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Ask HN: Alternatives to Apple Music App?

14 points by raasdnil ↗ HN
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?

21 comments

[ 0.19 ms ] story [ 63.1 ms ] thread
gigatexal
Plex might be an option. They’ve a mobile client and all the stuff is on your servers.
thomassmith65 

  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.
Diskutant
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.
thomassmith65
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.

catach
> 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.

Diskutant
> 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.

catach
Ah, thanks for the correction.

What an embarrassing bug.

cpach
I wish there was a FOSS alternative to iTunes on iOS, with good UX. Would be so awesome.
throwaway23236
Winamp is coming back out!

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

Lio
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.

getpost
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!
nudgeee
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

mxrlkn
I can recommend Swinsian https://swinsian.com

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

wmeredith
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.
mickelsen
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.

unstatusthequo
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.