# Music player that integrates with beets.db?

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [April 25, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716 "2019-04-25T15:39:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fortes](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/fortes/32/8_2.png) [@fortes](https://discourse.beets.io/u/fortes)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/1 "2019-04-25T15:39:49Z")

</div>

I’m guessing that this doesn’t exist, but just curious if anyone knows of a music player that uses / integrates directly with the beets database.

I’m aware of `beet play`, and I use it in order to send things to `cmus` right now, just wondering if there’s a better way.

Nothing wrong with `cmus`, it’s served me well for years, but it’s [no longer maintained](https://github.com/cmus/cmus/issues/856)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mattbarnicle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/mattbarnicle/32/166_2.png) [@mattbarnicle](https://discourse.beets.io/u/mattbarnicle)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/2 "2019-04-25T18:16:44Z")

</div>

No, but I want to make one 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fortes](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/fortes/32/8_2.png) [@fortes](https://discourse.beets.io/u/fortes)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/3 "2019-04-25T18:29:51Z")

</div>

That would be amazing, lmk if you need testers 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mattbarnicle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/mattbarnicle/32/166_2.png) [@mattbarnicle](https://discourse.beets.io/u/mattbarnicle)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/4 "2019-04-25T19:02:08Z")

</div>

If I do it I’ll start with a UI that doesn’t involve a player. It seems like the player part might be difficult and I have no experience with that. Right now it’s just a dream scenario anyway.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![my2019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/41988e/32.png) [@my2019](https://discourse.beets.io/u/my2019)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:01am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/5 "2019-04-26T03:01:04Z")

</div>

I’d be interested in this as well. I think, instead of reinventing the wheel by making a GUI interface from scratch, it might make more sense in the beginning to create a plugin for an existing GUI music library application.

My preference would be Quod Libet — [more information on plugin development here](https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/development/plugins.html) — but that choice is really up to whoever is putting in most of the legwork.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fortes](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/fortes/32/8_2.png) [@fortes](https://discourse.beets.io/u/fortes)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:20am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/6 "2019-04-26T03:20:31Z")

</div>

Another option would be to update the bpd interface to support the latest MPD protocol in order to be more compatible with MPD clients (IIRC, ncmpcpp and others require 0.17 these days).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arcresu](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/arcresu/32/222_2.png) [@arcresu](https://discourse.beets.io/u/arcresu)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 5:42am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/7 "2019-04-26T05:42:25Z")

</div>

I’ve actually been working on exactly this! My work in progress PR [#3214](https://github.com/beetbox/beets/pull/3214) is at the stage where clients like ncmpcpp more or less work. There are still some compatibility issues to iron out, but I’m making incremental progress. If you’re able to test out some other clients and report back on how things break, that would be very helpful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fortes](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/fortes/32/8_2.png) [@fortes](https://discourse.beets.io/u/fortes)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/8 "2019-04-26T17:57:38Z")

</div>

@arcresu that’s awesome, thanks for the pointer. I was looking to use ncmcpp, but let me look at some other clients I can test out.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jackwilsdon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/jackwilsdon/32/10_2.png) [@jackwilsdon](https://discourse.beets.io/u/jackwilsdon)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/9 "2019-04-26T18:11:35Z")

</div>

I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the graphical clients listed [here](https://www.musicpd.org/clients/) worked with the new BPD changes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kuzimoto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/94ad74/32.png) [@kuzimoto](https://discourse.beets.io/u/kuzimoto)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 12:15am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/10 "2019-04-27T00:15:36Z")

</div>

There is a “music player” if you will, that supports beets. It’s called Ampache - [http://ampache.org](http://ampache.org). It’s not a typical music player in that it’s more of a media streaming server, with a web client, and compatibility with subsonic, Plex, UPnP, DAAP, and WebDAV.

So if you’re interested in running a web server for for this, it is possible. Just to add though, I did have issues for getting it working, though others do so results may vary. It isn’t too much if a bother for me anyway, since I just point Ampache at my beets music library anyway, and use a script to update both.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mattbarnicle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/mattbarnicle/32/166_2.png) [@mattbarnicle](https://discourse.beets.io/u/mattbarnicle)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/11 "2019-05-05T17:24:29Z")

</div>

This player looks really good. I’m checking it out now. Thanks for the info!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mattbarnicle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/mattbarnicle/32/166_2.png) [@mattbarnicle](https://discourse.beets.io/u/mattbarnicle)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/music-player-that-integrates-with-beets-db/716/12 "2019-05-05T17:25:04Z")

</div>

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn’t know about this protocol before.