You can check [my own Maloja page](https://maloja.krateng.ch) to see what it looks like (it's down fairly often because I use it as staging environment, that doesn't reflect the stability of the Maloja software!).
> **IMPORTANT**: With the update 2.7, the backend has been reworked to use a password. With a normal installation, you are asked to provide a password on setup. If you use docker or skip the setup for other reasons, you need to provide the environment variable `MALOJA_FORCE_PASSWORD` on first startup.
> **IMPORTANT**: With the update 2.9, the API endpoints have changed. All old endpoints should be redirected properly, but I recommend updating your clients to use the new ones.
* **Self-hosted**: You will always be able to access your data in an easily-parseable format. Your library is not synced with any public or official music database, so you can follow your own tagging schema.
* **Associated Artists**: Compare different artist's popularity in your listening habits including subunits, collaboration projects or solo performances by their members. Change these associations at any time without losing any information.
* **Multi-Artist Tracks**: Some artists often collaborate with others or are listed under "featuring" in the track title. Instead of tracking each combination of artists, each individual artist competes in your charts.
* **Custom Images**: Don't rely on the community to select the best pictures for your favorite artists. Upload your own so that your start page looks like you want it to look.
* **Proxy Scrobble**: No need to fully commit or set up every client twice - you can configure your Maloja server to forward your scrobbles to other services.
* **Standard-compliant API**: Use existing, mature apps or extensions to scrobble to your Maloja server.
* **Manual Scrobbling**: Listening to vinyl or elevator background music? Simply submit a scrobble with the web interface.
* **Keep it Simple**: Unlike Last.fm and similar alternatives, Maloja doesn't have social networking, radios, recommendations or any other gimmicks. It's a tool to keep track of your listening habits over time.
I can support you with issues best if you use **Alpine Linux**. In my experience, **2 GB RAM** should do nicely, but higher amounts allow more caching and reduce page load times for complicated statistics. My personal recommendation is using a dedicated LXC container (e.g. on Proxmox), but of course Maloja will also run on a VM, in Docker or on bare metal.
1) Make sure you have Python 3.5 or higher installed. You also need some basic packages that should be present on most systems, but I've provided simple shell scripts for Alpine and Ubuntu to get everything you need.
2) If you'd like to display images, you will need API keys for [Last.fm](https://www.last.fm/api/account/create) and [Spotify](https://developer.spotify.com/dashboard/applications). These are free of charge!
4) (Recommended) Put your server behind a reverse proxy for SSL encryption. Make sure that you're proxying to the IPv6 address unless you changed your settings to use IPv4. If you're running Maloja in a container, make sure to expose port 32400 (or whichever port you have chosen in your settings).
* If you use a version before 2.0 (1.x), install the package as described above, then manually copy all your user data to your `~/.local/share/maloja` folder.
* Otherwise, simply run the command `maloja update` or use `pip`s update mechanic.
There is a Dockerfile in the repo that should work by itself. You can also use the unofficial [Dockerhub repository](https://hub.docker.com/r/foxxmd/maloja) kindly provided by FoxxMD.
* If you would like to import all your previous last.fm scrobbles, use [benfoxall's website](https://benjaminbenben.com/lastfm-to-csv/) ([GitHub page](https://github.com/benfoxall/lastfm-to-csv)). Use the command `maloja import *filename*` to import the downloaded file into Maloja.
* Have a look at the `default.ini` file in the `~/.local/share/maloja/settings` folder to see what settings are available. Specify your own choices in `settings.ini`. You can also set each of these settings as an environment variable with the prefix `MALOJA_` (e.g. `MALOJA_SKIP_SETUP`).
* If you have activated admin mode in your web interface, you can upload custom images for artists or tracks by simply dragging them onto the existing image on the artist or track page. You can also manage custom images directly in the file system - consult `images.info` in the `~/.local/share/maloja/images` folder.
* To specify custom rules, consult the `rules.info` file in `~/.local/share/maloja/rules`. You can also apply some predefined rules on the `/setup` page of your server.
If you use Plex Web, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud or Youtube Music on Chromium, you can use the included extension (also available on the [Chrome Web Store](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/maloja-scrobbler/cfnbifdmgbnaalphodcbandoopgbfeeh)). Make sure to enter the random key Maloja generates on first startup in the extension settings.
If you want to implement your own method of scrobbling, it's very simple: You only need one POST request to `/apis/mlj_1/newscrobble` with the keys `artist`, `title` and `key` - either as form-data or json.
You can use any third-party scrobbler that supports the audioscrobbler (GNUFM) or the ListenBrainz protocol. This is still very experimental, but give it a try with these settings:
My recommendations are to use [Pano Scrobbler](https://github.com/kawaiiDango/pScrobbler) for Android and [Web Scrobbler](https://github.com/web-scrobbler/web-scrobbler) for desktop browsers. Note that Web Scrobbler requires you to supply the full endpoint (`yoururl.tld/apis/listenbrainz/1/submit-listens`).
