I use MPD to stream music, but noticed that I often could not get any sound.  I finally figured out that if I quit the Chrome web browser, then playback would continue.This is the relevant section of my mpd.conf file,audio_output {    type        alsa    name        ma Device    mixer_type      software    # optional    dsd_usb         yes}It is also the case that if MPD is playing music, then Chrome can't play any type of video file - I click play on a youtube video and it will hang until I pause MPD.  Then when Chrome is playing the video, the output of a fuser -fv /dev/snd/* command is                      USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND/dev/snd/controlC0:  jason      2085 F.... pulseaudio/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   jason      2085 F...m pulseaudioThe pcmC0D0p appears to be Chrome, and controlC0 is MPD.  Sometimes playback on MPD will continue when I stop the video, but sometimes the pcmC0D0p will stay active until I quit Chrome.  Bottom line, MPD will not play while pcmC0D0p is active.
MPD and Chrome can't both play audio at the same time
chrome;alsa;pulseaudio;mpd
To be able to use PulseAudio's mechanism of sharing the sound device, all applications must use PulseAudio.You have to configure MPD to use PulseAudio.