Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about Rigelian, player support, subscriptions, and setup.

What are the minimum requirements to use Rigelian?

Rigelian requires iPhone or iPad with iOS 14 or newer, or Mac with macOS 15 Sequoia or newer. It's optimized for iOS 26 and macOS 26.

How much does Rigelian cost?

Rigelian has a free tier with limited functionality.

  • On iOS various browsing functions are not available, like folder browse, search and favorites.
  • On macOS the only limitation is a maximum of 10 additions to the playqueue times per month. This will be applied to the iOS version in the future as well.

Subscription options:

  • Monthly: €0.69 / $0.69 (or local equivalent)
  • Yearly: €4.29 / $4.29 (or local equivalent)

Which types of players are supported?

OpenHome

OpenHome players are supported for streaming from UPnP media servers and from Qobuz.

MPD

Any player based on MPD 0.19 or newer is supported.

Automatic player detection is supported for these players/distributions:

What is OpenHome?

OpenHome is an open standard for networked audio with strong interoperability between devices. upmpdcli adds OpenHome support to MPD-based players, and BubbleUPnP Server adds OpenHome support to UPnP renderers.

More info: openhome.org.

What is MPD?

MPD (Music Player Daemon) is a Linux-based open-source music player daemon. It can run on your own hardware and is used by several commercial network players.

More info: musicpd.org.

Does Rigelian support album and artist artwork?

Cover art behavior depends on player type. For Bryston, Volumio, moOde and UPnP media servers cover art settings are auto-configured.

On other MPD players, artwork can be loaded via:

  • cover.jpg or cover.png from album/artist folders (MPD 0.21+)
  • Embedded artwork in music files (MPD 0.22+)

How can I listen to music on my device?

Rigelian can connect to an HTTP audio stream from MPD, with these prerequisites:

  • You are using MPD
  • You have an active Rigelian subscription
  • An HTTP output is configured in mpd.conf
  • Player settings in Rigelian include matching IP address and port
  • Encoder is set to lame (not vorbis)

When configured correctly, a headphone button appears in Now Playing. Keep in mind there is typically a 4–5 second delay due to HTTP buffering. 

audio_output {
  type            "httpd"
  name            "My HTTP Stream"
  encoder         "lame"
  port            "6700"
  bind_to_address "192.168.1.7"
  tags            "yes"
  quality         "5.0"
  format          "44100:16:1"
}

Why are some albums shown multiple times?

Correct grouping depends on proper tagging, especially the AlbumArtist tag. Rigelian groups albums by Album + AlbumArtist, so consistent metadata avoids duplicates.

If your library is organized by folders, folder browse can also help when metadata is incomplete.

Why can't I use iPhone hardware volume buttons to control player volume?

iOS APIs only allow hardware media keys for audio playing on the device itself, not for external network players.

Can I control my player from the lock screen?

Lock screen controls only work for audio playing on your device. As an alternative, Rigelian provides a Today widget that is accessible from the lock screen.

Does Rigelian support streaming from cloud services?

Subscribers can browse radio stations via Radio Browser.

Qobuz is supported with OpenHome players (native OpenHome, MPD + upmpdcli, or UPnP + BubbleUPnP Server). Tidal and Spotify are currently not supported.

Why does Rigelian use a subscription model?

Subscriptions support ongoing development, maintenance, and compatibility with future MPD and Apple platform changes.

Will there be an Android version of Rigelian?

No.

Why is Rigelian called Rigelian?

Rigelian is named after the Rigelian Empire from Nintendo's Fire Emblem.

Do you have other must-have apps?

For ID3 tag editing on macOS, try Rigelian Tag Editor.