a solution for accessing your music collection from any computer with internet access.

a back-end for supplying the player of your choice (with http streaming support) with all of your music.

both a front-end and back-end for various Localplay options meaning you can use Ampache to control mpd as well as supply mpd with the music it is to play.

a media converter. Ampache is designed to keep your media accessible to play anywhere, it doesn't provide options to convert between formats unless transcoding is required to play in your player of choice.

a universal player. Ampache doesn't use codecs. It simply streams the music to your player. If set up properly, it can convert music on the fly in case you use a player that doesn't read a specific format. For instance, if your player doesn't support FLAC, Ampache can transcode it on the fly to mp3 or any other format.