Strawberry Music Player

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026 · 733 words

Strawberry is the desktop client I point at Navidrome, and it is the reason a self-hosted music server feels like a real music library on a workstation rather than a website. It plays local files too, and it rips CDs, but for a self-hoster the interesting mode is Subsonic: log it into your server and every album streams with gapless playback, ReplayGain and bit-perfect output on hardware you control. It is a 2018 fork of Clementine that kept the parts worth keeping and rewrote the audio pipeline.

Where it sits in the stack

The server holds the files and does the indexing; Strawberry is one of several front ends. Navidrome, Gonic and any other Subsonic-compatible server will do, and the Jellyfin vs Navidrome comparison explains why a dedicated music server beats a general media server for this job. On a phone you would use Symfonium, Tempo or play:Sub; Strawberry is the same role on a Linux, Windows or macOS desktop, with the added ability to keep a local library alongside the streamed one.

Connecting to Subsonic takes one screen

Open Settings, then Streaming, then Subsonic. Enter the server URL exactly as you reach it in a browser, including https:// and any port, plus your Navidrome username and password. Tick the option to enable the Subsonic tab, save, and use the reload button in that tab to pull the catalogue. Two failure modes account for most complaints: a reverse proxy that strips the path Navidrome expects, and a self-signed certificate Strawberry refuses. Fix the first at the proxy and the second by getting a real certificate from Caddy rather than telling the client to ignore TLS errors. Once connected, the Subsonic tab behaves like a local collection: search, browse by artist or album, drag to the playlist.

The audio settings worth changing

Strawberry's pitch is playback quality, and the defaults are cautious. In Settings, Backend, pick ALSA on Linux and select the DAC directly rather than the default device to bypass PulseAudio or PipeWire resampling; on Windows the equivalent is WASAPI exclusive mode. Turn on gapless playback if it is off, and set ReplayGain to album mode so a classical box set does not jump in volume between tracks. The equalizer and the volume normalizer are there, and I leave both alone. Expect the app to sit at around 256 MB of RAM with a large collection loaded; it is a Qt application with a full local database, not a lightweight streamer, which is the honest reason mobile clients feel snappier.

Local files, CD ripping and scrobbling

The local library scans folders you point it at, stores tags in its own SQLite database, and edits tags in place. CD ripping outputs to FLAC or other formats and is the main reason some people install it at all, since it pairs with a self-hosted server nicely: rip on the desktop, drop the files into the Navidrome music folder, rescan. Scrobbling to Last.fm, Libre.fm and ListenBrainz is built in and works for streamed tracks too, so the play history stays intact when you move from a commercial service. Tidal and Qobuz streaming support exists for people with subscriptions to those services.

What it is not

It is not a server and cannot share your library with anyone. Tag editing applies to local files only; a streamed album's metadata is whatever the server says it is, so fix tags at the source. It has no remote control, no web UI and no phone app, so a "Strawberry only" setup means music on one machine. For the household, the server does that work, and the media server category covers the options. Strawberry is also not small: if you want a two-second launch on an old laptop, a terminal Subsonic client or the Navidrome web UI in a browser is lighter.

What I'd do

Navidrome on the server, Strawberry on the desk, phone client of choice in a pocket. Subsonic mode with a real certificate, ALSA direct to the DAC, ReplayGain on album mode, scrobbling to ListenBrainz. Keep the local library feature for the CD-ripping workflow and let the server own the master copy. That gives you the streaming convenience people pay for, on files you can copy to a drive whenever you like.