How to Add Music to Your Kodi Library

Kodi is best known for streaming movies and TV series, but it’s also an ideal place to collect your favorite music, as well. Today, we show you how to add music to your Kodi library in a few simple steps. You’ll learn how to import and organize your collection, and protect your traffic using a VPN.

Kodi is a free and open-source media center that can do it all. Stream movies, download TV shows, download and play podcasts, and so much more. Although most people use the app as a video player, Kodi comes with some powerful music tagging and organization features that can make your life much easier. Once you add music to your Kodi library, all you have to do is fire it up and start playing.

Keep Kodi Private with a Secure VPN

Kodi can handle just about every task you throw at it, including being the center of attention at a karaoke party! One thing it can’t do is keep you safe online. With government agencies running mass surveillance programs and ISPs collecting, storing, and selling your private data, it often seems like it’s impossible to enjoy a safe and secure online experience, especially on Kodi.

The good news is you can protect yourself from these invasions of privacy by using a reliable and trusted VPN. Virtual private networks create a tunnel between you and the internet by encrypting every packet of data that leaves your device. No one can spy on your activity or see what content you’re accessing, and it’s nearly impossible for anyone to discover your true identity, as well.

In addition to these benefits, VPNs also come with a few extra features to make your online life a little more exciting:

• Defeat region locks for unlimited movie streams from any country in the world.
• Access Kodi add-ons securely without triggering ISP warning messages.
• Bypass censorship firewalls for completely open access to the internet.
• Secure your smartphone for safe internet access on public Wi-Fi

NordVPN – Best for Streaming Kodi Music

NordVPN is practically tailor-made to improve the Kodi experience. It installs easily on all the same devices most commonly chosen by Kodi users (like Firestick, Android TV boxes, iOS tablets, and more), and features a sleek, intuitive interface that works like it should, then gets out of your way.

But it’s more than just another pretty app; NordVPN is the world’s strongest online privacy solution, and it solves some of the most critical problems facing Kodi users. For example, ISPs take a dim view of Kodi in general, and will aggressively throttle your connection if they detect its signature traffic. But with NordVPN’s military-grade 256-bit AES encryption, you completely block all third-party snooping out of your connection. Thus, your ISP is powerless to throttle or otherwise dampen your streaming experience.

Moreover, NordVPN offers a network of more than 5,800 servers in 59 countries, giving you reliable access to previously geoblocked content from all over the world. Want to access American streaming sites like Spotify from censored countries like China? That’s totally doable. Or, if you’re hankering for some Bollywood–simply connect to an Indian server and let NordVPN take care of the rest. It’s that easy, and it’s cheap to boot. NordVPN truly respects your right to privacy, even enshrining it in company policy with a strict no-logging guarantee.

Read our full NordVPN review.

Add the Music Section to the Kodi Home Menu

What do you do if you don’t see Music on the main menu? Add it! Kodi’s open-source nature means almost everything can be customized, including the navigation bar. Some themes and builds move or even remove Music from the main screen, but you can always add it back by following the guides below.

First, Change to the Default Skin

If you’re using a skin other than Kodi’s default “Estuary”, you might have to go through a different process to add Music to your main menu. It would be impossible to provide detailed instructions for every Kodi skin out there, so you’re better off switching back to the vanilla skin, then adding the Music sub-section manually.

Follow the steps below to restore Kodi’s theme to its default look and feel. If you’re already using Estuary, skip to the next section.

1. Go to Kodi’s main menu and select the gear icon.
2. Choose Interface Settings
3. Select Skin at the top.
4. On the right, click where it says “Skin”. A new window will pop up.
5. Choose Estuary, which is Kodi’s default skin.
6. Confirm your choice, then restart Kodi.

Toggle the Menu Items

With Estuary as your active skin, it’s time to jump in and turn on the Music menu. Start by going to the main screen and selecting the gear icon on the left. This will take you to Kodi’s core settings menu. Choose the Interface icon, then make sure Skin is selected on the left. Look to the right and you’ll see an option titled – Configure skin… Choose this and you’ll see the current theme’s settings page.

There should only be a few items on the left to choose from. Pick Main menu items to edit what’s available on Kodi’s main navigation bar. On the right you’ll see all the possible categories of media, everything from Movies to TV shows to Radios. Make sure the slider across from Music is on the right side. It should turn white when it’s active.

Kodi automatically saves any changes you make in this settings menu. Press Escape a few times to go back to the main menu. You should see Music on the left, just below Movies and TV shows.

Add Music to Kodi – First Time Setup

If you’ve never added music to Kodi before, don’t worry, it’s easy. Kodi walks you through the entire process the first time you do it. Think of it like a setup wizard for your albums. The guide below will help you through the initial run step by step.

Step 1 – Music Section

Run Kodi and go to the home menu. You should see Music listed on the nav bar to the left. If you don’t, see the section above for instructions on how to add it. You’ll be greeted with a blank screen with just one option. Click Add music… and Kodi will open up a new window.

In the Add music source window you have two options: browse for your music folder, or type it in manually. Most people will want to simply browse for their songs, so click that button on the right. Navigate to the folder where you store your music and confirm your selection.

Step 2 – Directory Scanning

Kodi will add the directory in the source window. Give it a name in the box at the bottom, then click OK. Kodi will confirm that you want to add the media to your Kodi library. Choose Yes to proceed with the scan, or click No to go back and change folders.

Kodi will take a few moments to scan and organize your library. This could take several minutes if you have a huge collection of songs, but most people won’t have to wait that long.

Step 3 – Browsing

Once Kodi has catalogued your albums and songs, you can access content from the main Music menu. You’ll have access to sorting options such as Recently Added, Artists, or Singles. You can also browse genres or let Kodi pick something at random.

Adding New Music Sources to Kodi

If you already have songs in your library, the process for adding new content is a little different than above. Kodi still keeps things pretty simple, fortunately, so you can add new music sources and start listening with just a few steps.

Step 1 – Music Categories

Start by going to Kodi’s home menu, then enter the Music sub-section. You should be greeted with your library displayed with album artwork in a tidy grid. At the top is a set of smaller icons labeled Categories. Scroll to the right and you’ll see one named Files. Click to enter the music management area.

Next you’ll see a list of all your current music sources, which is usually simply a collection of the folders on your device that you’ve added to the library. At the bottom is an Add music… option. Click this. You may need to scroll down to find it.

You’ll be greeted with Kodi’s familiar sources screen. You have two options here, including browsing for content or manually typing in directories. The best choice is to browse for your music folder manually. Click the button and navigate to the folder that holds your song collection.

Step 2 – Scanning and Listening

When you add a new source you should give it a descriptive name. Type something in the box at the bottom of the source menu, then click OK. Kodi will confirm adding the content to your library. Click Yes, then sit back and let the software scan your new content.

Most people won’t have to wait more than a few moments for Kodi to index their entire library of albums. Once it’s complete, you’ll be able to browse and listen to anything you like with a couple of quick clicks.

Extend and Manage Your Kodi Music Library

Once you have your albums added to the library, the real fun begins. Kodi offers some easy tools that let you add, remove, modify, or supplement your songs with just a few clicks. Below are some of the most popular tasks Kodi users engage in after filling their library with music.

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Install Music Add-ons for Kodi

If your saved music selection isn’t big enough, Kodi offers a wide variety of options to expand your library to include streaming content from the web. In most cases you don’t even need to sign up for any new services, just open Kodi, install the add-on, sit back and enjoy.

We’ve collected some of the best music add-ons for Kodi in one convenient location. Browse the list and install whatever you like! It’s also a good idea to check out ThunderStruck, one of the most popular music streaming add-ons in the Kodi ecosystem. And if you have a large library of songs, consider checking out the IMVDb Kodi add-on to organize, tag, manage, and stream your collection with ease.

Removing Music Sources from Kodi

Go to Kodi’s home menu and choose the Music section. Navigate right in the Categories icons until you see Files. A list of your current music sources will appear. Highlight the music you want to remove and open Kodi’s context menu. If you’re using Kodi on a desktop device you can right click, otherwise try using your device’s alt-click icon or button feature.

On the context menu simply select Remove source. Kodi will ask to confirm the removal. Click Yes and the music will automatically be removed from your installation. Don’t worry, the files themselves won’t be deleted, just the listing within Kodi itself.

Re-Scan Music into Kodi

Once you’ve got a few local sources set up in Kodi, your music library will start to grow. If you add or remove files within those folders you may need to tell Kodi to manually rescan the directories to update its listings. Most of the time this takes place in the background when you launch Kodi, but in case it doesn’t, manually activating it only takes a second.

From Kodi’s home menu, choose the Music section. Navigate the Categories icons until you see Files. Your current music sources will appear below. Highlight the directory you want to re-scan and open Kodi’s context menu. If you’re using a mouse and keyboard all you have to do is right click. If you’re on another device, try its alt-click icon or options feature.

Inside the context menu you’ll see an option called Scan item to library. Click this, then click Yes when Kodi asks if you want to re-scan existing tags. This is a good practice to maintain accurate information in your Kodi library. If you have a huge collection of albums, you may want to skip it to save time.

Kodi will start the music re-scan right away. It should complete after a few moments, then you’re free to listen!

Conclusion

Got your music library prepped and ready? Kodi is one of the smartest media center apps on the market. It makes short work of large libraries and unsorted clouds of files. Even if your songs are poorly tagged or thrown into a single directory without organization, Kodi can help keep everything straight, easy to see, and easy to access.

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