Overview

What is OpenSubsonic API?

The OpenSubsonic API allows anyone to build their own programs using a compatible server, whether they’re on the web, the desktop, or on mobile devices. All the OpenSubsonic-compatible apps (clients and servers) are built using the OpenSubsonic API.

The OpenSubsonic API allows you to call methods that respond in REST style XML or JSON. Since most clients now only rely on JSON, this documentation only shows the JSON answers in the documentation.

This project is built upon the original Subsonic API.

See:

• OpenSubsonic API for the API documentation.
• Goals for some of the goals of this project.
• Issues for some of the issues this project tries to solve over the original API.

Participants

OpenSubsonic is built with servers and clients trying to improve the global media center ecosystem by providing a common expandable API that can fit most of the needs of modern music apps.

Any server or client can join the organization and make proposals for OpenSubsonic. The only condition is that if (as a client) you request an API extension that is accepted, you engage yourself in implementing it in your client in a timely manner.

Servers

Clients

Goals

The OpenSubsonic API has several goals, which include:

• Being an open, collaboratively maintained specification.
• Ensuring security across all extensions.
• The API aims for consistent results across all servers, ensuring that every request produces the same outcome. The API definition must be clear and precise, eliminating any ambiguity about the expected results.
• Maintaining complete backwards compatibility with the existing Subsonic API.
• Offering piecewise optional implementation for servers and clients.

Addressing Issues with the Subsonic API

Some of the issues the OpenSubsonic API aims to address include:

• Outdated and insecure authentication methods.
• Suboptimal versioning schema.
• Insufficient methods for expressing server functionality.
• Lack of an open and collaborative way to evolve the API.

By extending the existing Subsonic API, the OpenSubsonic API hopes to create a more secure, flexible, and collaborative environment for the Subsonic ecosystem.

Join us

Feel free to join the OpenSubsonic forum for discussions, suggestions, and questions.