slimserver VS Emby

Logitec Media Server - Music server. Yes, I'm old enough to have a still-working original squeezebox, as well as multiple squeezebox radios. They're awesome.

I ripped all my audio CDs, back when I still bought CDs, to flac format and serve them up via: https://github.com/Logitech/slimserver or mpd or both.

Logitech Media Server or Owntone would be my recommendations.

Jellyfin is not ideal for this on its own. If you want some that could scale but also play locally check out Logitech Media Server. A lot of other audio projects are built on its code, much less play super nice with it if you want to expand in the future. Notable features is tons of plugins to integrate webradio, podcasts, etc and the easiest whole house audio setup out there.

For serving local music, the free and open source "Logitech Media Server"[0] is a great solution -- main weakness is the lack of a central organization promoting it. In addition to working smoothly with dedicated ("squeeze") clients which can be Logitech-brand or DIY[1, 2], it has a massive plugin catalog that allows e.g.

- airPlay integration: stream to your squeeze-clients via airPlay, stream to your airPlay clients from squeezebox.

- chromeCast integration: stream to chromeCast devices from squeezeBox.

- upNp integration: stream to upNp clients.

The system was originally developed by "SqueezeBox" who also made (awesome) physical devices. SqueezeBox was acquired by Logitech many years ago. Logitech put out one or two devices before giving up, but they are actually playing really nice by continuing to support development on the server (see [0]).

[0]: https://github.com/Logitech/slimserver

Here is link number 1 - Previous text "LMS"

I used to use Plex until I found Emby. I find Emby easier to use and it does the same thing. Just putting this here as a fourth option for OP. :)

Media Server: EMBY

I use https://emby.media along with private trackers and Usenet.

You can find it here! I have both installed, but I generally keep EMBY turned off until I want to play around with it. You can have both running at once and both accessing the same folders. You can check it out for free.

Emby: Offers premium features with some behind a membership.

I went with Emby, personally. Plex, Jellyfin, etc are all good choices too! :)

For clarity: Emby is still mostly open source (the source code is right here: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby). Emby started incorporating closed source plugins that you only get with the paid version of Emby in order to try and get revenue.

I used Plex until I found Emby, which is far easier to set up and works very well with all my media.