Ask HN: Alternatives to Apple Music App? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Alternatives to Apple Music App?

14 pointsraasdnil19 comments

Today was the last straw, Apple Music would not allow me to search for a song in my own library, "helping" me to subscribe to Apple Music subscription to listen to a song that is physically already on my computer for a "superior listening experience"

Over the years Apple Music (RIP iTunes) has gone from a critical piece of beloved software to a complete mess. Search now actively drives you to Apple Music subscription, old playlists won't sync to my phone, my library that used to be a carefully maintained list of songs I love has become a mess with incorrect album art, album names and collections.

Is there something that gives us what iTunes was 8-9 years ago that I can export my data and go to? I'll even re-rip the hundreds of CDs I have if it means I can properly get back in control of my music listening experience and sync both between my desktop and phone?

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I just want Apple Music to stop fucking opening when it detects bluetooth headphones. I do not and will not ever use Apple Music on my work machine (M1 Macbook "Pro") and there's no way to get rid of it or stop this behavior without command line hacking.

Here, pal: https://github.com/tombonez/noTunes

But yeah, it sucks that there's no way to turn it off without moving things around.

MacOS has gotten really annoying now, the amount of tweaks needed to get the 'magic' out of the way resembles Windows in the mid-00s.

Go to phone Settings -> Music -> toggle off Apple Music.

Boom no more annoying pop-ups and it defaults to Your Library in search.

I subscribe to the (under-rated) iTunes Match service [0] which matches all your music in your library with the Apple catalog version and syncs it across all your devices. It will also 'upgrade' poor rips to the official DRM-free AAC 256kbit version. Turn on “Sync Library” setting and it syncs with the desktop Music.app fairly seamlessly.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146

Aren’t all of these DRMed versions that will stop working when you stop paying?

Nope, the songs that match with your files are DRM-free, possible to copy and open the Apple catalog versions in Audacity just fine.

More details: https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/420ab399-c6...

I can recommend Swinsian https://swinsian.com

It's like classic iTunes. It worked very well when I used it a couple years ago.

In another HN thread I found a link to https://barrowclift.me/post/fourth-annual-ios-music-player-s... - very helpful for future reference.

Thanks all for the answers!

  re-rip the hundreds of CDs

It's probably less hassle to just download them. The Soulseek (https://www.slsknet.org) network is still huge (https://www.reddit.com/r/Soulseek), albeit so old that most of the internet has forgotten about it.

he has the files already, there is no need to download or re-rip. If he ripped them as ALAC (Apple Lossless) then he might want to convert them to FLAC though.

That's true.

To be honest, my comment arguably was a thread-hijacking: I was eager to take "re-rip the hundreds of CDs" literally because it's an excuse to remind the community that Soulseek exists.

I'm not involved with the project; it's just a gem on the internet which is gradually vanishing from the public consciousness.

Also, I couldn't find a way to preview a song to see whether it's one I want to buy. Searching for the song works, but when I press the play arrow to preview it, I'm prompted to join Apple Music. Canceling that prompt just returns to the search results, so there's no way to hear the song!

> Apple Music would not allow me to search for a song in my own library

Yeah, absurdly the Search field on the left just queries stores. To find your own music you have to activate the Filter field, option is in the View menu. Also absurdly, the option doesn't stick.

> Yeah, absurdly the Search field on the left just queries stores.

That's only half true.

If you search something using that left search field, a button group on the top right appears where you switch between store and local library.

It's just that this button group is bugged and only appears on the first search. So if it doesn't appear restart Music.app and try again.

I hear it's fixed in Ventura though.

Ah, thanks for the correction.

What an embarrassing bug.

I wish there was a FOSS alternative to iTunes on iOS, with good UX. Would be so awesome.

Winamp is coming back out!

But also maybe create a Plex server and store everything there?

Also, why can’t two people share playlists and BOTH edit (add/remove/reorder) it? Sure you can share it omnidirectionally, but that’s not that useful as collaboration.

I have exactly the same complaint. Apple’s constant rent seeking is cheesy to say the least.

I moved to “Cs Music Player” on iOS.

It just plays my music and that’s it.

Plex might be an option. They’ve a mobile client and all the stuff is on your servers.

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