Open · Opt-in · You’re in control
The open ListenBrainz integration, done right.
A Your ListenBrainz stats shelf on Home. Your Mixes: fresh Weekly and Daily Jam playlists pulled straight from your ListenBrainz account. Show on ListenBrainz from any track, album, or artist menu. Loved tracks synced both ways with your Navidrome stars, star-first, so unstarring a track never wrongly erases a love that still exists on ListenBrainz. NaviBeat never scrobbles directly to ListenBrainz, that always goes through your Navidrome server. Connect both Last.fm and ListenBrainz and nothing doubles up: pick a Preferred Source in Settings → Music Data for the surfaces the two services share.
ListenBrainz with NaviBeat: four guardrails
We never send your listens
NaviBeat does not submit listens to ListenBrainz. Not once, not ever. Your plays go to your own Navidrome server, and ListenBrainz hears about them only if you told your server to forward them. What NaviBeat sends ListenBrainz directly is one thing: when you star a track, it loves that track (you can switch that off). Everything else it does with ListenBrainz is reading.
Fully optional
Don’t want ListenBrainz? Don’t connect it. NaviBeat works completely without it: same player, same library, zero external requests. Connecting ListenBrainz is one guided flow in Settings.
Sign in once, sync everywhere
Connect ListenBrainz on iPhone, and iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch all pick up the session via iCloud Keychain. Apple TV pairs with a QR code plus a pasted token, since there’s no browser to sign in with.
No double-counting with Last.fm
Connect both services and the surfaces they share (listener counts, artist tags, similar artists, AutoMix) never render twice. Pick a Preferred Source in Settings → Music Data and NaviBeat uses it consistently across the app.
Open · Self-hostable · MetaBrainz
Not a brand you have to trust. An open project.
ListenBrainz is the listening-history and recommendation service built by MetaBrainz, the nonprofit that also runs MusicBrainz, the open, community-maintained music database. Where Last.fm is a closed commercial service, ListenBrainz is open source, free, and self-hostable: your data belongs to you, and the project’s recommendations are built on MusicBrainz’s open metadata rather than a proprietary catalog. NaviBeat treats it as a first-class, independent connection, not an afterthought bolted onto the Last.fm integration.
What ListenBrainz adds on its own
- Your ListenBrainz Home shelf: your listen count, top artists, and top tracks, tappable straight through to the artist or track.
- Your Mixes: ListenBrainz’s own Weekly and Daily Jam discovery playlists, resolved against your library and ready to play.
- Show on ListenBrainz: an instant link out to the track, album, or artist page on listenbrainz.org from any context menu.
- MusicBrainz-ID (MBID) matching: where available, tracks are resolved by their MusicBrainz identifier instead of title/artist text alone, for more accurate matching against your library.
Loved tracks, star-first
- Two-way sync: heart a track in NaviBeat and it’s submitted as feedback to ListenBrainz through your Navidrome server; loved on ListenBrainz and it’s starred in your library on the next sync.
- Star-first conflict policy: unstarring a track in NaviBeat never silently erases a love that still exists on ListenBrainz, avoiding the classic two-way-sync trap of one side quietly winning.
- Independent of Last.fm: works whether or not you also connect Last.fm. Use either, both, or neither.
As with Last.fm, ListenBrainz has no concept of album-, artist-, or playlist-level favouriting, and no star-rating concept. NaviBeat’s favouriting surface stays scoped to per-song hearts and per-song ratings for the same reason on both services: those are the only signals that round-trip cleanly. Ratings stay server-only, stored on your Navidrome via the Subsonic setRating endpoint.
Shared surfaces · ListenBrainz-only
What’s shared with Last.fm, and what’s exclusively yours.
ListenBrainz doesn’t try to duplicate every Last.fm surface. A handful of features (listener counts, artist tags, similar tracks, AutoMix) are source-neutral: connect ListenBrainz, Last.fm, or both, and NaviBeat arbitrates through your Preferred Source in Settings → Music Data so nothing renders twice. A few surfaces belong to ListenBrainz alone, and a few deep-history features are still Last.fm-only today.
| Feature | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Listener counts on Now Playing | Shared · Preferred Source |
| Top tags on Artist header | Shared · Preferred Source |
| Similar Artists & Similar Tracks rails | Shared · Preferred Source |
| AutoMix continuation when Up Next runs dry | Shared · Preferred Source |
| Your ListenBrainz Home shelf | ListenBrainz-only |
| Your Mixes: Weekly & Daily Jams | ListenBrainz-only |
| Show on ListenBrainz context menu | ListenBrainz-only |
| Star-first two-way loved-track sync | ListenBrainz-only |
| MusicBrainz-ID (MBID) matching | ListenBrainz-only |
| Year in Review, Time Machine, deep Stats page | Last.fm-only · see the Last.fm page |
“Shared · Preferred Source” means the feature works with either service connected; if you connect both, your Settings → Music Data choice decides which one NaviBeat reads for that surface.
Live roadmap
Shipping order, transparently.
Every ListenBrainz feature, in the order we’re building them. Updated as work lands. White means done and shipped; orange means actively in development; gray means planned and queued. No vapor.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
Connect ListenBrainz Account
Settings → Connect ListenBrainz. Open your listenbrainz.org page, paste your user token, and the session is saved to iCloud Keychain so iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch all share the connection. Apple TV pairs with a QR code plus guided token paste, since it has no browser. Without this no other ListenBrainz feature can run.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
Your ListenBrainz Home shelf
A Home tab shelf built from your listen count, top artists, and top tracks on ListenBrainz. Tap an artist tile to open that artist, tap a track to play it, mirroring the parity Your Last.fm shelf gets.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
Star-first loved-track sync
Heart a track in NaviBeat and the love is submitted to ListenBrainz through your Navidrome server. Loved on ListenBrainz, and it’s starred in your library on the next sync. Star-first conflict policy: unstarring locally never wrongly erases a love that still exists on ListenBrainz.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
Show on ListenBrainz context menu
Long-press any track, album, or artist anywhere in the app for an instant link out to its page on listenbrainz.org. Apple TV shows a QR code since it has no browser.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
Shared surfaces + Preferred Source picker
Listener counts, artist tags, similar artists, and AutoMix all work from a connected ListenBrainz account, resolved through the same MusicBrainz-ID matching used everywhere else. Connect both Last.fm and ListenBrainz and pick a Preferred Source in Settings → Music Data so the shared surfaces never render twice.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
Your Mixes: Weekly & Daily Jams
ListenBrainz’s own discovery playlists, Weekly Jams and Daily Jams, appear as a Home shelf once they exist for your account, resolved against your library. Tap to play; never a wrong track.
-
Done · Build 166 · July 2026
MusicBrainz-ID (MBID) matching
Where a track carries a MusicBrainz identifier, NaviBeat resolves it directly instead of falling back to title/artist text matching, making loved-track sync and the shared surfaces more accurate for oddly-tagged or reissued releases.
-
Planned
Alternate ListenBrainz-compatible endpoints
Support for self-hosted, ListenBrainz-compatible servers (for example Koito) as an alternative to listenbrainz.org, for listeners who already run their own instance. Requested, not yet built.
Ready to listen smarter?
NaviBeat is on the App Store for every Apple device. ListenBrainz features land progressively in ongoing updates.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does NaviBeat submit listens directly to ListenBrainz?
No. NaviBeat never submits listens to ListenBrainz. Your plays go to your own Navidrome server, and ListenBrainz sees them only if you configured your server to forward them. NaviBeat writes to ListenBrainz in exactly one place: when you star a track it loves that track, and you can turn that off in Settings. Everything else it does with ListenBrainz is reading.
Do I have to connect ListenBrainz to use NaviBeat?
No. ListenBrainz is fully optional. Don't connect it and NaviBeat works exactly the same: same player, same library, zero external requests. Connecting it is one guided flow in Settings.
Can I use ListenBrainz and Last.fm at the same time?
Yes. Several features (listener counts, artist tags, similar tracks, AutoMix) are source-neutral: connect ListenBrainz, Last.fm, or both, and NaviBeat arbitrates through your Preferred Source in Settings, Music Data, so nothing renders twice.
Why ListenBrainz instead of only Last.fm?
ListenBrainz is not a brand you have to trust, it is an open project from MetaBrainz. A few surfaces belong to ListenBrainz alone, while a few deep-history features are still Last.fm-only today. This page shows a transparent roadmap of what is done, in progress, and planned.