Take back control of your music at home, served to every device from one library

PureStream is a single-user local music server running on your Mac or Windows personal computer, designed to put music collectors fully in charge of their personal libraries. It serves as the streaming backbone of Efficient Lab’s Pure music ecosystem:

• PureLab: desktop workstation for deep metadata organization, tag normalization, CJK conversion, and safe writeback;
• PureStream: desktop background service that indexes multiple music folders, serves standard Subsonic APIs, streams untouched audio locally, and handles on-demand transcoding;
• PurePlayer: mobile companion app on iOS that connects to PureStream for high-resolution listening anywhere.

PureStream adheres strictly to single-user ownership and local-first architecture. It does not rely on third-party cloud storage or aggregate web disks, providing a clean, distraction-free, and always-available core for your high-fidelity music collection.

From the initial installation to listening on your phone wherever you go, the entire experience is designed to be frictionless:

1. Add Music Folders: Select one or more local folders containing your audio files, including locally mounted NAS shares or external drives;
2. Build the Local Index: The server recursively scans tags and artwork to build an instant search index, with cancel-and-resume support for large collections;
3. Original-Quality Local Playback: Launch PurePlayer or any Subsonic client on the same Wi-Fi network and enjoy original-quality streaming straight from your machine;
4. Quick PIN Pairing: When you want remote access, generate a temporary 6-digit PIN in the web console and enter it on your player to securely pair the device;
5. Encrypted Listening on the Go: Listen outside the home over a direct end-to-end encrypted tunnel, with automatic adaptive transcoding keeping music smooth over mobile data.

To accommodate varying network conditions and audio gear, PureStream provides a flexible negotiation mechanism that balances fidelity and smooth playback:

Scenario	Delivery Strategy	Description
Local Network	Untouched direct stream	Zero resampling and zero lossy compression, preserving the original detail
Stable Remote Network	High-quality live transcoding	Encodes lossless audio on the fly into high-bitrate streams for optimal balance
Mobile Cellular Network	Adaptive bandwidth transcoding	Uses efficient compression profiles to prevent buffering on constrained connections
User Manual Preference	Locked format and bitrate	Manually select a preferred streaming codec or force uncompressed streaming

All transcoded output is managed by a local server-side cache with automatic LRU eviction. Whenever a source file or tag is updated, corresponding cached files are invalidated immediately so you always hear the most up-to-date audio.

At Efficient Lab, we believe your personal music collection and listening history belong solely to you:

• Music Remains Strictly Local: Your audio files, artwork, lyrics, playback records, and search queries reside exclusively on your computer and are never uploaded to central servers;
• Zero-Account Design: No email address, username, or phone number is ever requested; you never have to register an identity just to enjoy your music;
• Minimal Control Plane: Our cloud control plane only assists with time-limited PIN pairing, service heartbeats, and app store subscription entitlement verification;
• End-to-End Encrypted Tunnels: Remote connections use modern WireGuard technology for point-to-point encryption; future relay nodes handle only encrypted payloads and cannot inspect audio content;
• No Advertising or Telemetry: PureStream contains zero third-party advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or user behavior analytics.

PureStream is currently under active development and testing, with planned distribution through the Mac App Store and Microsoft Store. To maintain clear expectations, we transparently outline what is in scope now versus planned for future milestones:

• Current Development and Launch Scope:

  • Desktop single-user server for macOS and Windows;
  • Multi-folder local scanning, incremental updates, and embedded metadata extraction;
  • Subsonic and OpenSubsonic standard streaming API compatibility;
  • Original-quality local network streaming and on-demand live transcoding;
  • Web-based single-user administration console and lightweight web player;
  • Local PIN pairing and direct peer-to-peer remote tunnels (connectivity depends on network NAT conditions).

• Future Milestones and Planned Capabilities:

  • High-Connectivity Encrypted Relay: Fallback relay nodes to guarantee connections across restrictive symmetric NATs (planned);
  • Multi-Device Family Groups: Family subscription sharing and multi-terminal device access (planned);
  • AI-Powered Enhancements: Local audio feature analysis, semantic search, and smart music style recommendations (planned);
  • Expanded Storage Sources: Native SMB and WebDAV network storage integration (planned).