Lyrion Music Server
Lyrion Music Server is the server software that powers audio players from Logitech (formerly known as Slim Devices), including Squeezebox 3rd Generation, Squeezebox Boom, Squeezebox Receiver, Transporter, Squeezebox2, Squeezebox and SLIMP3. The LMS server also powers various open-source clients using the same protocols.
Before version 9.0 LMS was known as Logitech Media Server, and before 7.7 LMS was known as Squeezebox Server (version 7.4 to 7.6) and SlimServer (before 7.4). Version 7.7 was the last version released by Logitech, from version 7.8 and onwards LMS had been released by the LMS Community.
Lyrion Music Server is Open Source Software and written in Perl. Lyrion Music Server runs on pretty much any platform that Perl runs on, including Linux, Mac OSX, Solaris and Windows.
Sourcecode can be found on Github: https://github.com/LMS-Community/slimserver.
Version history
LMS 9.1
Currently in development.
LMS 9.0
Current stable. Initially released on November 29, 2024.
This version is the first release using the new name Lyrion Music Server and the first post-Logitech era major release!
Works
Besides the more cosmetic changes of re-branding the product and refreshing the Default web UI, great enhancements to the music browsing experience have been contributed. LMS now allows browsing and searching for classical works. To get started, ensure your classical music contains the tags "Work" and "Composer". You can also create a "worksort" tag if you like, though LMS will do its best to sequence works properly (eg "Symphony 100" will come after "Symphony 99") even without this.
Highlights:
- You will find a new main menu item "Works" which will show your classical works in Composer/Work name sequence.
- With release type grouping enabled, when browing an artist you will see a Works category, under which will be one or more albums which contain the work.
- The various search options in LMS have been enhanced so that you can search by, and/or see results by, Work.
- In Additional Browse Modes, there is now an option to browse by Work for the additional menus you create.
- If you have albums (probably a large box set) which includes more than one performance of the same work, you can add a "Performance" tag to those albums so that LMS knows to show you the performances separately even when they are on the same album. You could also use the "Performance" tag even if there is only one performance of a work on an album, to better describe the performance when browsing/searching.
WORKandPERFORMANCEcan now be used in Title Formats for the Default web interface and player displays.
Role enhancements
LMS now allows you to create any number of user-defined roles for your music, eg Vocalist, Violinist, Drummer, Engineer..., limited only by your imagination. You can also create xxxSORT tags, for example if you've created a DRUMMER tag you can also create a DRUMMERSORT tag which LMS will respect.
Highlights:
- Once you have tagged your music accordingly and told LMS about the role tags you want it to scan, you can create menus for your new roles in Additional Browse Modes and see categories for your user-defined roles when browsing artists.
- LMS now allows you to specify which roles (including your user-defined roles if you want) to include in the "All Artists" menu (or the "Artists" menu if you are using the unified artist list).
- You can also specify which roles (including user-defined roles) to create artist links for in album listings, rather than have LMS decide for you.
These changes will require a rescan of your library.
Other changes
Other noteworthy updates in LMS9 include:
- Improved first-start experience, suggesting installation of some essential 3rd party plugins
- Improved "New Music" behaviour: this is now based on the time when a song was added to the collection
- New "Recently changed Music": this is what used to be the old "New music", based on a file's timestamp
- Many translation updates: Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Portuguese
- Windows is now 64-bit only (please be patient on your first installation - the process can be a bit slow)
- macOS integration has been completely rewritten. It's no longer a preference pane, but a simple menu bar item (macOS 10.11 required).
- The Docker image now is based on Debian 12: you'll have to create a new container based on the lmscommunity/lyrionmusicserver image. But no worries: you'll be able to re-use your existing data folders.
LMS 8.5
This is the last Logitech branded release. Its main change compared to the previous version is the removal of all MySqueezebox.com integration.
LMS 8.4
Initially released on Feb 8, 2024.
- Add support for Release Types (see eg. on MusicBrainz).
- Add plugins for ClassicalRadio.com, DI.fm, JazzRadio.com, RadioTunes.com, RockRadio.com, ZenRadio.com.
- Add an optional artist albums view which groups albums by release type and contribution.
- New "Advanced Tag View" plugin allows you to show more information in the Track Info menu, without the need to drill down to "View Tags"
- Add experimental support for Windows 64-bit
LMS 8.3
Initially released on Nov 4, 2022.
Logitech Media Server v8.3.0 is mostly a maintenance release without any major new features. Oh, hold on... unless you're a Mac user! Apple provided a good reason to get LMS v8.3.0 out: macOS 13 Ventura removed the Perl version we've relied on for about a decade. So, the new feature is:
- Support for macOS 13 (native Apple Silicon as well as Intel)
But there are a ton of changes, smaller or bigger. A few noteworthy changes:
- Updated French, British English, Czech, and Dutch translations.
- Improved indexing performance for the Fulltext Search of large playlists (thousands of tracks).
- Improved security for the MySqueezebox.com integration.
- Improved JavaScript support for the Settings pages in the Classic/Light skin (and thus Material).
- More robust https streaming for some very long (but finite) streams and larger files (hires).
- Removal of video/picture support.
Other important changes are the removal of PowerPC, Sparc, i386 (Mac), and really old Perl versions are no longer part of the builds.
LMS 8.2
Initially released on Aug 3, 2021. This release comes with a lot of improvements, not big new features. But many of them address long standing pain points. Some of the highlights are:
- Improved podcast support (search, more robust playback)
- Improved online music integration (smarter matching of artists, track stats support)
- Improved shuffling method to give more "balanced" results
- Add Balance setting for players which support it
- Improved robustness for online streams
- Add resampling for Ogg/Flac streams
LMS 8.1
Initially released on Dec 23, 2020, LMS 8.1 brings the following changes:
- Support for Deezer lossless (FLAC) streaming
- Improvements to the transcoding framework to allow protocol handlers to enforce transcoding (eg. TIDAL lossless)
- Support for macOS 11 Big Sur and Apple Silicon (M1 CPU - using Rosetta)
- Optionally allow installation of plugins which were targeted at Logitech Media Server 7.*
Other important changes are the removal of the ReadyNAS NV/Duo/Pro devices, and Perl 5.8 in general. We actually broke Perl 5.8 compatibility somewhere around LMS 7.9.3. These platforms haven't been working correctly since then. Removing them thus doesn't really change anything. ReadyNAS users please note: this is really only about the old, legacy, generation 1/2 Raidiator v4 based devices. Any recent ReadyNAS unit, which was based on Debian, should still continue to work as before. Good or bad.
LMS 8.0
Initially released on Nov 22, 2020, LMS 8 adds a lot of improvements for users of online music. But there's more:
- Import your online music library to your music library. No matter whether your favorite album or artist is stored on your disk, or on some music service - it shows up right where you expect "your music" to be.
- https is the new http: most web sites nowadays are delivered over the secure https protocol. And so are more and more online music streams. Logitech Media Server 8 allows you to continue to listen to your favorite stations, as well as music services like TIDAL.
- Allow to paste TIDAL and Deezer web links to the Tune In field (or use the corresponding CLI command) to play those items.
- Plugins now can use SOCKS to access online sources.
- Helper applications (faad, flac) have been updated, as well as some of the Perl libraries, like Audio::Scan (not all supported platforms).
- Docker is everywhere. A Logitech Media Server image is now available on Docker Hub.
- Updated translations for Swedish and Dutch.
LMS 7.9
Initially released on Mar 8, 2017. LMS 7.9 comes with lots of improvements, both under the hood as well as in your preferred user interface:
- Fulltext search
- Native support of DSD
- Customizable browse modes
- Direct access to other source (LMS or UPnP)
- Playback of local tunes without adding them to the library
- Filtered views
LMS 7.8
Initially released on Mar 27, 2014, this is the first community supported version of LMS. Major improvements over the "official" 7.7.x version:
- Improved Podcast plugin to support all players
- Add new scanner step to discover new/changed/removed standalone artwork for album covers
- Improved Internet Radio integration to work independently from mysb.com if needed
- Support for Ogg FLAC in the server and Squeezeplay-based players
- Added support for setting alarm playlist shuffle mode (thanks hickinbottoms!)
- Volume adjustment for internet music services
- Add Triode's LocalFile 'loc' ProtocolHandler support for squeezelite.