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Sockso Streams Your Tunes Anywhere Via The Web

By Jason Fitzpatrick on April 19, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Windows/Mac/Linux: Access your music from afar with Sockso, the open-source music server. The simple, no-install-need setup can make your music available for the next trip you take out your door.

Sockso is designed to be extremely user-friendly. There is no installation process, beyond extracting the archive and running the file inside. When you run it for the first time, you select the folder your media resides in, whether your files are in MP3, OGG Vorbis, Flac or WMA format. Once Sockso is up and running, you’ll need to open a port in your firewall for it in order to access it outside your network.

After scanning your media and making sure the firewall has an open port, all your interactions with Sockso take place through the web-based interface. You can browse your collection, make playlists, download your music to pass on, and get a breakdown of your music by more recently played/popular, and so on. You can even set up accounts for your friends and accept uploads if they’ve got music to share with you. Sockso is an open-source media server with versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Sockso [via Download Squad]

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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • Mykie Gunderson
    April 19, 2009 at 5:23 AM

    This looks awesome...

    I'll feel bad about cancelling Rhapsody, though. :)

    Mykie Gunderson

  • The Amazing Ant
    April 19, 2009 at 5:36 AM

    That does sound cool, but...
    What about all my iTunes purchases? It's not like they're protected files anymore, why not open it up to them as well?

  • purduepete
    April 19, 2009 at 5:33 AM

    Nice solution, but not better than MyTunesRSS ([www.codewave.de])

  • itunes-guru
    April 19, 2009 at 6:05 AM

    That's all well and good, but i love the way PulpTunes will do this using my iTunes library, with playlists, ratings and everything else that i've learned to love! :)

    If i ever wanted to ditch iTunes for something more friendly though, like MediaMonkey, then this sounds ideal!

    Cheers Jason!

  • Dalton Dick
    April 19, 2009 at 6:04 AM

    This is exactly what I've been looking for. I've been using vibestreamer at school but I wanted something that could integrate last.fm and this seems to have it.

    Dalton Dick

  • Darkest Daze
    April 19, 2009 at 6:00 AM

    So it's an open source Orb without the video transcoding capability?

    Darkest Daze

  • wewillchange
    April 19, 2009 at 6:15 AM

    I love the grungy/clean UI but had trouble installing on Jaunty Ubuntu X64, most likely on my end. Anyone have success?

  • elvano
    April 19, 2009 at 6:34 AM

    There is something similar to this that has been out for a while and free called Subsonic.

    [subsonic.sourceforge.net]

    I think it offers all the same options, and more. It gives the option to transcode streams on fly.

    elvano

  • pirate_prentice
    April 19, 2009 at 9:06 AM

    @elvano: I was using Sockso for a while, but left it for Subsonic. It's more user friendly, last.fm integration is better, and it's generally better.

    The best part, for me, is that you can edit tags. So since I leave MediaMonkey running all the time, it will move the files around as necessary when I edit the tags through subsonic.

  • pirate_prentice
    April 19, 2009 at 9:06 AM

    @elvano: I was using Sockso for a while, but left it for Subsonic. It's more user friendly, last.fm integration is better, and it's generally better.

    The best part, for me, is that you can edit tags. So since I leave MediaMonkey running all the time, it will move the files around as necessary when I edit the tags through subsonic.

  • GHETTO.CHiLD
    April 19, 2009 at 9:31 AM

    i used to use sockso, and actually sent a msg to lifehacker about it a long time ago. the problem with it is that its a bitch to setup and get working. that was a while ago so i wonder if its been fixed....

  • rainbowsky
    April 19, 2009 at 9:37 AM

    Another neat idea for contributing to global warming--have everyone start always-on-servers. Go here for instructions: [portforward.com]

    rainbowsky

  • TheFu
    April 19, 2009 at 10:30 AM

    gnump3 is simple, perl, stand alone music server with a clean interface. SQLite is the DB and you can use any music player that supports http/https protocols. That's just about any of them - winamp, xmms, amarok, whatever.

    Been using gnump3 for years. It supports password access and you can configure it to block all but selected subnets to ensure your music isn't shared world wide. None of us wants to violate copyright law.

    TheFu

  • jjason82
    April 19, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    @elvano: I tried subsonic after lifehacker recommended it last time and found it extremely complicated with only a two paragraph summary for all your help questions. The message board is only good if you seem to have advanced questions about code and such. If you just want to get up and running, you'll be ignored. Hopefully this is different. Maybe subsonic is better, but I'll never know because I can't get any help.

  • protospork
    April 19, 2009 at 11:08 AM

    @rainbowsky: There are people out there that weren't already running servers 24-7?

    protospork

  • protospork
    April 19, 2009 at 11:08 AM

    @rainbowsky: There are people out there that weren't already running servers 24-7?

    protospork

  • Karakawe
    April 19, 2009 at 5:09 AM

    Subsonic, Vortexbox, Sockso...
    I'm thinking it's about time for the Hive Five on these.

    Karakawe

  • Dan Atwood
    April 19, 2009 at 1:14 PM

    @elvano:

    It is a bitch to get installed on a hosted server. I've been trying to install it on my godaddy hosting for a while. Subsonic in theory looks awesome. A little polishing on the install side and it would be nice.

    Dan Atwood

  • ɹǝpılloɔɹǝdns
    April 19, 2009 at 6:59 PM

    @Karakawe: I'm interested! Five of my friends and I use Simplify. I can listen to any song from any of our libraries anytime as long as I've got at least an Edge connection on my iPhone.

    [www.simplifymedia.com]

    The sound quality is pretty lousy, but it works for my purposes. Definitely interested in a High Five.

    ɹǝpılloɔɹǝdns

  • nka
    April 19, 2009 at 8:22 PM

    It doesnt look like you can stream to your iPhone with this. Anyone have a free app they use to stream their music to their iPhone?

    nka

  • xkevin108x
    April 19, 2009 at 10:55 PM

    It's against the terms of some ISPs to run a server. Be careful with this.

  • ThaMofo
    April 20, 2009 at 1:36 AM

    Interesting. Been looking for a new "one of these" since MediaMaster.

    ThaMofo

  • Andy Selby
    April 20, 2009 at 2:14 AM

    Winamp remote, anyone?

    Andy Selby

  • Andy Selby
    April 20, 2009 at 2:14 AM

    Winamp remote, anyone?

    Andy Selby

  • powerdoesntrun
    April 20, 2009 at 2:19 AM

    I tried this a while ago and while it was neat, it's pretty clunky as far as the configuration application goes and it didn't read tags properly and was slow.

    I recommend Firefly/mt-daapd for linux. It streams to iTunes, or any other daap client, and you can even install an iTunes-like flash player for it.

    powerdoesntrun

  • joelena
    April 20, 2009 at 3:12 AM

    @ReadMe of the latest version, it doesn't use SQLite.

    Add the fact that the author wrote his own webserver software in PERL and had a couple of security issues, and I'm staying away from gnump3.

  • Muscar
    April 20, 2009 at 5:12 AM

    Wait, hoe do I use this? It's VERY confusing. I can't find how to access the web interference

    Muscar

  • deusdiabolus
    April 20, 2009 at 5:49 AM

    @Karakawe: I agree.

  • pirate_prentice
    April 20, 2009 at 8:40 AM

    @[yourhostname:port]

  • Malcolm Rogers
    April 20, 2009 at 10:14 AM

    @Karakawe: i agree as well. i'm currently using subsonic, works pretty well for now.

    Malcolm Rogers

  • periferral
    April 20, 2009 at 2:27 PM

    firefly media server. use itunes or songbird as the client or a host of web based server side clients and your music is everywhere

    periferral

  • rocketbear79
    April 20, 2009 at 2:47 PM

    @Karakawe: Yep its about that time. I switched from Jinzora to Subsonic based on posts and helpful comments here. A Hive Five would be nice.

    rocketbear79

  • Bradford Law
    April 21, 2009 at 1:47 PM

    @Dan Atwood:

    All you need is a Tomcat server and just drop the .war in the right directory.

    Bradford Law

  • keithce
    April 21, 2009 at 8:55 AM

    All I gotta say is EASY! Was ridiculously easy to setup.

    Extract, run, add music folder, open port on firewall, PLAY!

    keithce

  • goldeneye
    April 21, 2009 at 6:39 AM

    @Mykie Gunderson: Rhapsody still has a selection I will never have on my own personal hard drives. Still this looks interesting!

  • uptownOT
    April 21, 2009 at 2:15 AM

    @nka:

    Yeah, I too am looking for this feature. I am running subsonic for now until I can find something better.

    uptownOT

  • stradric
    April 20, 2009 at 11:30 PM

    Launched sockso. Added a folder to the "collection". Crashed. Tried again. Crashed. Launched as Administrator (in Vista). Crashed.

    So much for that...

    stradric

  • jigwashere
    April 20, 2009 at 3:17 PM

    Someone mentioned Orb. Orb's okay for music, but if you're away from your network, you're streaming through Orb's servers.

    I haven't used Winamp for a while. I don't think it's any better than Orb.

    For the most part, I don't bother streaming because I carry an 8GB microSD card or two that gives me plenty of listening material.

    jigwashere

  • ElroyInsect
    April 19, 2009 at 8:57 PM

    Not free but MyTunesRSS can stream to iPhone for you. There's even an iPhone optiomized web interface. MyTuneRSS has been out for quite some time now and it has a rich set of features (too many to mention all of them here). Just a few: transcoding, last.fm support, iTunes and watch folder support, nice web interface, Flash player, works with audio and video, user management, RSS/M3U/XSPF, upload files, create playlists. And coming soon (available as beta at http://board.codewave.de): YouTube integration, remote control Quicktime and VLC, smart playlists and more. Michael

    ElroyInsect

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