Usage Guide
This guide covers day-to-day usage of soundspan: setup, navigation, playback behavior, and administration.
For deployment and installation, see DEPLOYMENT.md.
For configuration and security, see CONFIGURATION_AND_SECURITY.md.
First-Time Setup
- Create the first account (this user becomes admin)
- Optionally configure integrations (see
INTEGRATIONS.md) - Wait for initial library scan and enrichment
Home and Search
- Home surfaces continue listening, recently added items, radio stations, mixes, and recommendations
- Search includes tabs for library, discovery, and podcasts
- Discovery search supports preview/download/subscription actions
Artist Playback Order
Artist-level Play queues owned albums newest-to-oldest, with track ordering by disc and track number.
Podcast Behavior
Playing an older podcast episode creates a forward-only queue of newer episodes; starting the latest episode does not create an episode queue.
Playback Settings
Configure stream/transcode quality and cache behavior in Settings.
Player quality badges show active source details (codec/bitrate or bit depth/sample rate).
Social and History
- Activity panel
Socialtab lists users who are online and sharing presence. - If a user shares listening activity, their current track appears inline in the Social roster.
- Non-admin accounts only see
NotificationsandSocialin the activity panel (ActiveandHistoryremain admin-only). - Open
My HistoryfromSettings -> History & Personalization(Open My History) for queue-like controls: click-to-play, add to queue, and add to playlist.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play / Pause |
| N | Next track |
| P | Previous track |
| S | Toggle shuffle |
| M | Toggle mute |
| Arrow Up | Volume up |
| Arrow Down | Volume down |
| Arrow Right | Seek forward 10 seconds |
| Arrow Left | Seek backward 10 seconds |
Administration
Admins can manage users, integrations, downloads, enrichment automation, queue dashboards, and API keys.
Common admin areas
- User Management
Connected Nowlive card under User Management for currently connected accounts- Integration and storage settings
- Download source/fallback settings
- Enrichment controls
- Activity panel events and active jobs
- API keys and Swagger docs
- Bull Board dashboard (
/admin/queues)
Technical admin configuration and security notes are in CONFIGURATION_AND_SECURITY.md.
See also
- Deployment Guide — Docker and compose deployment options
- Configuration and Security — Environment variables and security hardening
- Integrations Guide — Lidarr, Audiobookshelf, Soulseek, YouTube Music, TIDAL, OpenSubsonic
- Environment Variables — Complete env var reference by container