Steps to create playable Music library on NextCloud
After uploading my music library to NextCloud on my start9, I discovered that the Music app will only play one song inside a folder at a time…in other words, endless repeat. The way around this is to create playlists, upload playlist songs in their own folder and create playlists with the folder title. To structure this, here are the steps I took:
Starting with a start9 Server One and a companion iPhone.
Install NextCloud on start9 and create a folder inside NextCloud folder with the name “Music”.
Create folders filled with playlist songs on my local computer. To avoid local storage constraints on local computer, do this one playlist at a time, in a folder with the same name as the playlist, then loaded into NextCloud Music folder. For this example, we’ll call it “80’s Rock”. Note: if songs are not already purchased or usable outside a streaming service, you’ll need to convert them to playable files. There are a host of pay-to-use solutions out there to batch convert format. A free, albeit slower solution is Audacity.
Once the “80’s Rock” folder is loaded up with songs, move it off your local computer and inside the “Music” folder on NextCloud.
Now while you’re in NextCloud, create a playlist and name it the same name as the folder, “80’s Rock”.
Go to the menu on the left and click on Folders. Drag the 80’s Rock folder over to the 80’s Rock playlist. Now you have created the first playlist. Rinse and repeat for all your playlists.
To play these songs on the iPhone, I tried several apps and settled on CloudBeats. I paid the lifetime fee of $8.99. It’s worth it, a good UI. Once into CloudBeats, sign into NextCloud (go to settings if you skipped that). Login username, password and URL are all on the start9 server service page for NextCloud under Properties. Using Tor on iPhone? Run Orbot first to make this all work.
Once in CloudBeats, you can reload or search by pulling the screen list downward. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you’re probably inside the folder you’re looking for, so just back out or go up a folder level.
The main point in organizing this library is that your songs need to be inside one folder per playlist if you want continuous play.
You can also add RSS feeds for podcasts. On the menu at the left, click on the three dots (…) next to Podcasts. Add the RSS URL and hit Enter. It will load all the episodes! I particularly like the “Short History of…” Podcast: Short History Of...
Additional fine-tuning, to delete unwanted music, locate the offending folders. Go to Music section, then inside settings > music library. Enter the paths for unwanted folders, i.e. ringtones, books.