How does it work?
By default, AJ Audio streams your audio natively from your Jellyfin Server on the fly. This is called "Direct Streaming" mode, which can be changed in the settings. Alternatively, you can choose the "Download & Play" mode, which stores a copy of the song on your local disk. This cached track is then deleted automatically by default.
How do I login?
Here is what the login window looks like. The server IP should be written as (http://SERVER_IP:PORT or https://SERVER_IP:PORT)
By default, the Jellyfin port is 8096. If the app detects the port is missing, it will warn and amend it for you if you choose to. Some Jellyfin setups do not explicitly require a port. The app will auto-insert "http://" at the start of your address if no protocol was input by yourself
How do I add my own Internet Streams?
Select the Create button in your Library
Give your station a new name and the URL to stream from and you're good to go. You can customise the tile colour and even upload a logo.
How do I customise my Library?
Simply right-click on a free space in your Library pane to bring up the context menu, where you can add or remove page links.
You can also pin songs, artists, albums, and internet streams to your Library by dragging the relevant item, or right-clicking and selecting "Pin to Library"
How much disk space does this use?
Only mere mb more than the download itself (which sits at 20mb). AJ Audio is streamlined to only save necessary data.
How does it load my tracks?
Data including Track data, Artists, Album, and Playlist data are requested from your Jellyfin Server and are then processed. These details are then stored to your local disk for a quicker load time in future. (this is called the Database. You can see more about this in the Settings)
Is there a limit on tracks?
AJ Audio officially supports up to 100,000 tracks, however there is no programmed 'cap', so you should be OK. A bigger library will take longer for your Database to build, but this only needs doing once (unless you update, in which case your Database will auto-rebuild once upon startup of the new version)
Which formats are supported?
AJ Audio is capable of playing the following formats: mp3, .flac, .wma, .wav, .ogg, .aiff.
For other files, AJ Audio will instruct your Jellyfin server to convert the file to a playable format, which is then downloaded to disk and recycled once the track has finished to increase compatibility. It does indeed work with .m4a files, however results may vary.
How does crossfade/gapless playback work?
Below is an illustration of the track scrubber. The next track in your queue is loaded as your current track ends.
The next track in your play queue is loaded as your current track ends (around 30 seconds beforehand). If the queue is interrupted and you choose to play another track next instead, AJ audio will load your new track instead. The new track will then slowly fade in to 100% volume 10 seconds before the current track ends.
What happens when I right click a song?
Here are the context menu options for right clicking a track:
Options may vary on the current page, album/artist availability, etc.
Is this resource heavy?
I'm listening to Better Off Alone by Alice Deejay as I write this, and it's currently sat at 0.3% cpu usage. I've seen the Windows 11 Music Player use more than that when it decides to index a network share at every possible hour. This app is specifically designed to lower its resource use when minimized, not focused, or when the mouse is not in the Window.
This Task Manager screenshot demonstrates the low resource usage of AJ Audio. In this scenario, all apps are in the background, playing the same song (Spotify being a lower quality version (mp3 320) of the same song (flac)).
Can I change the Output Device?
Yes, you can change this in the settings page, allowing you to play music through your non-default Windows device.
How do the shortcuts work?
Shortcuts for each track can be created so that you can search for them in the Start Menu. A meager 0.1kb .gmAudio file is created in your UserProfile\AJ Audio folder with the song title. You will need to associate this file with the AJ Audio 'player.exe' manually on Windows. By default, this option is disabled
How does AJ Audio determine explicit ratings?
Items are marked as explicit if their metadata contains "ITUNESADVISORY" in the Tags. There is an option to automatically scan all songs in you library.
Song lyrics are scoured for profanity in order to determine explicit ratings. A song must contain lyrics for this to work as expected. Offending tracks & their corresponding album will be updated on your Jellyfin server to include the "ITUNESADVISORY" tag. This option is disabled by default
Where do Time Synchronised lyrics come from?
All time synced lyrics are fetched through LRCLIB.net and are matched via the Song Title, Artist, and Duration.
Where does Album Art come from?
MusicBrainz provides the Album Art when you choose the "Find Album Art" through the context menu by right clicking on a track. If this option is greyed out, that means Jellyfin hasn't assigned your album with a Musicbrainz ID. This is resolved through changing the metadata on the file through the Jellyfin browser.
Can I manually import Album Art?
Yes. You can import .jpg/.jpeg, .png, and .bmp files manually. This is especially handy if the above option is greyed out
How do Imports work?
Here is an illustration of how imports work
* If "Organise Imports" is enabled, imports will be structured as: Import Directory/Artist/Album/XX - Title.mp3
* If "Organise Imports" is disabled, imports will be structured as: Import Directory/XX - Title.mp3
There is a setting to omit the track number from the filename.
You should point this Import Path to a matching folder in your Jellyfin library via a Windows UNC path. Once songs are successfully imported, your media library will be automatically scanned.
Does this automatically sign me in?
Yes.
How do I sign out?
Click the Options button > Log out.
What do I need to run this?
A Windows 10 or newer PC with speakers, and a Jellyfin server. This software was developed on Jellyfin v10.10.7. For the integrated coloured Windows border, you will need Windows 11 Build 22000+
How should my Library be structured within Jellyfin?
Jellyfin works best with your songs structured like this:
MUSIC FOLDER > ARTIST > ALBUM > SONG.MP3
If you experience a window popup that appears after a database build, it's likely that some of your tracks aren't structured like the above
Why is my track greyed out?
This means the track has previously failed to play, and will be avoided from playback in the future. The likeliness of this happening is slim - it can occur when your Jellyfin server fails to transcode an incompatible song for playback. Your Jellyfin logs will give you an idea of what's happened in this scenario.
In the Settings page, you can clear the invalid tracks list which will make tracks accessible again.
Unable to play certain songs
If you are struggling to play songs whose formats are supported by AJ Audio, you can try changing your Streaming Mode in the settings page from "Direct Streaming" to "Download & Play". This will instruct the app to use the same method for playing audio as it does for unsupported tracks.
I've got an error, a feature request, or a general query
Please post a topic or contact me directly. I will normally be with you on the same day.
