# Funkwhale Building an Audio Federation > [! note]- > The content of this page is generated by audio/video transcription and text transformation from the content and links of this source. Source: [https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6622-funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6622-funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/) <video src="https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-6622-funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation.av1.webm" controls></video> ## Summary & Highlights: **Funkwhale Presentation Overview** This session presents Funkwhale, an open-source audio streaming platform focusing on interoperability within the social web. The presentation emphasizes the use of the ActivityPub protocol and centralized services for music metadata and recommendations. **Interoperability and Centralized Services** Funkwhale leverages ActivityPub for sharing audio metadata and has developed new ActivityPub objects to enhance audio federation. Centralized services like MusicBrainz and Internet Archive are used to ensure consistency and avoid duplicates. This approach aids in building a robust music recommendation system by aggregating listening data. **Challenges and Future Directions** The project faces challenges in achieving full decentralization, particularly in genre taxonomy and economic models. While Funkwhale is not a music distributor, it aims to bridge gaps between centralized services and decentralized protocols. The session invites collaboration and ideas to enhance interoperability and develop a decentralized recommendation system. ## Importance for an eco-social transformation Funkwhale's approach to building an audio federation is significant for eco-social transformation by promoting decentralized and open-source solutions. This project addresses sustainable and ethical issues by reducing dependency on major tech companies (GAFAM) and fostering community-driven platforms. Eco-social designers can leverage Funkwhale's interoperability methods, like ActivityPub, to create inclusive and decentralized web services. Challenges include finding sustainable economic models and overcoming technical barriers in genre taxonomy and music distribution. ## Slides: | | | | --- | --- | | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_001.jpg\|300]] | The first slide introduces the concept of audio federation, highlighting contact information and links to Funkwhale's main and social sites. It sets the stage for understanding how Funkwhale aims to integrate with other platforms and communities. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_002.jpg\|300]] | This slide provides an overview of Funkwhale's current features and future goals. It discusses new release features, the project's direction, interoperability challenges, and the necessity of some centralized services for economic and political reasons. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_003.jpg\|300]] | The third slide likely delves into the technical aspects of Funkwhale's implementation, focusing on the integration of ActivityPub and other protocols to enhance audio metadata sharing and user interaction within the platform. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_004.jpg\|300]] | This slide discusses the current state of Funkwhale instances, detailing how audio metadata and files are managed. It highlights the use of ActivityPub for metadata sharing and the importance of centralized services like MusicBrainz for metadata consistency. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_005.jpg\|300]] | Upcoming social features are outlined, including new ActivityPub objects for listenings, playlists, and favorites. The slide emphasizes Funkwhale's unique implementation of these objects to enhance user interaction and data sharing across platforms. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_006.jpg\|300]] | Funkwhale's vision for the future centers on improved interoperability to build music recommendation and discovery systems. The slide suggests using collective knowledge from Wikipedia and MusicBrainz for genre definitions and artist descriptions, advocating for a collaborative approach. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_007.jpg\|300]] | This slide addresses the need for some centralization in Funkwhale, particularly for genre definition and listening analysis. It acknowledges the limitations of the social web and the fragile economic model, emphasizing the political aspect of interoperability. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_008.jpg\|300]] | The eighth slide reiterates the theme of audio federation, providing contact information and links to Funkwhale's main and social sites, encouraging collaboration and community engagement. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/preview_009.jpg\|300]] | The final slide likely summarizes the key points of the presentation, reinforcing the call to action for collaboration in building a decentralized audio federation and enhancing interoperability across platforms. ## Links [Video recording (AV1/WebM)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-6622-funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation.av1.webm) [Video recording (MP4)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-6622-funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation.av1.mp4) [Slides](https://fosdem.org/2025/events/attachments/fosdem-2025-6622-funkwhale-presentation-to-audio-federation/slides/238157/Funkwhale_sJhpO5X.pdf)