Streaming Server

[simple beacon]

Hi. I'm about to start working on a Music Streaming on demand app and I'd like to get some tips ..

I'll store all mp3 files on Google Storage, build a server with nodejs to get this files and distribute to clients chunks of it ...

[lavish bronze]

okay...

[simple beacon]

I started somes tests yesterday but the music only starts playing when the file was download at 6MB of 13MB ... I think it taking so much long and it cannot be a good experience for the users

Perhaps could you tell me or show me what am I doing wrong ...

[lavish bronze]

I understand the issue, but I don't think I can provide any help without seeing the part of the code that's not working as expected :=)

can you share the part of the code that's not working as expected

[simple beacon]

Sure ... give a minute

[lavish bronze]

and if it's streaming I would suggest you use WebRTC instead of reading the saved file chunks directly, you know that could also be a bandwidth issue for the users because it downloads data directly from the server and will also cause bad user experience when the audio is buffering because of bad connection

[simple beacon]

const range = req.headers.range || "0";

        const file = storage.bucket(bucketName).file(filePath);
        const [metadata] = await file.getMetadata();
        const size = metadata.size as number

        const CHUNK_SIZE = 500 * 1024;
        let start = Number(range?.replace(/\D/g, ""));
        let end = Math.min(start + CHUNK_SIZE, size - 1)

        const contentLength = end - start + 1;
        const headers = {
            'Content-Range': `bytes ${start}-${end}/${size}`,
            'Accept-Ranges': 'bytes',
            'Content-Length': contentLength,
            'Content-Type': 'audio/mpeg',
        };

        res.writeHead(206, headers);

        const stream = file.createReadStream({ start, end });
        stream.pipe(res);

[simple beacon]

Can I use WebRTC to provide streaming on demand to users?

[lavish bronze]

you could use WebRTC to send the audio directly to the connected clients, and then you can also save the recording directly to the Cloud storage

[lavish bronze]

of course that's what WebRTC is for

for example Zoom call is WebRTC

but in your case it is only audio which is also very possible

[simple beacon]

What do you mean "recording directly to the Cloud Storage" ?

I have the all files stored there

[lavish bronze]

using WebRTC you will also be able to do whatever you want with the media, like saving the media to the server or to the cloud so that the user can access it later

[simple beacon]

Oh right ...

So, do you have a suggestion what library I can use?

[lavish bronze]

but wait, the streaming is going to be like YouTube streaming right?

[simple beacon]

No, is going to be like Spotify

Apple Music and so on

[lavish bronze]

okay, because I was doubting if WebRTC will be right for what you're trying to do

[lavish bronze]

for this wait...

Janus is great, if you're an experience developer
https://janus.conf.meetecho.com/

to create WebRTC from scratch
https://webrtc.org/

but you will have to handle multiple RTCPeerConnection s

there is another library called Jitsi-Meet
https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/

[simple beacon]

Great. So, after I told you that my app will going be like Spotify, do you still recommend WebRTC?

[lavish bronze]

it is for video call but I think you should be able to tweak it for the audio

[lavish bronze]

hmm 🤔 , please wait...

I think yes

Spotify music streaming is not live streaming, or does Spotify has something like live streaming audio directly from artists?

[simple beacon]

Its only streaming on demand

[lavish bronze]

What I know about Spotify is that artists upload their music and then people listen to the already uploaded music

[simple beacon]

Yes, exactly

[lavish bronze]

ohhhh sorry

it seems like I didn't get you well before, I thought you were saying live music streaming, like when an artist is singing live the audience will be able to stream the audio live

[simple beacon]

Oh, no. Or maybe I didn't explain correctly

But the important thing, you get it now, right?

[lavish bronze]

yeah

[simple beacon]

Good

[lavish bronze]

you can make research on how Spotify does their on demand chunk by chunk streaming, and this is what I got when I asked AI

so it means other than their server they use other technologies for their streaming

they also compress their audio before delivering it to the client which may also be part of what contributes to their high quality streaming

[simple beacon]

Thats interesting..

I'll make some new tests and I'll keep posted you

[lavish bronze]

okay 👍

[simple beacon]

Thank you