Subsonic Forum

Hi!
I was quite happy with Subsonic, until the 30 day trial period ran out.
Now the Subsonic app for Android refuses to talk to the server or vice versa; that's fine.
But even when I'm trying 3rd party apps, I either get nothing or an error message saying I have to buy premium
It says "The basic version of Subsonic is free and fully usable" in the FAQ and elsewhere.
Is it still?
How can I use it without having to resort to using a web browser?

Thank you to Subsonic for your good work, and to the community for helping

API usage was one of the things you got if you paid for a subscription http://www.subsonic.org/pages/premium.jsp

Subsonic is basically abandonware; it isn't open-source and there is no development or active support by the owner. You might consider moving off to a newer implementation. Both below suggestions run on multiple platforms, I'm a Windows guy so some of my supplemental info isn't as useful to non-Windows users.

If you're looking for a very lateral move, consider Airsonic Advanced https://github.com/airsonic-advanced/airsonic-advanced - It is in active development with frequent snapshot updates https://github.com/airsonic-advanced/airsonic-advanced/releases . Same feature set as Subsonic (API, Sonos, etc.) with updated code. As it is open source, you also get all the features Subsonic Premium gives you, but for free. Minimal effort for installation (latest Java installed, then a command line shortcut to the war file - upgrades even easier with just a fast war file change).

If you're really more API focused, and looking just for a music streaming service, you might consider moving off the Subsonic family of servers altogether. Check out Navidrome https://www.navidrome.org/ . That product is primarily to supply the API with a completely new back-end, and refocuses to just support audio (no video, podcast, internet radio, etc.). There is not yet built in support for Sonos, but you can find easy linking with something like Bonob https://github.com/simojenki/bonob. As with Airsonic Advanced, no subscription or fee to access the API. Navidrome does have a simplified web UI if desired.

Both products will need you to come up with your own DDNS solution for external access. Both support running as a service with something like NSSM https://nssm.cc/, and IIS works great as a reverse proxy if you wish to run them as SSL.

Thank you so much for such a helpful reply!

I see that AirSonic has a couple of rough edges; I keep getting error pages (and they can call it "stand-alone" all they want; as a mere web-app jar, it simply isn't; it's subject to all kinds of differences in host/Java configurations, AND you have to get a Java 11 SDK first) and one of the first things (changing the admin default password as per the on-screen instructions) doesn't work the way it's described and in fact generated yet another error when I tried it the way the options page suggested - but if things get too bad, I'm glad to know there are other options, too.

Thank you for taking the time and spreading the word about these alternatives and explaining the state of things to newcomers like me