Frequently Asked Questions

SugarSpin is a self hosted music player for anyone who wants to stream their personal music collection from anywhere. It runs as a Docker container on any computer, a NAS, a Mac, a Windows PC, or a Linux machine, and provides a beautiful, streaming quality web interface accessible from any browser on any device. If you have music files on a hard drive, SugarSpin turns them into your own private streaming service.

SugarSpin is for music lovers who believe in owning their music. If you've spent years collecting albums, ripping CDs, hunting down rare tracks, and building a personal library, SugarSpin gives your collection a home that respects it. No algorithms, no songs disappearing because of licensing deals.

SugarSpin supports MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, M4A, AAC, OPUS, AIFF, APE, WV (WavPack), ALAC, and DSD (DSF/DFF). If you have the same album in multiple formats (for example, both MP3 and FLAC), SugarSpin automatically groups them together and plays the highest quality version by default. You can also manually choose which format to play per track.

No. SugarSpin runs entirely on your local network. Once installed, it works without any internet connection. Your music never leaves your home network unless you choose to set up remote access yourself.

No. A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a dedicated storage device that sits on your home network, and it's a popular choice for running SugarSpin because it's always on. But SugarSpin works just as well on a regular computer. You can run it on a Mac, a Windows PC, or a Linux box with your music stored on an internal drive, an external USB drive, or even a USB C portable drive. Docker is the only requirement, it's available for free on all major platforms.

They're two different things. A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a physical device, a small computer dedicated to storing files on your network. Docker is software that runs apps in isolated containers on any computer. Think of Docker as the engine that runs SugarSpin, and your computer (whether that's a NAS, a Mac, a PC, or a Linux box) as the machine the engine runs on. You need Docker installed to run SugarSpin, but the computer it runs on is totally up to you.

Yes, if you used the install script from sugarspin.app, it set up a tiny companion container called Watchtower that polls Docker Hub for new SugarSpin releases and installs them automatically within 24 hours. You can see its status by opening Settings and scrolling to the Auto Updates card. Existing customers who installed before auto updates were added can turn it on with the copy-and-paste instructions shown there.

The SugarSpin Address card shows the exact address you are currently using to open the app. It is filled in automatically and is read-only. SugarSpin does not identify or configure your home network, internet access, Tailscale, NetBird, Cloudflare, or any other VPN or tunnel. If you want access away from home, you must separately configure an address that your device can reach.

No. SugarSpin now uses one consistent warm-cream interface accent. The older accent-color selector was removed to keep the appearance and Settings page simpler.

Just press play on the device you want to hear — that device becomes the one making sound, and the rest stay in sync as controllers. To move the music somewhere else, open the device picker (it lists every active device plus your BluOS / NAD speakers, from any screen including your phone) and tap the one you want. One playback session, you simply choose where the sound comes out.

All of it lives in the Stream To sheet — the dancing–wave button in the play bar. Open it and you see what’s playing now at the top, then every device and BluOS / NAD speaker you can send the music to. Tap into a device to give it a friendly name (tap the pencil by the title and type), set it as your default device so playback lands there when you press play (a gold dot marks the default in the list), or sign it out with a single tap on the ×. Everything syncs across your account, so you can manage any device from any other one. The Account page now keeps just the Auto logout control under Sessions — pick Never to stay signed in until you sign out yourself.

They moved into a single Library tab between Artists and Categories. Inside Library, pill buttons switch between Shelves (your album groups, like a record shelf), Playlists, Liked (your liked songs and favorite albums), and Unknown (tracks with missing or incorrect metadata). The selected pill persists to the URL so deep links and the back button work, and the pills fit on one row even on iPhone. You can rearrange your Shelves, Playlists, and Liked Songs by holding and dragging them into any order — the rest slide apart to make room and your order is saved. Tapping a song plays it right away.

Yes. SugarSpin for Mac is a real native macOS app, Apple Silicon ready. It runs in its own window with no browser chrome, cleaner, faster, and feels like a proper Music app should. It’s free with any SugarSpin license. Download it from the homepage, drag it to your Applications folder, and the first time you open it, right-click the app and choose Open (macOS shows a one-time prompt for apps downloaded outside the App Store).

We recommend the desktop app on your main listening machine. It’s more refined, native window, no browser tabs, no address bar, no browser quirks, and feels snappier in everyday use. The web app stays available for when you’re away from your main computer (a friend’s laptop, a work machine, a Linux box). Both connect to the same server, see the same library, and behave the same way under the hood.

Yes. The native iPhone and iPad app is now on the App Store, free to download — your existing SugarSpin license is all you need to connect to your server. It has lock screen Now Playing controls, CarPlay support (no Subsonic workaround), and iPad split view. Prefer the browser? You can also install the web app to your iPhone home screen for a clean fullscreen experience, or use any third party Subsonic client.

Neither. The iPhone & iPad app will be a 100% free download from the App Store, with zero in app purchases and zero subscriptions. Your SugarSpin license is purchased once on this website and unlocks every app we ship. No middleman, no Apple cut on your music library, the way it should be.

Not yet. The framework we use for the Mac app (Tauri) cross compiles cleanly to Windows and Linux, so this is on the roadmap. For now, Windows and Linux users get the full web app in any modern browser, which gives you the same library and features. If a native Windows or Linux build is important to you, drop a note via the Contact page so we can prioritize it.

No. The Mac app is free with any SugarSpin license. Your license is for the server, the apps are clients that connect to it. The same applies to the iPhone & iPad app when it launches, and any future Windows or Linux builds.

With the Mac app open, click the SugarSpin menu at the top of your screen and choose Switch Server…. The app will clear the saved server URL and restart back to the setup screen, where you can enter a new one. Handy if you move your server to a new IP, change your address, or test against a different SugarSpin server.

Yes. It’s a native macOS app. Because it’s distributed directly from our site rather than through the App Store, macOS shows a one-time “unidentified developer” prompt the first time you open it — right-click the app and choose Open, and it launches normally every time after that. Apple notarization to remove that one extra click is on the way.

Honest answer: they’re native shells around the SugarSpin web interface. Tauri on the Mac, a native iOS shell on iPhone & iPad. From the outside they behave like any other native app, they live in your Dock or on your home screen, have proper menu bars, support Lock screen Now Playing, AirPlay routing, CarPlay, Bonjour discovery, and all the OS niceties. Inside, they load the same SugarSpin interface you use in a browser. We did this on purpose: it keeps the install small, the launch fast, and every feature on the website lives in the apps with zero version drift. You get the polish of native plus the speed of web, with no tradeoffs you’d notice.

Yes. CarPlay is built into the official SugarSpin iPhone app, so it does not use the optional third-party username and password. Connect the iPhone app to a SugarSpin address your phone can reach, then use SugarSpin from CarPlay. Android Auto still requires a compatible third-party Subsonic app.

Nothing scary. As of v1.9.5, every open SugarSpin client, web app, Mac app, iPhone, iPad, watches for the server. When Watchtower restarts SugarSpin to install a new version, a clean popup appears: “SugarSpin is updating…” with a moving progress bar. About 15 to 30 seconds later, the server is back, the popup flips to “Update complete! Now running vX.Y.Z, reloading the app…” and the app refreshes itself. No Cmd+Shift+R, no manual restart, no guessing. If the server was just briefly unreachable (Wi Fi blip), the popup just disappears once the connection is back.

It is an optional Pro/Gold setting for connecting a compatible app that speaks the Subsonic protocol. Open Advanced → Third-Party Music Apps, enter an address that the other device can reach, choose an app-only username and password, and enter those same details in the third-party app. SugarSpin's official iPhone app and CarPlay do not use this setting. SugarSpin does not detect or configure the customer's network or VPN.

Use the License Recovery page. Enter the email address you used at checkout and we’ll send your existing key back to that exact inbox, not to whatever address you type in, but to the one already on file from your original purchase. This means even if a stranger tried to use the form with your email, the key would still only land in your real inbox. If you also lost access to that email account, head to the Contact page and include the name on the card and rough date of purchase, we’ll work it out manually.

For your security, SugarSpin has no online password reset — so nobody can take over your account just by finding your server’s address. If you forget your password, you reset it on your own server, from your home network:

1. On a computer at home, open Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows).
2. Connect to your server: ssh your-username@your-server-ip
3. Run this, with your new password in the quotes: docker exec sugarspin-player node /app/server/reset-password.js "your-new-password"
4. Log in with the new password.

Your music, playlists, and settings are never touched. To fix a mistyped username, use reset-username.js the same way.

Absolutely not. SugarSpin was built by a music collector who has spent decades buying vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, MiniDiscs, and reel to reel tapes. Every piece of music in the library that inspired this project was personally purchased, collected, backed up, and digitized over many years. SugarSpin exists for one reason: to help you enjoy music you already own and have already paid for. It is not a tool for downloading, sharing, or distributing music. It does not connect to any external music sources, torrent networks, or streaming services. SugarSpin is simply a beautiful player for your personal collection.

SugarSpin is designed for people who have built a personal music library over time, whether that means ripping your own CDs, digitizing vinyl and cassette collections, purchasing digital downloads from stores like Bandcamp, Amazon, or iTunes, or backing up music you've legitimately acquired over the years. If your music sits on a hard drive, a NAS, or any storage device and you want a gorgeous way to play it, that's exactly what SugarSpin was made for.

No. SugarSpin does not download, stream from external sources, or acquire music in any way. It plays music files that already exist on your computer or storage device. The only external network calls SugarSpin makes are optional features to fetch missing album artwork and look up metadata (artist names, genres, release years) from MusicBrainz. These only download cover images and text data, never audio files.

Streaming services are great for discovery, but they don't respect ownership. Albums disappear without warning due to licensing changes. Sound quality varies. Algorithms decide what you listen to next. And you pay every single month to access music you could already own. SugarSpin was built for collectors who have spent years (and real money) building a library they're proud of, and who want to enjoy that library with the same quality and care they put into collecting it. No subscription. No corporate middleman. Just your music, sounding the way it was meant to sound.

SugarSpin includes a free tier that supports up to 500 tracks. This lets you install the app, set it up, and try it out with a portion of your library before committing to a purchase.

Pro gives you up to 10,000 tracks for $59. Gold gives you unlimited tracks for $129. Both are one server installation with unlimited simultaneous clients. Every feature in SugarSpin is available across all paid tiers, the only difference is library size. All paid tiers are perpetual licenses. No subscriptions, no recurring charges, ever.

Yes. You can upgrade on sugarspin.hotdang.studio at any time. After purchase, enter the emailed license key in Settings. Your new limit takes effect immediately, and SugarSpin can index the rest of your library on the next rescan.

SugarSpin has three tiers. Free gets you up to 500 tracks. Pro is a one-time purchase of $59 for up to 10,000 tracks. Gold is $129 for an unlimited library. No subscriptions, no monthly fees, no hidden charges. You pay once — no renewals, ever.

Choose Pro or Gold on sugarspin.hotdang.studio and complete payment securely through Stripe. After a successful payment, SugarSpin sends your unique license key to the email address entered at checkout. In SugarSpin, open Settings, find License, paste the key exactly as received, and select Activate.

Every SugarSpin license is for one server installation, the single machine running Docker (your NAS, Mac, PC, or Linux box). Clients (phones, tablets, laptops browsing via the web app) do not count as server installations, only the machine running Docker counts. Pro and Gold both allow unlimited simultaneous clients, so any number of your own devices can stream from that one server at once.

Simply go to Settings → License in SugarSpin on your old machine, click Deactivate, then install on the new machine and activate the same key. This frees up your installation slot so it can be used on the new hardware. Pro and Gold each permit one active SugarSpin server installation, with unlimited client devices connecting to that server.

License keys are issued to one customer and are not meant to be shared. Pro and Gold each allow one active SugarSpin server installation, while your own phones, tablets, computers, CarPlay, and supported third-party clients can connect to that server. You can deactivate and move the license when you replace your server.

No. SugarSpin may contact the license service during the first activation or a transfer to enforce the one-server rule. After activation, the license is verified locally with a digital signature and keeps working without the website. If the license service is unreachable during a new activation, a genuine current-format license can still be verified offline so a paying customer is not locked out.

Of course. Just email us at support@hotdang.studio. Since you already supported us with a Pro purchase, we'll credit that toward Gold so you only pay the difference. We appreciate every customer who believes in this project.

Because SugarSpin offers a generous free tier that lets you fully evaluate the app before purchasing, we do not offer refunds. We encourage you to try the free tier first to make sure SugarSpin is right for you.

Yes. Your license key belongs to you, it is not permanently locked to one machine. To move it, you deactivate it on the current machine first, which frees up the activation slot. Then you enter the same key on the new machine and it activates normally.

To deactivate: open SugarSpin, go to your Account page, scroll to the License section, and click Deactivate License. You'll see a confirmation before anything happens. Once confirmed, your key is released and the machine reverts to the free tier.

Then on the new machine: go to Account → License and enter your key in the activation field. It will bind to the new machine and your full tier unlocks immediately.

You do not need to buy a new license. One purchase, transferable as many times as you need.

If you're moving to a completely new machine or doing a fresh install, deactivate your license on the old setup first if you still have access to it. Then re enter your key on the new install to activate it there.

If you no longer have access to the old machine (it died, it's gone, you can't get into it), contact us at support@hotdang.studio with your license key and we'll manually release the activation slot so you can use it on the new machine.

No. Deactivating only removes the license from this machine, it does not delete anything. Your music files, library index, playlists, favorites, and play history are all stored separately and are completely unaffected. You just revert to the free tier (500 tracks) until you re enter a valid key. Re activating restores full access immediately, no rescan needed.

SugarSpin is distributed as a Docker image. Once Docker is installed, setup takes about two minutes. Install Docker on your computer (NAS, Mac, Windows, or Linux), pull the SugarSpin image from Docker Hub, and run one command. Then open your browser, go to http://localhost:3333 (or your server's IP on port 3333), create your account, and head to Settings → Music Library to scan your collection. For full step by step instructions for every platform, see the Installation Guide.

Not necessarily. If you're on a NAS, most have a built in Docker GUI in the admin panel where you can set everything up without touching a terminal. On Mac or Windows, Docker Desktop provides a graphical interface as well. You paste one command, Docker handles the rest, and everything after that is done in your browser. See the Installation Guide for full step by step instructions per platform.

Think of a Docker container as a self contained package that includes everything SugarSpin needs to run. You don't need to install any dependencies or configure anything on your computer beyond Docker itself. Most modern NAS devices come with Docker built in, and for Mac, Windows, or Linux you can download Docker Desktop for free from docker.com.

After launching SugarSpin and creating your account, go to Settings (the gear icon in the sidebar). You'll see a Music Library section with a clickable link to your music folder, click it to scan and index your collection. Your music can live on a NAS share, an internal drive, an external USB drive, or anywhere else your computer can see. The Installation Guide walks through this in detail.

SugarSpin checks for updates automatically. When a new version is available, you'll see an Update SugarSpin button on your Account page, it copies the update command to your clipboard so you can paste it in your terminal. Your library, playlists, favorites, and settings are all preserved because they're stored in a persistent data volume that survives updates.

Copy music files to the folder you pointed SugarSpin at (whether that's on your NAS, your hard drive, or an external drive). Then go to Settings and click Rescan Library. SugarSpin will discover all new albums and tracks automatically. It also runs periodic background scans to pick up changes.

Yes, several ways. There's a native iPhone & iPad app on the App Store now (a free download), plus a native Mac app for the desktop. And on any device you can simply open your phone's browser to your server's address on port 3333 — it's fully responsive, works great on mobile, and can be added to your home screen for an app-like experience.

SugarSpin runs on the server owner's local network by default. Access from somewhere else requires a separately configured network path and an address the remote device can reach. Independent services such as Tailscale, NetBird, or Cloudflare Tunnel are possible options, but SugarSpin does not detect, install, configure, recommend for every setup, or provide support for those services. Test the chosen address from outside the home network before relying on it.

Cloudflare Tunnel can publish a service through a Cloudflare-managed HTTPS address. Tailscale and NetBird are mesh-VPN products that can make selected devices or networks reachable to one another. Each service has its own accounts, software, pricing, security model, supported hardware, and configuration requirements.

They are independent products, not SugarSpin features. SugarSpin does not know which one a customer uses and cannot determine whether it is configured correctly. Review the provider's current documentation and security guidance, configure it for your own network, and then enter only the address you have confirmed is reachable.

Yes, Pro and Gold both allow unlimited simultaneous clients, so your whole household can stream at the same time with no restrictions. Free limits you to 1 client at a time, which is the main reason to upgrade to Pro. A "client" is any browser or device connected to SugarSpin, your phone, laptop, tablet, TV, all count separately. Server installations (the machine running Docker) are tracked separately.

Yes. You can create, edit, and manage playlists within SugarSpin. You can also mark songs and albums as favorites. Your playlists and favorites are stored in the SugarSpin database and persist across updates.

SugarSpin extracts embedded album art from your music files during scanning. It also includes a Fetch Missing Covers feature in Settings that searches MusicBrainz and the Cover Art Archive for any albums that don't have artwork and downloads them automatically. You can also search for covers manually from the album editor using iTunes and Discogs.

SugarSpin includes a real time audio visualizer in the Now Playing view with classic VU meters and a spectrum analyzer. It responds to your music in real time and displays over a beautiful bokeh background. You can toggle between different display modes from the side drawer. It gives you that hi fi stereo component feeling, right in your browser.

SugarSpin has been tested with libraries of over 140,000 tracks. Scanning and indexing is fast and runs in the background. Even very large libraries are handled smoothly thanks to efficient database queries and background processing.

Vinyl View is a full screen, immersive Now Playing experience that shows a spinning vinyl record with your album's artwork on the label and a tonearm. It recreates the feeling of sitting in front of a turntable. The record spins while music plays and pauses when you pause. It's the kind of detail that makes SugarSpin feel like it was built by someone who actually loves music. Because it was.

You organize your own music files exactly how you like, SugarSpin never moves, renames, reorganizes, or deletes them. To correct the metadata shown in the app (album name, artist, year, or genre), click the gear icon on any album and use Smart Fix to look up the correct details from MusicBrainz and preview them before you save. It only updates what SugarSpin displays, your files and folders on disk stay exactly where and how you put them.

SugarSpin shows the artwork that already lives in your library, it doesn't invent it. For each album it looks for cover art embedded in the audio file's tags, or a cover.jpg / folder.jpg image sitting in that album's folder. If an album comes up blank, it simply doesn't have art in either place yet. Drop a cover image into the folder, or embed one in the tags, and it appears on the next scan. There's also an optional one-click tool in Settings that fetches missing covers online if you'd like it to, but that only runs when you choose to run it.

SugarSpin displays exactly what's written in your files, the artist, album, and title from each file's tags, plus the folder names. When a name looks wrong, shows up greyed out, or reads “Unknown,” that file's tags are missing or incomplete. SugarSpin reads your library, it doesn't rewrite it. Your music, your system: name your files, tag them, and arrange your folders however you like, and SugarSpin will never move, rename, or reorganize your files or folders to fit some structure of ours. Everyone organizes their collection differently, and that's yours to own. If you want to clean up what's shown for a specific album, use Smart Fix (the gear icon on any album) to pull the correct details from MusicBrainz and preview them before saving, it changes what SugarSpin displays, not how your files are stored. Optional folder and naming helpers may arrive down the road, but they'll always be your choice to run, never something we do to your library automatically.

Yes. SugarSpin supports multi device sync. Open SugarSpin on two or more devices on the same network and they all stay in sync. You can choose which device outputs the audio using the Stream To button in the play bar. Browse and queue songs from your phone while the music plays through your desktop or laptop. All playback controls (play, pause, skip, seek, volume) sync across every connected device in real time.

Crossfade smoothly blends the end of one song into the beginning of the next. Go to Settings, and under Playback you'll see a Crossfade slider. Set it anywhere from 0 (gapless, no overlap) to 15 seconds. When a song is about to end, the next track fades in while the current one fades out. Set it to 0 if you prefer gapless playback with no overlap.

Yes. Tap the shuffle icon (crossed arrows) in the play bar to toggle shuffle on or off. When shuffle is on, each skip picks a random track from the queue, weighted to avoid songs you've heard recently. It works with both manual skips and when songs end naturally, including during crossfade.

Watchtower monitors your music folder in real time and automatically detects new files. When you add music to your folder, SugarSpin picks it up without needing a manual rescan. You can configure how often a full rescan runs (every 30 minutes, hourly, daily, or weekly) from the Settings page. You can also turn Watchtower on or off with a toggle.

Not by default. When you press play, the server reads the original file off your disk and sends those bytes straight to the player. A FLAC stays a FLAC. An ALAC stays an ALAC. The bit depth and sample rate of the original file ride along untouched. The one exception is when a target device can't play a format natively — browsers and phones can't decode DSD (DSF/DFF), and some network streamers won't accept certain containers like WAV — in which case SugarSpin transcodes that stream in real time to lossless PCM or FLAC so it still plays. It stays lossless, doing everything possible to keep it faithful, and only happens when the device requires it. SugarSpin never writes a second copy, never alters your original file, and never silently down samples or “optimizes” your music behind your back.

Yes. The streaming layer is format agnostic. 16 bit / 44.1 kHz CD rips, 24 bit / 48 kHz, 24 bit / 96 kHz, 24 bit / 192 kHz, even 32 bit float, they all transit from your disk to the player at their native quality. SugarSpin doesn’t flatten everything to a single sample rate, and it doesn’t maintain a second “optimized” copy of your library. The file you put in is the file that plays.

When you cast to a BluOS streamer (any Bluesound speaker, NAD M10, NAD M33, Powernode, etc.), yes. The speaker reaches into SugarSpin, pulls the raw file, and decodes it in its own DAC. Nothing in between touches the audio. That is a genuine bit perfect signal path. SugarSpin deliberately does not include any equalizer, so nothing on our side ever reshapes your file before it reaches the speaker. The only sound shaping feature in the app is optional Tube Warmth on browser playback, and that is off by default. When you listen in a web browser on your laptop or phone, the audio passes through the operating system's audio engine, which may resample to the OS output rate. SugarSpin itself does not modify the file, but the browser stack downstream is something no web app fully controls. For end to end bit perfect playback, use a streamer or a wired USB DAC.

FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV, OGG Vorbis, OPUS, AAC, M4A, MP3, and DSD (DSF/DFF). Mix them all in a single library. SugarSpin reads each track at its native format and bit depth.

Never. Both are real time effects applied during playback. The file on your disk is read only as far as SugarSpin is concerned. Set Tube Warmth to Off, set ReplayGain to Off, and you are listening to the file as recorded. Casting to a BluOS streamer always bypasses every effect, because the speaker decodes the original file itself with no SugarSpin DSP in the path. SugarSpin deliberately does not include an equalizer at all, so there is no EQ stage anywhere in the pipeline to second guess your music.

DSD is not currently supported. SugarSpin runs in the browser, and no browser audio engine natively decodes DSD. If you have a small DSD collection alongside your PCM library, the usual workflow is to keep the DSD files where you store them and play those through your dedicated SACD capable software, while SugarSpin handles the FLAC, ALAC, and other PCM formats. DSD support would require a decoding step on the server, which we have not built.

SugarSpin is designed for reachable BluOS-powered devices, including compatible Bluesound and NAD streamers. Discovery depends on the model, firmware, and local network allowing the SugarSpin server to reach the device. Open Stream To to see devices SugarSpin has discovered.

Yes. SugarSpin sends title, artist, album, and cover art as metadata when starting the stream. Your Bluesound Powernode's front panel, NAD M10's screen, and the BluOS mobile app all show the same track info as your SugarSpin UI.

No. The speaker pulls the original FLAC bytes directly from SugarSpin over HTTP, bit perfect. Nothing is re encoded, resampled, or compressed in transit. SugarSpin's server side audio level analysis decodes a transient in memory PCM copy purely for math (to drive the visualizers), the actual file streaming to your speaker is untouched.

Yes. SugarSpin's server polls the speaker once per second, detects when a track ends (via four independent end of track signals to handle every BluOS firmware quirk), and tells the speaker to play the next track in your queue. Respects Repeat One, Repeat Album, and Shuffle modes. You can even close all your browsers and the queue will keep advancing on the speaker by itself, though closing the last browser does trigger an automatic Stop so you don't accidentally leave music playing.

Absolutely. Start a song on your Mac, skip a track from your iPad, pause from your phone, all controlling the same speaker. All connected browsers stay in real time sync via the server's broadcast layer. Family friendly: anyone in the house with a SugarSpin tab open can change what's playing on the living room amp.

SugarSpin tries LRCLib first (a community driven synced lyrics database), then falls back to NetEase Cloud Music for tracks LRCLib doesn't have. Both are free, no auth or API keys required from you. Once lyrics are found they're cached in your local SQLite database forever, so they only fetch once per song.

Lyric databases are crowdsourced, obscure, indie, classical, jazz, or pre 1980s tracks often have no entry. LRCLib covers about 3 million songs (mostly Western pop/rock); NetEase boosts coverage on Asian music, K pop, J pop, and older Western catalog. If both miss a song, SugarSpin caches the miss to avoid re checking. There's no fix for tracks that simply aren't in either database.

Three styles: Scroll (karaoke style line highlight with smooth scrolling), Spotlight (full screen focus on the current line, large type), and Wave (gentle rising/falling animation between lines). Switch between them with the faint pill at the bottom of the lyrics view, it fades to 20% opacity when idle so it doesn't distract.

Yes, this was new in v1.8.0. When the audio is flowing to your Bluesound or NAD speaker (not your browser), SugarSpin's server decodes the track and computes 30 frames per second level data (RMS, spectrum bins, waveform samples), then pushes that to every connected browser via socket. So your VU meter, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, and radial visualizer all animate from the real audio even though your laptop's audio output is silent. The decode happens once per song and gets cached, so every play after the first is instant.

Tap the faint circular glyph in the bottom left corner of Now Playing (a 48 px floating button matching the main one on the right). The picker that comes up lets you choose between Vinyl, Lyrics, VU Meter, Spectrum, Oscilloscope, Radial Spectrum, and the new Tubes view. Replaced the old double tap gesture, which was unreliable on iPad.

A new full screen Now Playing view: four photoreal vacuum tubes glowing amber over a warm bokeh field. The glow brightens and breathes on a slow ~5 second cycle tied to the song’s overall loudness, not a jittery per beat flicker. A secondary red glow at the base of each tube simulates the filament heat. Tube positions are measured directly from the source artwork, so the glows stay locked to the tubes in both portrait and landscape on any device.

They’re separate things. Tube Warmth is an audio DSP, a vacuum tube saturation stage that adds gentle even order harmonics and soft compression to what you hear. It runs entirely in the Web Audio API graph, between your file and your speakers. Four presets in Settings: Off, Subtle, Warm, Vintage, plus a custom Drive slider. The Tubes visualizer is a visual Now Playing view (the glowing tubes screen). You can run either, both, or neither. Your source FLAC/ALAC files are never modified.

Yes. CarPlay is built into the official SugarSpin iPhone app, so no third-party credentials are required. Connect the iPhone app to an address your phone can reach, then use SugarSpin from CarPlay. Optional third-party Subsonic access is a separate Pro/Gold feature, and the exact CarPlay behavior of a third-party app depends on that app.

Android Auto requires a compatible third-party app because there is no native SugarSpin Android app yet. On Pro and Gold, enable Advanced → Third-Party Music Apps and enter the same server address, username, and app-only password in the Android app. SugarSpin's Subsonic authentication has been verified, but exact Android Auto behavior depends on the selected app and device.

iPhone: the official SugarSpin app is the easiest — CarPlay is built in, no extra setup. If you'd rather use a third-party Subsonic app, Amperfy Music is free, open source, with solid CarPlay support, and play:Sub ($4.99) is a polished paid option.

Android: compatible Subsonic clients that advertise Android Auto support include Ultrasonic and Symfonium. Availability, pricing, compatibility, and dashboard features are controlled by those independent app developers.

Other Subsonic clients may also connect, but SugarSpin does not guarantee every feature in every third-party app. Check the app's current compatibility and Android Auto documentation before purchasing it.

Subsonic is a long-established music-server protocol used by a range of independent mobile apps. SugarSpin implements the authentication and library endpoints needed by compatible clients, but individual apps can use different parts of the protocol. Connection and dashboard support therefore depend on the app selected; SugarSpin does not guarantee compatibility with every Subsonic client.

Open SugarSpin Settings and expand Advanced → Third-Party Music Apps. This Pro/Gold-only panel asks for an address that the other device can reach, an app-only username, and an app-only password. Click Enable & Save, then enter those same three values in the compatible third-party app. The official SugarSpin iPhone app and CarPlay do not use this panel. Step-by-step instructions are in the installation guide.

No, it's a separate credential. The Subsonic API works on a different authentication model than SugarSpin's web login (which is more secure but isn't compatible with how Subsonic apps authenticate). Keeping them separate also means if your CarPlay password leaks, it doesn't compromise your main account, you can rotate it independently. The CarPlay credential lives in your server settings and you control it from the same panel.

Only if your SugarSpin server is reachable from outside your home network. A local address such as 192.168.x.x normally works only on the local network. Remote access is optional and must be configured separately by the server owner using an address or networking service appropriate for that setup. SugarSpin does not detect, install, or manage a VPN or tunnel. See the optional Remote Access section for a plain-language overview and links to independent providers.

Yes, on Pro and Gold — those tiers allow unlimited simultaneous clients. The Free tier is capped at one connected client at a time. Optional third-party/Subsonic access, including the Android Auto route, requires Pro or Gold; the official SugarSpin iPhone app and CarPlay use the normal SugarSpin connection.

Yes. SugarSpin can control reachable BluOS-powered devices such as compatible Bluesound and NAD streamers. Open Stream To, select a discovered speaker, and SugarSpin sends the stream and available track metadata to it. The speaker must be reachable from the SugarSpin server on the local network; SugarSpin does not infer or configure the customer's network.

Auto discovery. When SugarSpin starts up it scans your local network for BluOS compatible devices on port 11000. When one is found, a toast pops up in your SugarSpin browser window: "Found NAD M10 on your network, Connect?" Click Connect and that's it. Discovered devices are saved between restarts so you don't have to re add them. If your speaker is on the same Wi Fi or LAN as your SugarSpin server, it'll show up automatically.

Yes. You can start a song from your Mac, skip tracks from your iPad, and queue something else from your phone, all controlling the same Bluesound speaker. Each device sees the same queue and the same now playing state. Family friendly setup: anyone in the house with SugarSpin open can change what's playing in the living room.

Click the speaker icon in the SugarSpin play bar and pick your own device (your Mac, iPad, etc.) from the list. The Bluesound speaker stops, and audio comes through your browser instead. Same picker, opposite direction.

Check that the speaker is powered on and reachable from the machine running SugarSpin on the same local network. Network isolation, guest Wi-Fi, VLAN rules, container networking, and firewall settings can block discovery. SugarSpin can discover or probe a reachable BluOS device, but it does not identify or reconfigure the customer's network. Consult the router, NAS, Docker, or BluOS documentation for network-specific troubleshooting.

The official SugarSpin iPhone app and its CarPlay interface use the normal SugarSpin connection. Optional third-party/Subsonic access — including the current Android Auto route — requires Pro ($59 once) or Gold ($129 once). Free remains limited to 500 tracks and one simultaneous client.

Currently, SugarSpin plays audio through the web browser on whatever device you're using. It does not natively support Chromecast, AirPlay, or Sonos casting. However, you can use your device's built in casting features to share the browser tab or audio output.

No. SugarSpin is read only. It never modifies, moves, renames, or deletes your music files. Your library stays exactly as it is. SugarSpin only reads metadata and audio data from your files.

Yes. There's a Mac app available from the homepage and an official iPhone & iPad app on the App Store with lock-screen Now Playing, background audio, AirPlay, and CarPlay. On Android, the responsive web app runs in a browser. Android Auto currently requires Pro or Gold plus a compatible third-party Subsonic app; exact support depends on that app. A native SugarSpin Android app is not currently available.

Your music files are never touched. If you uninstall SugarSpin, you lose your playlists, favorites, play history, and settings that were stored in SugarSpin's database. Your music files remain exactly where they were on your drive.

Your music files, library database, listening history, and core playback stay on your own SugarSpin server, and the application does not send usage telemetry or advertising analytics. Optional actions such as artwork, lyrics, and metadata lookup contact their respective providers using search information such as artist, album, or track names. Purchases, updates, and any remote-access service you choose also involve their respective providers. See the Privacy Policy for details.

This is a Docker limitation, not a SugarSpin bug. Docker runs apps inside a sealed container, isolated from the rest of your computer. Even if a USB drive is plugged in or a network share is mounted on your machine, the container has no idea those exist. It can only see what was specifically connected to it when the container was started.

Think of it like this: Docker builds a box around SugarSpin. Your drives live outside the box. To give SugarSpin access to a drive, you have to wire it in at startup, telling Docker "pass this folder from my computer into the container." Once that's done, the drive appears inside the app as a folder you can add to your music library.

This wiring is done when you first run the container, using what Docker calls a "volume mount." Every platform handles this slightly differently, NAS devices have a graphical Docker interface, Mac and Windows have Docker Desktop, Linux has the command line. Check the Installation Guide for your platform's specific instructions on how to add a new drive when setting up or updating your container.

It's a two step process. First, make sure the drive is connected to your computer and recognized by your operating system. Then, you need to update your Docker setup to pass that drive into the SugarSpin container, this is called a volume mount.

The specifics of how you do that depend entirely on your setup: what computer you're running, what OS, and how you originally installed SugarSpin. A NAS with a Docker GUI, Docker Desktop on a Mac, and a Linux command line all handle this differently. We can't provide a single set of instructions that works for every machine.

See the Installation Guide for your platform. Look for the section on adding additional music folders or volume mounts, it walks through the steps specific to your setup. Once the drive is wired in, go to Settings → Music Library inside SugarSpin to add the new folder and run a scan.

Same idea. If you're running SugarSpin on a separate computer and want it to access music stored on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) or network share, you first need to mount that share on the machine running Docker, and then pass it into the container.

If you're running SugarSpin directly on the NAS itself, the music is already on the same machine, you just need to make sure the correct folder paths are wired into the container when it starts.

How to do all of this depends on your specific NAS brand, operating system, and Docker setup. There's no one size fits all set of commands we can give you here, each setup is different. Refer to your NAS or platform's documentation for how to mount a network share, and then see the Installation Guide for how to pass it into SugarSpin's Docker container.

Yes. You can wire in as many folders and drives as you need, each one gets its own path inside the container. Once they're all mapped in, head to Settings → Music Library inside SugarSpin and add each folder. Run a scan and SugarSpin will index everything into one unified library.

Again, how you add multiple mounts depends on your platform and how your container was originally set up. See the Installation Guide for your specific setup.

Since your music location is set at the Docker level, not inside the app itself, you'll need to update the container to point to the new drive. This means stopping the current container and starting it again with the new folder wired in instead of the old one.

Your library, playlists, and favorites are stored in a separate data volume and will not be affected, you'll just need to run a rescan once the new folder is connected. For how to update your container's volume setup, see the Installation Guide for your platform. Inside the app, you can also use Settings → Music Library to update the primary folder path once the drive is mounted.

The folder browser inside SugarSpin can only show paths that exist inside the Docker container. It hides system directories and only shows user relevant mount points like /music, /usb, /nas, /mnt, and similar. If you don't see the drive you're looking for, it hasn't been connected to the container yet. See the questions above for how to add it.

Keep everything on the same machine. The single best thing you can do for performance and reliability is store your music on the same computer or NAS that is running the SugarSpin Docker container. No network hops. No external drives. No moving parts between SugarSpin and your files. When the music and the app are on the same box, scanning is fast, playback is instant, and there is nothing in between that can break.

This is the setup SugarSpin was designed and optimized for. Internal storage, local container, everything self contained.

Internal drive, every time. External USB drives introduce a point of failure that is completely outside your control. USB drives can disconnect unexpectedly, spin down to save power, or lose their mount point after a reboot, and when that happens, SugarSpin loses access to your library without warning. Scans fail silently. Playback stops mid track.

If your music is currently on a USB drive, the recommendation is to move it to internal storage before relying on SugarSpin day to day. It is a one time move that eliminates an entire class of problems.

It works, but it is not the recommended approach. Reading audio files over a network share adds latency and introduces a dependency on your local network staying stable. If your network hiccups, your router reboots, or the other machine goes to sleep, SugarSpin can lose access mid stream. These kinds of interruptions are frustrating and hard to diagnose.

The more pieces between SugarSpin and your files, the more things that can go wrong. If your music lives on a NAS, the cleanest setup is to run SugarSpin directly on that NAS, not on a separate machine reaching across the network to get to it.

Any always on machine with Docker support and enough storage for your library works well. Some solid options based on real world use:

• NAS with Docker support (QNAP, UGREEN, TrueNAS, Unraid, etc.), ideal if your music is already there. Always on, low power, quiet.
• Mac Mini, excellent home server. Compact, silent, energy efficient, and very capable. Great if you're already in the Apple ecosystem.
• Linux mini PC (Intel NUC, Beelink, similar), affordable, low power, runs Docker natively. A popular choice for self hosters.
• Regular desktop or laptop, works fine while the machine is on. Not ideal if you want 24/7 access from your phone.

For most people, the NAS or Mac Mini is the sweet spot: always on, music stored internally, Docker running locally. Set it up once and forget about it.

Follow this sequence and you will have the most stable, low maintenance setup possible:

1. Pick a machine that stays on, a NAS, a Mac Mini, or a dedicated mini PC.
2. Put your music on that machine's internal storage. Not a USB drive. Not a network share. Local.
3. Install Docker on that machine using the Installation Guide for your platform.
4. Run SugarSpin pointing at that local music folder.
5. If you want access outside your home, separately configure and test a remote-access option appropriate for your own server and network. SugarSpin does not detect or manage it.

That's it. No cross network mounts. No USB dependencies. Everything lives on the same box. This is the setup that works the best and causes the fewest headaches over time.

SugarSpin was built by Roger from Hot Dang Studio. Technically a one person team. Creator, developer, designer, and chief vinyl enthusiast all rolled into one. Hot Dang Studio is a small creative shop focused on building things with heart. SugarSpin is one of those things.

For the love of music, all of it. Roger has spent decades collecting and obsessing over it. Vinyl records, cassette tapes, reel to reel recordings, MiniDiscs, a lifetime of music that he carefully digitized and backed up to a local server so it would never be lost. Every format, every era, all of it preserved and accessible.

The problem was there was no player that felt like it deserved the collection. Nothing that treated the music with the same care he'd put into collecting it. And he wanted to take it with him, on trips, on bike rides, anywhere. You can't exactly strap a turntable and a hundred records to your back. SugarSpin was born out of that reality: a way to carry a lifetime of music in your pocket, on any device, with an interface that actually feels like flipping through crates. Built by someone who still gets excited every time he puts something on.

Check out the Hot Dang Show on YouTube. That's Roger's channel where he's a self proclaimed daredevil and professional idiot, from eating the world's hottest peppers to taking on ridiculous challenges. But peek at his studio in the background and it's obvious the man lives and breathes music. You can also visit hotdang.studio to see what else the studio is up to.

Nope. No venture capital. No corporate parent. SugarSpin is an independent project from a small studio of creators, marketers, and coders. It was built by someone who actually uses it every day for his own collection. That's why every detail, the vinyl view, the VU meters, the Tubes visualizer, exists because it mattered to the person who made it. When you support SugarSpin, you're supporting an indie creator, not a corporation.

Head over to the Contact page and fill out the form. It goes straight to support@hotdang.studio. Whether it's a bug report, a feature idea, or just to say you dig the app, Roger reads every single message. Be kind, he's just one guy who really loves music.