MPD

MPD stands for Music Player Daemon, an open-source audio player service designed to run on Unix-like systems as a background process. It provides playback control and music management via a client-server model, allowing users to interact with a centralized music library from multiple clients.

MPD operates by running a daemon (mpd) that handles library scanning, queue management, playback, and various output drivers. Clients communicate with the daemon over a network protocol (the MPD protocol) or locally on the same machine. It supports multiple audio backends and outputs through the system’s audio stack, such as ALSA, PulseAudio, OSS, or JACK, enabling flexible integration with different environments. Key features include maintaining a dynamic playback queue, creating and saving playlists, and supporting capabilities like gapless playback and crossfading where available.

The client ecosystem for MPD is diverse, including command-line interfaces like mpc, graphical frontends, and mobile or web-based controllers. This enables users to control playback from desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones, or embedded devices. MPD is commonly used on headless servers and media centers, such as Raspberry Pi installations, to provide centralized, networked music playback without requiring a dedicated graphical interface on the playback device.

MPD is an open-source project maintained by a community of developers. Its modular architecture supports plugins and drivers, allowing it to adapt to various audio setups and user needs. The project emphasizes separation of concerns between the user interface and playback engine, enabling flexible configuration, remote control, and scalable music streaming across machines on a local network.