MPD (Music Player Daemon)
MPD (Music Player Daemon) is a player that leverages a client/server architecture, which allows the user to control it remotely using the various clients available for it.
It is a great choice for those users that are looking for a minimalist yet powerful tool to listen to and control their audio files.
{i} A separate client is needed to control MPD. A few of them are listed below.
Contents
Information
Versions
https://badges.debian.net/badges/debian/stable/mpd/version.svg https://badges.debian.net/badges/debian/testing/mpd/version.svg https://badges.debian.net/badges/debian/unstable/mpd/version.svg
https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_24_04/mpd.svg https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_24_10/mpd.svg https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/ubuntu_25_04/mpd.svg
Links
upstream user documentation: https://mpd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/user.html
manuals: mpd(1) mpd.conf(5)
debian package tracker: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mpd
Usage
Debian package specific setup
For official and latest details about MPD Debian integration please also consult file:///usr/share/doc/mpd/README.Debian
Headless setup
MPD in Debian was installed by default as a system service starting on boot. This has changed in trixie and the service is not longer started by default.
However running MPD as a system service works well on headless boxes and configuration is done in /etc/mpd.conf. Ensure MPD service is enabled and started:
# As root, enable/start system service
systemctl enable --now mpd
MPD will look for music in /var/lib/mpd/music, make sure content within this directory are readable for mpd user (the user running MPD system wide).
MPD will listen on localhost:6600 for client to connect, adapt bind_to_address config option to connect MPD from remote hosts.
Desktop setup
In order to use MPD within a graphical desktop session you need to start MPD from the user session and disable system service:
# As root, disable system service
systemctl disable --now mpd
# As user logged in the desktop session
systemctl --user enable mpd
Configuration is done in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf (usually $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is ~/.config).
Drop at least an empty file in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf to override system wide setting in /etc/mpd.conf.
Then start MPD:
systemctl --user start mpd
Music directory defaults to the XDG directory, run "xdg-user-dir MUSIC" command to print its value on your system. Change the default value with music_directory option if needed.
In case the right audio output is not correctly auto detected, see below to configure audio_output option.
Configuration
Configuration example from upstream is available in /usr/share/doc/mpd/mpdconf.example.gz.
HTML documentation is available in file:///usr/share/doc/mpd/html/user.html
Audio output
MPD tries to auto detect audio output device, but you can force a specific configuration adding an audio_output section in mpd.conf.
pulseaudio
audio_output {
type "pulse"
name "My Pulse Output"
}alsa
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "My ALSA device"
}pipewire
audio_output {
type "pipewire"
name "PipeWire Sound Server"
}
Smoke test
Install mpc console client (apt install mpc) on the same host and run stats command :
# This should print some stats about the server and the music library
mpc stats
# Add files and play
mpc add / && mpc play
Tweaks
Huge Playlists
If you encounter client problems like not being able to sort the playlist due to it's size you need to change mpd's resource-limitations
# ref: file:///usr/share/doc/mpd/html/user.html#resource-limitations # var override default max_playlist_length "30480" #16384 max_output_buffer_size "22384" #8192 max_command_list_size "8192" #2048
Clients
Console clients
mpc: non interactive console client
ncmpc: ncurses client
ncmpcpp: ncurses client
pms: Practical Music Search
Graphical clients
ario: GTK+ client for the Music Player Daemon
cantata: Qt client for the music player daemon
gbemol: Graphical frontend for the Music Player Daemon
gmpc: GNOME Music Player Client
ymuse: GTK client for Music Player Daemon written in Go (program)