Create a Web-Based Audio File Manager and Audio Server with Ampache

By | 2008/03/30

Today I finally replaced my out-of-date streaming music server with something a little more recent.  I had long been using gnump3d, and even wrote up a tutorial on it some time ago.  Development on the project has pretty much died off completely and even though it has worked great for nearly three years I felt it was time for a change.

I replaced the gnump3d service with Ampache, a PHP/MySQL based audio file manager and streaming server.  It looks like it has a lot more features than gnump3d had, but then again its also getting a lot more attention.  So, without further ado here is how I setup Ampache to allow me access to my .ogg collection via the web.

Installing Ampache via PPA

First I’ll outline how to install Ampache via the Launchpad PPA.  This will make the process much simpler, if you’re the type that is willing to use a PPA.  If not, read below for the manual installation method.

To install Ampache via the Launchpad PPA you can run the following command that matches your release, which will auto-add the PPA to your sources list.

Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy”

sudo wget http://zelut.org/projects/sources.list.d/ampache-gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ampache-gutsy.list

Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy”

sudo wget http://zelut.org/projects/sources.list.d/ampache-hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ampache-hardy.list

Next you can install the package and a few of its dependencies using the command:

sudo aptitude install ampache mysql-server-5.0 phpmyadmin

Once these packages are installed you should be able to access the Ampache server via http://your-webserver.com/ampache

The first time you connect it will walk you through an installer.  I think the installer could be a tad simpler, but basically you’ll need to know your mysql-server username and password (the password you set when the mysql-server-5.0 package installed).  There is a graphical walkthrough of the installer along with a few more tips here.

Install Ampache Manually

The manual installation method will take a few more steps, but its not anything you can’t handle I’m sure.  The first thing we’ll need to do is make sure Ampache has the dependent services installed, so we’ll install our webserver (in this case Apache2) and our MySQL server.

sudo aptitude install apache2-mpm-prefork mysql-server-5.0 php5 php5-gd

Next we’ll download and unpack the latest release into /var/www/.

cd /var/www/
wget -c http://ampache.org/downloads/stable.tar.gz
sudo tar xf stable.tar.gz
sudo mv ampache-* ampache

You should be able to access the Ampache server and initial installer via http://your-webserver.com/ampache

Check out the Ampache website and Wiki for more details on features and support.

One thought on “Create a Web-Based Audio File Manager and Audio Server with Ampache

  1. Dil Egitimi

    does anyone knows if there is any other information about this subject in other languages?

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