Explo Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Explo hosting on xCloud gives you a self-hosted music discovery tool that works as an alternative to Spotify's Discover Weekly for your own library. Deploy Explo from the OneClick catalog and xCloud starts the pinned v1.2.0 image, generates the web sign-in, mounts volumes for your settings and downloaded tracks and publishes the interface over HTTPS. Explo turns your ListenBrainz recommendations into playlists on the music server you already run.

Deploy your Explo

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

What is Explo?

Explo bridges the gap between music discovery and self-hosted music systems, according to its README, and acts as a self-hosted alternative to Spotify's Discover Weekly. It uses the ListenBrainz recommendation engine to fetch Weekly Exploration, Weekly Jams, Daily Jams and custom playlists, can import playlists from Apple Music and Spotify, requests the tracks from YouTube and Soulseek or albums through Lidarr, tags them and creates a playlist in your music system. Self-hosted Explo is that tool run on your own server. It is licensed under MIT.

On xCloud this template deploys Explo v1.2.0, pinned by digest, as one container with a web interface for setup and scheduling. Settings sit on the explo_config volume and downloaded tracks on explo_data. Explo is not a music server or player, so it needs an existing Jellyfin, Navidrome, Plex, Emby, MPD or Subsonic server your server can reach. Only download what you are permitted to.

From Sign-Up to Weekly Playlists In Just 3 Easy Steps

Running Explo yourself means a container, a pinned image, a sign-in, two volumes, a domain and a certificate before the first playlist. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Explo from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain, then set the web UI username (default admin) and a password, or leave the password empty to have one generated.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the upstream Explo image, pinned by immutable digest, mount the explo_config and explo_data volumes, and publish the web interface over HTTPS on your domain. Allow one to two minutes after the first start while Explo updates its YouTube downloader.
Step 03
Run The Setup Wizard
Open your HTTPS Explo URL and sign in with the credentials shown after install. Then complete the wizard: your ListenBrainz username and token, followed by the address and credentials of your music server.

Everything Explo Does, On Your Own Server

Explo runs in full here: a web interface that builds playlists from your ListenBrainz recommendations and writes them to the music server you already use.

ListenBrainz Playlists
Weekly Exploration, Weekly Jams and Daily Jams from ListenBrainz become playlists in your music library.
Your Music Server
Works with Jellyfin, Navidrome and other Subsonic servers, Plex, Emby and MPD. Explo is a companion, not a player.
Setup Wizard And Scheduling
A web interface with a setup wizard and scheduling, so playlists refresh without a command line.
Custom Playlist Import
Import your own playlists from ListenBrainz, Spotify or Apple Music.
Downloaders
Tracks are fetched via YouTube, with Lidarr and Soulseek available as alternative downloaders.
Persistent Settings And Tracks
Wizard settings, cached data and downloaded tracks live in named volumes and were still there after an xCloud Restart in QA.

Everything You Need To Run Your Music Discovery 24/7

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

Explo v1.2.0 deployed instantly
Upstream image pinned by digest
Web sign-in generated for you
Kept behind xCloud nginx
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Explo

A Weekly Playlist Without Spotify
Get new music suggestions every week as a playlist inside the library you already own, instead of in a streaming service.
Daily Listening Refresh
Let Daily Jams from ListenBrainz land in Jellyfin, Navidrome or Plex on a schedule you set in the web interface.
Bring Existing Playlists Home
Import custom playlists from ListenBrainz, Spotify or Apple Music and have Explo build them on your music server.
Discovery For A Home Music Server
Keep a household Navidrome or Jellyfin library growing with recommendations based on what you actually listen to.

Explo Screenshots

Explo vs Alternatives

Spotify Discover Weekly: Upstream positions Explo as a self-hosted alternative to Discover Weekly. Explo builds a weekly playlist from ListenBrainz data and puts it in your own music server, though this page makes no quality comparison.
ListenBrainz alone: Explo uses the ListenBrainz recommendation engine and takes your recommendations the extra step into a playlist and the files behind it on a server you run.
Lidarr: Lidarr is a separate music collection manager with its own OneClick page, and Explo can request whole albums through it. Lidarr manages releases you choose, while Explo picks them from recommendations.
Downtify: Downtify is a separate music downloader with its own OneClick page that saves tracks from links you paste. Explo works from recommendations and scheduled playlists instead of links.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

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

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if Explo sits alongside a music server and other 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. Explo itself is licensed by its maintainers under the MIT license.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

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

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

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 Discovery?

Explo 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.

Is Explo free?

Yes. Explo carries the MIT open-source licence, and the file is linked here at the pinned v1.2.0 tag. xCloud bills for the Cloud VPS under it, not for Explo, and there is no per-playlist fee. You still need your own ListenBrainz account and a music server, which are separate.

Can you self-host Explo with Docker?

Yes, and this Explo Docker hosting template does it for you: the upstream ghcr.io/lumepart/explo image, pinned by digest, runs as one container on your own server with HTTPS in front of port 7288. It is not an Explo cloud account, so your settings and tracks stay on your server.

How much RAM does Explo need?

Explo requires at least 512 MB of RAM, 1 CPU core and 4 GB of disk by its manifest, and QA measured about 17 MiB idle and about 66 MiB after a playlist run. Downloaded music grows the disk. The 6 GB tier sold here leaves ample room.

Do I need a music server to use Explo?

Yes. Explo is a companion, not a player. It needs Jellyfin, Navidrome, Plex, Emby, MPD or another Subsonic server that your xCloud server can reach, and it only creates playlists in it. Follow the setup wizard to enter that server's address and credentials.

Do I need a ListenBrainz token for Explo?

A token is needed for private, personalised data, so enter your ListenBrainz username and token in the setup wizard. Public users' playlists were pulled without one in QA. Sign up at ListenBrainz first, and let it collect some listening history, because recommendations depend on it.

Where do Explo downloaded tracks go?

Tracks are written to the explo_data volume at /data. Your music server can only play them if it reads the same folder, so set EXPLO_LIBRARY in the Environment editor to a shared absolute path on this server and redeploy. Only download music you are permitted to download.

How do I sign in to Explo?

Use the username, default admin, and the generated password shown in the credentials, then run the setup wizard. Change them in the Environment editor and redeploy, since both are read on every start. Never clear both, because Explo then turns authentication off and the interface is open.

Who can reach the Explo interface?

Anyone who can open the URL sees the sign-in page. Once signed in, a user can read and change the saved music server credentials, trigger downloads and browse folders inside the container. Keep the password strong, and optionally add Basic Authentication at your access layer.

Why is the Explo page slow to answer after a restart?

On every start Explo updates its YouTube downloader first, so the web interface can take one to two minutes to answer after the first deploy and after each restart. Wait, then reload. Sessions are kept in memory, so a restart also signs you out and you sign in again.

How do I back up Explo?

Back up the explo_config volume, which holds wizard settings, the playlist cache, cover art and custom playlists, plus explo_data if downloads are kept there. Keep an off-server copy and test a restore. Your music server's own library needs its own backup.

Backup and restore Docker apps

How do I upgrade Explo?

Explo v1.2.0 stays pinned on a running install when the catalog changes, and you choose when to adopt a newer template version. Save a copy of both volumes and read the upstream release notes, since settings from the wizard are stored in the config volume and a newer version may read them differently.

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.