Hello Cecil! Welcome to TP ha 
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Yes mate! Big ups 
Not sure if its the same as with music files but I have a lot of PDFs on my MacBook for work, I also have an idiosyncratic workflow that means I often end up with multiple versions of the same PDF but I’ve been using an app called CCleaner that’s free to find duplicates.
Not sure if it’s the same and whether it will help but searching through the duplicates is an excellent excuse not to do any actual work 
I still have iTunes. Love it, Approx 100,000 tunes on there, and hundreds of playlists. So scared of transferring it to apple music but know i will have to one day. Is apple music as good as itunes. For personal files, i dont want the streaming subscription, i have Spotify for that, just so i can keep my own files separate.
Does anyone have a good solution for listening to thier music library online?
So what I’d like to do is be able to access my music files, which are currently all on my laptop, and play them from my phone, by streaming them somehow. Would prefer to avoid a subscription based solution, but if that’s the only way then so be it.
Sounds like you need a NAS drive, although they are pretty temperamental in my experience and not especially cheap. Basically a hard drive connected to the internet and your local network which has to be always on for obvious reasons for you to be able to stream to your phone.
I have one but my Sonos system now refuses to ‘see’ it and it’s so much hassle to try to rectify I’ve given up.
Edit: On reflection it would probably be easier/cheaper to get a new phone with loads of memory.
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as Gavin says, avoiding subscription services means hardware costs,
Denon do a HEOS HS2 amp that will connect to a NAS and enable streaming from the NAS via the HEOS app, kinda equivalent to the Sonos solution which indicates where you’re headed.
edit - this might be of interest @Joe
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If tech savvy enough Ive often thought of putting them in AWS cloud & creating a front end player. It cant be that hard & an interesting learning experience
Easy way Ive done is put in Google Drive & you can play via any stream device. You can select ones that are DLd local as well
Yes, I’m not aware of a phone app player that plays files direct from your laptop hard drive, so one way is files need to be in cloud storage then altho you can get free phone app players the cost comes from extra cloud storage such as a Google Drive subscription. Didn’t kno there were extra ways with GD.
eg free phone app player I use:
All my music is stored on my Synology NAS. I’ve started using Jellyfin as the media server (also installed on the NAS). Plex is another option but it isn’t open source.
I use the excellent Symfonium app to play music on my devices. Recently got the Wiim Amp Ultra and it’s possible to acccess ones NAS server directly from their app.
The possibilities are endless with this kind of stuff. It’s nice not to be beholden to the likes of Spotify etc.
Thanks guys. Definitely prefer a cloud solution rather than a HD with a local network set up. I have seen Google Drive suggested and synced to VLC player so might look into that.
Youd think in this day and age something like this would be straightforward, but I guess the streamers have this shit locked down
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I have a serious amount of music on my iTunes which id love to access offline. Interesting thread this.
So I found a solution, of sorts
Signed up to TIDAL which meant I could sack off Spotify. Feels good as TIDAL seem more ethically sound, provide hi quality audio and allow you to import your own music files.
To bulk import files you need a third party like TuneMyMusic or Soundiiz. I used TuneMyMusic. Super easy, just grab the iTunes XML link, connect to your TIDAL account and it transfers the files over.
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TIDAL also works with Denon EngineDJ software–just played a gig and it worked quite nicely…
I bought a modded ipod classic with 256gb storage and a battery that lasts about 2 weeks of heavy listening from one charge. Maybe something to look into? Means you no longer have to deal with streaming services
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Looks pretty cool too, bit of a conversation starter when people see you with an iPod in 2025. Also the joy of using decent wired IEM’s
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Works with rekordbox too, if you pay an extra 10er for the DJ sub. It’s so handy
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All those artists losing out on their 75p in streaming revenues, it’s disgraceful
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