DroppedNeedle Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Deploy DroppedNeedle hosting and run a self-hosted music request app with a built-in library on your own domain. Search the MusicBrainz catalogue, request an album or a single track, and DroppedNeedle drives the slskd or SABnzbd client that you run yourself. xCloud starts the pinned image as one container with persistent volumes. Until the first admin account exists the site is open to whoever arrives first, so set it up straight away.

Deploy your DroppedNeedle

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is DroppedNeedle?

DroppedNeedle is a self-hosted music request, discovery and library app, released under AGPL-3.0, with the tagline Request music, own everything. Upstream says you search the full MusicBrainz catalogue and request an album or a single track, and it drives your own download client, scores the candidates, verifies each file and shelves the result in your library, in one container with no Lidarr needed. Self-hosted DroppedNeedle is the option for people who would otherwise stream everything from a service such as Spotify.

On xCloud the template runs ghcr.io/droppedneedle/droppedneedle v2.15.0, pinned by digest, as one container with six volumes for config, cache, plugins, imports, data and music. It only drives a download client you supply and run yourself, such as slskd or SABnzbd; it ships no indexers, joins no peer-to-peer network and hosts no audio. What you fetch is your responsibility.

From Sign-Up to Your Music Library In Just 3 Easy Steps

A DroppedNeedle install normally means a container, six mounted paths, a reverse proxy with a raised upload limit, a domain and a certificate before the first request. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick DroppedNeedle from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and target server — there are no extra fields to fill in and no credentials to generate.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the upstream DroppedNeedle image, pinned by immutable digest, as a single container with no other services, mount the droppedneedle_config, droppedneedle_cache, droppedneedle_plugins, droppedneedle_imports, droppedneedle_data and droppedneedle_music volumes, and publish it over HTTPS on your domain with a 2 GB upload limit for drop imports. The first start can take a few minutes while it prepares its database.
Step 03
Create The Admin Account
Open your HTTPS DroppedNeedle URL right away and create the admin account yourself — whoever opens a fresh install first becomes the admin. Then add your own SABnzbd or slskd under Settings, Download Client, and keep the default /music library root.

Everything DroppedNeedle Does, On Your Own Server

DroppedNeedle runs in full here: music requests, discovery and a scanned library in the browser, with your own download client doing the fetching.

Request Albums Or Single Tracks
Search the full MusicBrainz catalogue and request the album or the single track you want, with an approval queue for users with the User role.
Drives Your Own Download Client
DroppedNeedle scores candidates from your slskd or SABnzbd, verifies each file and shelves the result in your library. You supply and run the client yourself.
A Library It Scans And Indexes
Browse, filter and rescan your library under /music; unmatched files wait in a manual-review queue instead of being guessed at.
Drop Import And Free Music
Drag in a zip or loose files with Drop Import, or use the Internet Archive free-music source, which needs no download client, account or API key.
Discovery And Following
Trending, charts, genre browsing and recommendations, plus a new-release radar for artists you follow.
Play From Your Existing Apps
OpenSubsonic and Jellyfin APIs let apps such as Symfonium, Finamp and Feishin play from your library.

Everything You Need To Run Your Music Library 24/7

Managed hosting for DroppedNeedle, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

DroppedNeedle 2.15.0 deployed instantly
Upstream image pinned by digest
Six persistent volumes
Kept behind xCloud nginx
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
Choose your server region
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With DroppedNeedle

Request an album and let it arrive
Search for an album or one track, request it, and let DroppedNeedle drive your download client and shelve the verified files in your library.
Discover new artists
Use the app's recommendations to find artists and albums related to what you already own, then request them in a click.
Import an existing collection
Drop zip archives or audio files into Drop Import and let the app add them to the library, up to the 2 GB proxy limit.
Keep one container for music management
Run requests, library and download orchestration in a single container instead of assembling several separate music tools.

DroppedNeedle Screenshots

DroppedNeedle home page with trending artists, popular albums and personalized recommendations

DroppedNeedle discover page with personalized album recommendations

DroppedNeedle library overview with statistics and recent additions

DroppedNeedle vs Alternatives

Spotify: If you stream everything from Spotify, DroppedNeedle is a different model: you own the files in a library on your own Cloud VPS, which you fetch through a download client you operate.
Lidarr: Lidarr has its own xCloud page. Upstream describes DroppedNeedle as needing no Lidarr: requests, library and download engine run in one container that drives your own slskd or SABnzbd.
Navidrome: Navidrome has its own xCloud page. Upstream lists Navidrome among the places to play a DroppedNeedle library back, so the two can sit side by side.
slskd: slskd has its own xCloud page and is a Soulseek client. DroppedNeedle can drive it as a download client, but ships no network access of its own.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for DroppedNeedle hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if DroppedNeedle sits alongside your download client and media apps.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. DroppedNeedle itself is licensed by its maintainers under AGPL-3.0.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy DroppedNeedle on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

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All features included
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Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Music Library?

DroppedNeedle on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

What is DroppedNeedle used for?

DroppedNeedle is used to request and organise music. You search the MusicBrainz catalogue, ask for an album or one track, and DroppedNeedle passes the job to the download client you run, checks the files it gets back and files them into your library. It also recommends artists and albums and accepts drop imports.

Is DroppedNeedle free and open source?

Yes. DroppedNeedle is open source under AGPL-3.0, so the app has no licence fee. xCloud's price is the Cloud VPS and the deployment. The download client, indexers or Usenet services it drives are separate, and you must supply and pay for those yourself.

Can you self-host DroppedNeedle with Docker?

Yes. For DroppedNeedle Docker hosting the template runs the ghcr.io/droppedneedle image at v2.15.0, pinned by digest, as one container with six named volumes and HTTPS on your domain. An entrypoint step fixes the ownership of the extra mount points before the stock entrypoint starts, so no compose file is needed from you.

How much RAM does DroppedNeedle need?

DroppedNeedle's manifest floor is 512 MB of RAM, one core and 10 GB of disk. The 6 GB tier on this page is far above that. Disk is what grows, because completed downloads and the music library are stored on the server, so size it for the collection you plan to keep.

Does DroppedNeedle download music by itself?

No. Upstream says it only drives a download client that you supply and run yourself over its local HTTP API. It never joins a peer-to-peer network, ships no indexers and hosts no audio. What you fetch, and what your client shares back, is your call and your responsibility, so follow the law and the rules of your sources.

Do I need Lidarr with DroppedNeedle?

No. Upstream's tagline for the app is that it needs no Lidarr and runs as one container, with its own library and download engine. You do need a download client such as slskd, or SABnzbd with Newznab indexers or Prowlarr, which DroppedNeedle drives but does not run for you.

Who becomes the DroppedNeedle administrator?

Whoever reaches the site first. Until the first admin account exists the site is open to anyone through its setup endpoint. The first start can take a few minutes while the database is prepared, so open your address as soon as it responds and create the account yourself before sharing the link with anyone.

How do I back up DroppedNeedle?

Back up at least droppedneedle_config, droppedneedle_cache and droppedneedle_music. The config volume holds settings, accounts and an auto-generated encryption key that protects stored integration secrets, so keep the two together. The cache volume holds the library database and cover art. Keep copies off-server and test a restore.

Backups in xCloud

How do I upgrade DroppedNeedle?

Version v2.15.0 stays fixed by digest, so a catalog change leaves a running install alone. Back up the config and cache volumes, read the release notes, and select a later template version. The app also keeps upgrade backups in the cache volume, but do not rely on them alone.

How does my download client share files with it?

An external slskd or SABnzbd on the same server can only hand files over if it shares the /data volume with this container; otherwise point the download-client settings at a path that client can reach over the network. Configure the client address under the app's settings after you sign in.

Can I run DroppedNeedle in the cloud on xCloud?

Yes. DroppedNeedle cloud use means a dedicated Cloud VPS for the container, with your domain and certificate attached. You can enrol a machine rented elsewhere as self-managed. Drop Import accepts uploads up to 2 GB through the proxy, and a download client on the same server must share the data volume.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.