Published on : 2026-03-23 10:40
       
       My music doesn't live on my daily laptop. It lives on a tiny 
       Ubuntu Server machine in another room. My Arch laptop just mounts 
       it and plays. Simple.
       
       🔗 How it's linked
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       My Tiny server runs [Ubuntu Server]. It stores my entire music 
       collection and shares it on the network. It doesn't play anything. 
       It doesn't have a desktop. It just holds files and gets backed up.
       
       On my Arch laptop, I mount the share at: /home/sava/Music
       
       One source of truth.
       
       That's the whole library. One place. Which is easily mounted at 
       startup with the help of /etc/fstab.
       
       🎧 The Player (Arch Side)
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       On my laptop, I run MPD (Music Player Daemon).
       
 (HTM) MPD official site
       
       MPD watches /home/sava/Music and handles playback locally. Audio 
       goes through my laptop's sound device. The files travel over the 
       network. Arch does the playing. Ubuntu just serves.
       
       🎛️ I also use MPC, mpd-mpris, and playerctl with MPD to get 
       smoother control and keybindings in my DWM setup.
       
       🖥️ The Interface
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       Most of the time, I live inside ncmpcpp.
       
 (HTM) ncmpcpp [GitHub]
 (IMG)  Screenshot of ncmpcpp playing my Music
       
        * full-screen terminal UI.
        * album browsing.
        * queue management.
        * playlists.
        * clean music library view
        * even lyrics ... but I don't care because I don't karaoke
       
       It feels exactly right on Arch: keyboard-driven, fast and works in 
       the terminal.
       
       🛠️ Easy to Replicate
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       On Arch, you can install everything you need with:
       
           sudo pacman -S mpd ncmpcpp mpc playerctl mpd-mpris
       
       And add the server share to your /etc/fstab to mount it 
       automatically at boot:
       
           server:/path/to/music /mnt/music nfs defaults 0 0
       
       With that, MPD can play your library as soon as you set the music 
       directory:
       
           music_directory "~/Music/"
       
       🎶 The Feeling
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       There's something deeply satisfying about this setup.
       
       A small Ubuntu server humming quietly. An Arch laptop on the desk. 
       An NFS mount tying them together. MPD doing exactly one job. 
       No cloud. No accounts. No subscriptions. No recommendations. 
       Just files I choose.
       
       Played when I ask. That's enough.
       
 (DIR)  Back to my phlog