What it is

Gonic is a music streaming server and a free-software implementation of the Subsonic server API. It lives in the self-hosted media streaming ecosystem, where users want to keep a personal music library on their own hardware while using Subsonic-compatible clients.

The problem it solves is turning local audio files into a networked music service without a proprietary backend. It indexes files, exposes them through the Subsonic API, and adds transcoding, caching, playlists, podcasts, scrobbling, and user management.

Key capabilities

• It browses by folder while keeping the directory tree intact, and by tags using TagLib for MP3, Opus, FLAC, APE, M4A, and WAV.
• It performs on-the-fly transcoding and caching with FFmpeg, letting clients request formats suited to their bandwidth or device.
• It supports Subsonic jukebox mode for gapless server-side playback and can serve podcasts from a configured directory.
• It scans libraries quickly, with the README reporting about ten minutes for an initial scan of roughly fifty thousand tracks and about six seconds incrementally.
• It supports multiple users, each with their own transcoding preferences, playlists, top tracks, top artists, and library views.
• It can scrobble to Last.fm and ListenBrainz, fetch artist similarities and biographies from the Last.fm API, and configure settings through a web interface.
• It supports album-artist and multi-valued tags, newer salt and token authentication, and lightweight deployment suitable for devices such as a Raspberry Pi.

Who uses it and how

• Self-hosters use it as the backend for Subsonic clients such as Airsonic Refix, Amperfy, Symfonium, DSub, Jamstash, Music Assistant, Sublime Music, Soundwaves, Stmp, Termsonic, Tempus, Strawberry, and Ultrasonic.
• Users with large local collections expose folders and tagged metadata over the network while keeping the original file structure visible to clients that browse by folder.
• Listeners use jukebox mode for gapless playback, and podcast users add a podcast path so episodes are served alongside music.
• Operators run it on lightweight hardware, configure paths through environment variables or command-line arguments, and enable TLS with certificate and key paths.

Getting started

The README lists installation from source, Docker, systemd, and other packages listed through Repology, and it says the default login is admin/admin until changed from the web interface.

When to use it — and when not to

Gonic is useful when someone wants a free-software Subsonic API server for a personal library and is willing to operate the server, storage paths, FFmpeg, and optional TLS. It serves as a self-hosted backend for Subsonic clients rather than providing a hosted music service. The README excerpt does not show a required database beyond an optional path, so operators must manage persistence, backups, and client compatibility.