Funkwhale
A federated audio platform where communities host their own music.
Instead of Spotify, SoundCloud
Screenshot from funkwhale.audio, taken 2026-10-30, shown to help you recognise the tool. It belongs to its maker. Ask us to remove it.
Funkwhale lets people and groups run servers for music, podcasts and radio, and lets servers talk to each other so you can follow and share across them. The Funkwhale Collective, a nonprofit, maintains it, with funding from the NLnet Foundation.
Funkwhale scores a 5 on lock-in and self-direction, a 4 on power, a 3 on footprint and longevity and a 2 on delivery.
We have not checked how large its community or catalogue is, so the Delivery score is our estimate.
- Servers run by communities that connect to each other
- Music, podcasts and radio
- A nonprofit collective maintains it, with NLnet funding
What stands out
Do you make Funkwhale? Get the badge for your site
This badge reports a dated review. It is not a certification and it costs nothing. Link it to this page and leave the numbers alone: the image always shows the current score.
For dark backgrounds, use funkwhale-dark.svg in place of funkwhale-light.svg.
For comparison, we also reviewed Spotify (14/30) as a benchmark.
Other tools for “play music i own”
NavidromeYour own music library, streamed to your phone from your server.
StrawberryA music player and library organiser for large collections of files.
MopidyA music server you can control from your phone, with extensions for many sources.- AmpacheA web app that streams your own music collection to any device.