-players control, but.... then what? If I click the left part of the screen it still says "No player selected." I have verified that the snapcast player works. What is supposed to happen?

Also, I've deleted some snapcast players from Home | Settings | Players but they still show up in the aforementioned list even after rebooting HA.

[OzGav]

Once you open the player view on the side just tap on one of the players to select it. Rebooting HA won’t help. Try reloading the Snapcast provider it rebooting MA

[LeoSum8]

In the above linked documentation you mention that pause/play doesn't work with snapcast. I noticed that too. Skipping in songs sometimes also leads to weird behavior.

To me that is a major problem as I pause/resume quite often.

Do you have a general Idea how you can tackle this issue or will this be a long term issue?

[DerPicknicker]

Totally agree pause is a must. Maybe @SantiagoSotoC can share also his opinion. Because he is the maintainer of the provider ;-)

[SantiagoSotoC]

Marcel took care of the audio part, I don't know if I will be able to improve it, I read here that I might review it again in the future.
The audio sending is the most complex part, in my opinion.

[DerPicknicker]

Obvious ping of @marcelveldt ;-)

[eath01]

Hi,
Just wanted to thank you for your great work.
I spent quite some time trying to find the best way to set up a many (stream) to many (player) snapcast configuration. Your solution is by far the simplest to implement, most comprehensive and most flexible I found.
I do think you are doing yourselves a disservice by not highlighting how easy it is, in MA, to start multiple independent streams for individual snapcast clients. And to subsequently move clients between streams, without skipping a beat (literally).
The only comparable functionality I found required setting up multiple independent mpd or mopidy servers, each with a separate client interface.
Your solution was a game changer for me and I bet you would see greater adoption if you documentation highlighted how flexible this implementation is.