Providers
Sonora signs in to one streaming service at a time, and your local files are always there next to it. Switching services clears the queue, so finish what you're listening to first.
Spotify
Signing in opens Spotify's login page in your browser. Once you approve, the browser hands the
session back to Sonora through 127.0.0.1:8989, so nothing else can be using that
port.
- You need Premium. Spotify turns free accounts away at sign-in.
- If you are getting a "Spotify is not granting this account playback keys" error each time you try playing a track, Spotify won't work for you in Sonora. See issue 1649 in librespot.
- A region error means Spotify won't serve your account from where you're connecting.
YouTube Music
There are three ways to log in: a Google login window, pasting your cookies manually, or guest mode. None of them needs Premium.
Apple Music
Sign in through the Apple Music window, or paste the media-user-token cookie from
music.apple.com. Playback needs the Widevine module.
Deezer
Sign in through the Deezer window or paste your arl cookie.
Subsonic and Navidrome
Enter the server address, your user name and password. Leave out the scheme and Sonora assumes http://, so type https:// yourself if your server has TLS.
Local files
Add folders under SettingsGeneralMusic folders. Sonora scans them, subfolders and symlinks included. After the first read it only checks files whose size or date changed, so later scans are quick. It doesn't watch the folders while it runs, though. Hit Rescan after you add music.
- MP3, FLAC, M4A, MP4, AAC, OGG, Opus, WAV, WavPack, APE, WebM and MKA are supported.
- Covers are loaded from the embedded art, or from
cover.*orfolder.*in the same folder. Use JPG, JPEG, PNG or WebP. Artist pictures come from a scanned folder whose name matches the artist, usingartist.*,folder.*orcover.*in those formats. - Lyrics come from a
.lrcfile next to the track, or from the tags.
Editing tags
Right-click one local track and choose Edit tags. Saving writes the changes to the audio file and updates the library. The album artist tag controls album grouping. If it is missing, tracks with the same album name in the same folder stay together even when their track artists differ.
Local lyrics
Enable Local under SettingsPlaybackLyrics providers to use lyrics from a track's tags or a matching .lrc file. Turn on Prefer local lyrics to use them before asking online services. Otherwise, Sonora compares
them with the online results and picks the best match.
To keep your local track metadata off online lyrics services, turn off Lyrics for local files in Privacy settings. Lyrics from your files still work.
Audio quality
| Provider | What you get |
|---|---|
| Spotify | 320 kbps, always |
| YouTube Music | Varies by track and the available stream |
| Apple Music | AAC at 256 kbps |
| Deezer | FLAC, 320 kbps MP3 or 128 kbps MP3, whichever your plan allows |
| Subsonic and Navidrome | Whatever your server sends by default |
| Local files | The file as it is |
You can't choose a specific quality yet. Sonora selects the stream automatically. Signing in to YouTube Music unlocks your library, but does not guarantee a higher bitrate.
Widevine
Apple Music streams are encrypted, and decrypting them needs Google's Widevine module. If you have Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Chromium, Opera or Firefox, it borrows their copy.
If you don't, the app will offer to download one from Google once you've accepted their terms. If it doesn't, go to SettingsPlaybackWidevine module and download it manually. Widevine only exists for x86_64 and arm64.