Remote and Online Sources

Remote and online sources extend ECHO. They are not a replacement for your local library. Keep a clear difference between remote file browsing, metadata completion, streaming from your own services, and third-party user-provided sources.

DMCA And Copyright

ECHO strictly follows the DMCA and applicable copyright laws. ECHO officially provides no music download service and no functionality for obtaining music content. It does not host, distribute, sell, or mirror copyrighted audio content, and it does not provide tools to bypass copyright protection, paid access, or access controls.

Any WebDAV, NAS, Jellyfin, Emby, Subsonic, cloud drive, proxy, plugin, or third-party source you connect must be used only for content you are allowed to access and use. Users are responsible for the legality of their sources, accounts, and network access.

If a third-party source, plugin, script, or user-provided URL involves infringing content, it is not official ECHO behavior and is outside ECHO support. Legal responsibility for third-party sources belongs to the integrator, user, plugin author, or service provider. The ECHO project and maintainers do not accept legal responsibility for those sources.

Capability Boundaries

Different sources provide different capabilities:

Type	Purpose	Boundary
WebDAV / NAS	Browse and play files from your own server	Speed depends on server, network, and authentication setup
Jellyfin / Emby	Browse media libraries, read metadata, and play authorized content	Folder hierarchy and transcoding are controlled by the server
Subsonic / Navidrome	Access your personal music service	Requires your own service and account
Online metadata	Complete title, artist, album, artwork, and lyrics candidates	Candidate or weak completion only; should not overwrite high-confidence local data
Plugins	Extend connections or automation	Plugin behavior is limited by permissions and source trust

The official ECHO docs will not instruct users to obtain infringing content and will not promise support for third-party services that cannot be publicly verified.

Read Download And Plugin Source Boundaries for the complete statement.

ECHO will not add a Kugou Music source. If Kugou appears in docs or settings, it usually refers to lyrics, metadata candidates, or compatibility boundaries. It does not mean ECHO will provide a Kugou playback source, download source, or platform-content integration.

For public internet radio streams, read the Internet Radio guide. To cast the current ECHO track to a network streamer, receiver, TV, or other DLNA / UPnP renderer, read the DLNA / Network Streamer guide.

Remote Source Workflow

For a new remote source:

Test the account, URL, port, and certificate.
Browse the root or one small folder first.
Play one normal audio file.
Enable indexing, artwork, lyrics, or background sync afterward.
Expand to the full directory only after the small check works.

Do not start with a full index of an entire NAS or media server. Slow sync, slow artwork loading, and waiting on some files are normal for large remote folders.

Online Metadata

Online metadata is useful for filling gaps such as artwork, lyrics candidates, artist names, album titles, or years. It should not replace local tag truth:

Manual edits take priority over online results.
Embedded tags take priority over online results.
Same-folder artwork takes priority over online artwork.
Online results should be previewable, reversible, and applied in small batches.

Before applying online metadata in bulk, test it on a small set of tracks.

Network And Proxy

Remote-source problems often come from the network environment:

Home NAS setups can be affected by LAN routing, DDNS, port forwarding, and certificates.
Campus and corporate networks may restrict WebDAV, media servers, or proxies.
Proxies can affect online metadata, artwork, and lyrics access.
Server transcoding, rate limits, or sleep state can affect playback stability.

When reporting a remote-source issue, include screenshots of the connection state, folder page, error text, and sync progress. Also include the service type, server version, network environment, and whether a proxy is enabled.

Unsupported Scope

ECHO official support does not cover:

Infringing, pirated, paid-access-bypass, or access-control-bypass sources.
Third-party download sites, resource indexes, scripts, crawlers, or gray-market plugins.
User-modified servers, private APIs, expired APIs, or sources that require packet-capture reverse engineering.
Requests for ECHO to help find, obtain, or download copyrighted content.
Requests that treat ECHO plugin interfaces as official endorsement, official sources, or a way to transfer legal responsibility.
Kugou Music playback-source, download-source, or platform-content integration requests.

ECHO can help you manage and play content you are allowed to use. It does not provide download services and will not help bypass copyright or platform rules.