# SubStreamer — Stream Your Own Music Library

> Personal music streamer for Subsonic-compatible servers. (iPhone/iPad app by Gaven Henry.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/substreamer/id1012991665 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Gaven Henry](https://appshunter.io/developer/925249622)
- Category: Music
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.00/5 from 131 App Store ratings · 190 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.4 · 54 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2015-07-15
- Data updated: 2026-08-21
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/substreamer/id1012991665/reviews.md

## What is SubStreamer?

Your music. Your server. Everywhere you go.

Substreamer turns your Subsonic-compatible server into a personal streaming service. Browse, play, and download your entire music library on iPhone and iPad — free, with no ads, no subscriptions, and no data collection.

Verified with Navidrome, Subsonic, Gonic, Nextcloud Music, and Ampache. Also compatible with Airsonic-Advanced, Funkwhale, Supysonic, and other Subsonic API servers.

STREAM & DOWNLOAD
Stream in full quality or choose a bitrate that suits your connection. Download albums and playlists for offline listening with background queue processing and automatic recovery. Substreamer switches to offline mode automatically when your server is unreachable.

TUNED IN — SMART MIXES
Personalised playlists powered by your listening history. Time-of-day mixes, deep cuts from similar artists, decade time machines, genre blends, favorites radio, and a custom mix builder — all generated from your own library, not an algorithm trained on someone else's taste.

LISTENING ANALYTICS
See your play history, top artists, albums, and songs, most active listening hours, activity heatmaps, and listening streaks. Scrobbles queue locally when you're offline and sync automatically when you reconnect. Exclude specific albums or artists so one-off plays don't skew your stats.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
Browse by album, artist, or playlist. List and grid views with alphabetical quick-scroll for large libraries. 5-star ratings and favorites sync with your server. Create and manage playlists, reorder tracks, or save your current queue as a new playlist.

PLAYBACK
Background playback with full lock screen and notification controls. Adjustable playback speed, shuffle, and repeat. Share albums or playlists with configurable links.

BEAUTIFUL & PRIVATE
Light, dark, and system themes with custom accent colors. Album art color extraction for immersive detail views. No tracking, no analytics, no account required — your music stays between you and your server.

OPEN SOURCE
Substreamer is open source under the GPL-3.0 license. Browse the code, report issues, or contribute at github.com/ghenry22/substreamer.

## Key features

- Stream and download music library
- Offline listening with background processing
- Personalized smart mixes
- Listening analytics and scrobbling
- Playlist and library management
- Background playback with lock screen controls
- Open source

## What do users think of SubStreamer?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🎨 Beautiful and modern UI design
- ⚡ Clean, intuitive interface
- 🎵 Excellent Navidrome server compatibility
- 📱 Works seamlessly with self-hosted music servers
- 🔄 Reliable background playback functionality
- 💾 Offline download and caching features
- 🎯 Feature-rich playlist generator
- 🆓 Free with no ads or tracking
- 🏠 Internal/external IP configuration for home/away
- 🎧 Subsonic/Airsonic/Libresonic support
- 📊 Home screen with recents and suggestions
- 🔐 Works with authentication systems like Authelia SSO

**Cons**

- 🐛 Frequent playback failures and stalling
- 🐛 Random crashes during playback
- 🐛 Scrobbling not working reliably
- 🐛 Large file playback issues (10MB+)
- 🐛 AirPlay/Apple TV streaming broken
- 🐛 Rewind/fast forward causes crashes
- 🐛 Background playback stops at track end
- 🐛 UI freezes on cellular connections
- 🐛 Slow app startup and load times
- ⚠️ Overwhelming UI with too many features
- ⚠️ Limited language support
- ⚠️ No CarPlay support (frequently requested)
- ⚠️ Missing all-songs library view
- ⚠️ Inconsistent offline mode organization

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Songs fail to play without double-pressing play button
- Playback stops with 4 seconds remaining in track
- Skipping back crashes the app
- Large files (10MB+) require pause-then-play to start
- Scrobbling fails despite server support
- AirPlay to Apple TV doesn't work
- Time display incorrect for songs over 1 hour
- Metadata loads too frequently, causing lag
- App freezes when pulling down menu on player screen
- Radio tab causes app freeze
- Occasional non-responsive behavior
- Crashes when switching between songs on cellular
- Image optimization never completes on large libraries
- Duplicate songs appear in multi-disc albums
- Offline folder structure doesn't match server
- Bluetooth playback sometimes plays two songs simultaneously
- SSL support issues in older versions
- Slow metadata loading from server

**Most requested features**

- CarPlay support for in-car use
- Traditional Chinese language support
- Simplified Chinese language support
- All-songs library view (not just albums/artists)
- Lyrics API integration
- Replay gain support
- Smart playlists for yearly recaps
- Batch download for offline music
- Display codec and bitrate information
- Better shuffle/random playback options
- Improved pull-down gesture for minimizing player
- Unified offline music view with filters
- Song sorting options in playlists
- Album art display in more views
- Radio station support visibility fix
- Genre sorting capability
- Lock screen playback controls
- Queue clearing functionality

## Recent user reviews (10 of 190)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/substreamer/id1012991665/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Excellent App

*2026-07-31*

I have found SubStreamer to be the app with the best combination of features, usability, and stability.  I tried a lot of apps, including some that are still being developed, but this one was the only one that wor my rd consistently and could donate all the things. I wanted.  Good wotk!

### 5/5 — Nect button not working

*2026-07-23*

Hi! I found a bug in the app. When I play music from the Songs tab, the Next button doesn’t work. It won’t skip to the next track, even though the song is playing normally. Could you please look into this issue? Thanks for all your hard work on the app.

### 3/5 — Falta PT-Br

*2026-07-15*

O app parece bom, mas falta suporte ao idioma PT-BR e também suporte a lyrics, pra acompanhar a letra da música, pra ele ficar 100%

### 5/5 — Great experience!

*2026-07-06*

I just recently got into self-hosting my collection and I needed an app to replace the other streaming apps I was paying way too much for. The interface is intuitive. The only feature I wish it had was a way to automatically download favorite songs or just make a playlist since you can download playlists. Maybe that would be harder since playlists are created and saved on the server-side? Still, this app was the first one I tried and I have been loving it!

### 5/5 — Super aplikacja

*2026-07-04, version 8.0.73*

Wszystko co potrzebujesz jest tu dostępne, po za Radio

### 5/5 — Really well designed ui

*2026-06-28*

This is probably the best designed ui for streaming your music media, I really how the layout is only thing would make it perfect is adding the option to move the order of the queue.

**Developer response:** Thanks for the 5 stars! Really glad the UI is hitting the mark for you. Queue reordering is a great idea — it's something we've thought about but haven't built yet since it starts to add complexity to the interface. If this is important to you, the best way to get it on our radar is to open a request on GitHub: https://github.com/ghenry22/substreamer/issues. We love hearing ideas from our users and tracking them there helps us prioritise. Thanks again for the feedback!

### 5/5 — Amazing

*2026-06-26, version 8.0.73*

For an app thats free and allows to utilise self-hosted media solutions it's simply incredible. Amazing user interface, fuctionality and reliability. I cannot state how great it truly is! Serious props to the dev

### 5/5 — Die beste Musik App!

*2026-06-24, version 8.0.73*

Zuverlässig und es funktioniert alles! 

Vielen Dank für deine Mühen!

### 5/5 — Приложение становится только лучше

*2026-06-23, version 8.0.73*

С обновлением исправили создание волны по эпохам и это просто прекрасно. 

Не понятно почему треки, которые отмечены как «нравится», попадают в navidrome не в избранное. Это странно.

### 5/5 — Great player

*2026-06-23*

After recently setting up my Navidrome server, I wanted something clean with more options than just using the browser. Really glad I found this one. It works beautifully. Thank you to the dev. I owe you a cup of coffee

**Developer response:** Thanks for the 5 stars! Really means a lot to hear that Navidrome + Substreamer is hitting the spot for you. And hey, about that cup of coffee — you're in luck! There's a donation link on https://substreamer.org if you genuinely want to chip in. Honestly, this project runs on coffee (and the dev's time), so every bit helps keep things moving. For release updates and to see what's coming next, swing by https://reddit.com/r/substreamer — we share news there and love hearing what the community is excited about. Thanks again for the support! 🎉

## Frequently asked questions about SubStreamer

### What does Substreamer do?

Substreamer allows you to stream and download your entire music library from a Subsonic-compatible server directly to your iPhone or iPad. It acts as a personal music streaming service, giving you access to your music anywhere.

### What are the key features of Substreamer?

Key features include streaming in full quality or chosen bitrates, downloading albums and playlists for offline listening, personalized smart mixes based on your listening history, detailed listening analytics, and robust library management.

### Is Substreamer free to use?

Yes, Substreamer is completely free to use. It offers no ads, no subscriptions, and does not collect any user data. It is also open source under the GPL-3.0 license.

### What servers are compatible with Substreamer?

Substreamer is verified with Navidrome, Subsonic, Gonic, Nextcloud Music, and Ampache. It is also compatible with Airsonic-Advanced, Funkwhale, Supysonic, and other servers that support the Subsonic API.

### Can I listen to music offline with Substreamer?

Yes, you can download albums and playlists for offline listening. The app features background queue processing and automatic recovery, and it switches to offline mode automatically when your server is unreachable.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 8.0.91 — 2026-07-28

hotfix release for a small issue from the last big release
fix: downloaded album details lost after last update (hotfix)

### 8.0.89 — 2026-07-22

• CarPlay — browse and play from your car
• Cast, AirPlay and Bluetooth audio output switching
• Graphical equalizer with ReplayGain loudness normalisation
• Gapless and crossfade playback
• Playback speed with pitch correction
• Playback cache with look-ahead, plus a live cache-usage view
• Smarter search: fuzzy and phonetic matching, voice search, and recent searches
• Edit playlists — rename, description, and public/private
• Configurable scrobble milestone
• Sync libraries with 10,000+ albums
• Keyboard no longer hides text fields when searching
• Faster app startup and library tab switching
• Downloaded tracks always play from device, never re-streamed
• Back-edge swipe no longer conflicts with row actions
• Player colour now follows the cover art
• Many more bug fixes and improvements

### 8.0.73 — 2026-06-16

• Playback speed control
• Support multiple server URLs
• Self-signed certificate fixes
• Download your entire library
• Bookmarks
• Share songs
• Play Next
• Library songs view & faster search
• Improved tablet layouts
• Small screen fixes
• Many more bug fixes and enhancements.

### 8.0.56 — 2026-04-26

Player                                                                                                                
  - Reliable queue resume on cold start                                                                                 
  - MiniPlayer and progress bar stay in sync                                                                            
  - Expanded-player tabs reordered to match tab bar
  - Play count and last-played update immediately on scrobble                                                           
                                                                  
  Downloads & music cache                                                                                               
  - Partial-album support with top-up, filter, and cache browser                                                        
  - Full track metadata preserved; partial albums backfilled    
  - Unified bottom chrome — downloads banner visible on all pages                                                           
                                                                  
  Cover art                                                                                                             
  - Recovers blank album art from broken cache entries
  - Unsticks incomplete rows with repair feedback                                                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                        
  Color palette                                                                                                         
  - New color extraction engine                                                                                         
  - Refined gradient                                                             
                                                                  
  Library & UI                                                                                                          
  - Article-stripped sorting using server's article list and local fallback if server doesn't provide
  - Consistent fixed-width meta in list rows                                                                            
  - Home listening time auto-scales to days for large totals      
  - Light-mode album-info skeleton now visible                                                                          
  - Spinner added to image-cache Scan         
                                                                                                                         
  Translations                                                                                                          
  - Updates across multiple languages, including a full Traditional Chinese pass

### 8.0.52 — 2026-04-20

Synced/unsynced lyrics
Queue restored on restart
MiniPlayer always visible
Sleep timer
Native shares
Playback formats with custom option
Artist top-songs / all-songs toggle
Improved album & track info
Clickable artist names
Gated admin functions
Music Downloads v2
Tablet layout + art caching fixes
Crash & stability fixes
Translation updates

## Apps similar to SubStreamer

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Nautiline: OpenSubsonic Client](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nautiline-opensubsonic-client/id6755918140) | 4.7 (67) | Free | Music |
| [play:Sub Music Streamer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playsub-music-streamer/id955329386) | 4.5 (421) | $4.99 | Music |
| [flo - Navidrome Client](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/flo-navidrome-client/id6529533140) | 3.8 (22) | Free | Music |
| [ListenNow+](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/listennow-plus/id6477358667) | 4.0 (53) | Free | Music |
| [Amperfy Music](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/amperfy-music/id1530145038) | 4.6 (135) | Free | Music |
| [Fintunes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fintunes/id1527732194) | 3.9 (30) | Free | Music |

## More apps by Gaven Henry

- [PD Tracker](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pd-tracker/id1110649271)
- [Locked Up](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/locked-up/id1545899977)

All apps by Gaven Henry: https://appshunter.io/developer/925249622

## Related topics

[gaven henry](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/gaven-henry) · [substreamer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/substreamer) · [isub](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/isub) · [isub music streamer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/isub-music-streamer) · [amperfy](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/amperfy) · [amperfy music](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/amperfy-music) · [subsonic](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/subsonic) · [navidrome client](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/navidrome-client)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-21.*
