Setting up a Music Server

M

macmastah

Registered
Hi,

I'm trying to set up a large music server (>300 GB) and am wondering what's the best way to approach doing this. I'd like the music to be accessible through iTunes, and am not sure if the best way to do it is through the iTunes network share.

Is there a better way?

Thanks
 
It would be helpful to know how you want to use the server: just share music amongst computers? Stream playlists across a network? Or even Internet? Play content to a stereo rack?

However, using iTunes share feature is the simpliest way to share music libraries over the network. Just be sure to open the service on your computer's firewall. Adding an Airpot Express will left you easily stream to a stereo rack from iTunes. However, to set up an actual music server that will stream configuarble content across the network, I'd recommend you check out SlimServer at http://www.slimdevices.com/su_tech.html.

It a flexible and feature rich music server that will stream playlist over the nettwork. Best of all its free! I use it on my Linux server to stream music across my network as well as home stereo.

Mark
 
I'm looking into this for my school, which has a collection of rare CDs. They're looking for an efficient way to store the music on a server where anyone on campus can access them. I'm not sure how much space is required, but since they are planning on adding more songs, our estimate is about 300 GB worth of music.

Is the iTunes network share still the best way to go?

Thanks
 
Ooh, I assumed a home network setup. Yeah, not sure if iTunes sharing is your best bet in large scale serving. I would also assume then that you will have mixed (and many) clients (Mac, Win, possibly Linux/Unix) hitting it. In such a case that most definitely would not be the best way to go.

How many potential "customers" would you expect to serve? Will this be just on the closed campus network or will it be accessible over the internet? Will you have dedicate server machine?

If this is a large customer base/mixed clients, you may want to consider a streaming service like Quicktime Streaming Server built into Mac OSX Server. On the cheap you can download Darwin Streaming Server, the open source equivalent which runs on any Mac OS X. Checkout QT Broadcaster as well, provides additional broadcasting functionality in conjunction with Streaming Server. I've toyed with both to broadcast live TV over my home network but supposedly these are capable of larger scale needs.

Check out links in right column for open source s/w:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/streamingserver

Mark
 
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