# ListenBrainz

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/listenbrainz/

20 people recommended ListenBrainz in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 12 months, in 8 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Open-source Last.fm alternative that tracks listening history and recommends music, with open data and no monetization. Matching can be fuzzy for covers and live performances.

Summary written by Claude from 25 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Works with Navidrome and Last.fm (4 comments in the sample): "You could scrobble to Last.fm or ListenBrainz to track your personal library listens." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48299287)) "is an open source alternative to Last.fm that I can confirm works with Navidrome" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49932299)) "Listenbrainz has a page that allows you to fetch your history from last.fm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48305888))
- Open, exportable listening data (2 comments in the sample): "listenbrainz supports uploading your Spotify backup raw, and will keep it all in a easily parseseable, query-able backup" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46489589)) "I've moved over to ListenBrainz, it's quite nice and I like that the data is open and not trying to be monitized" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297493))
- Recommendations from listening history (2 comments in the sample): "You can use ListenBrainz to discover new music based on your listening activity from your self-hosted library." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46520689)) "which has a recommendations mechanism" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49932515))
- Hosted, no self-hosting needed (2 comments in the sample): "an open source alternative that you don’t have to host yourself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267278)) "a decent alternative if you don't want to self-host" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49905448))

## What people warn about

- Fuzzy matching on covers and live tracks (1 comment in the sample): "Listenbrainz is the closest I've found because it just has Title and Artist, but even that can be fuzzy for covers and live performances." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47116087))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://listenbrainz.org/)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ListenBrainz", https://hackerapproved.com/p/listenbrainz/ (20 recommend, 2 mixed, 1 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.