4 ms·

Show HN: I built a better music app for mac for people who buy music

19 points by edwellbrook 5y ago

jibbers 5y ago
Always good to see new apps for those of us who still buy and manage our own music files. Your app looks fantastic. Any chance it will gain support for macOS versions before Big Sur?
- sentientforest 5y ago
  I was scrolling down the page, thinking, "this application looks great, I have wanted something to replace iTunes for years. It plays FLAC _and_ ALAC! I would love to pay money for this." But I don't currently have a mac running anything later than Mojave, 10.14. And the primary machine I would want to host music on can't upgrade past it (2010 Mac Pro, 12 cores, 64 GB Memory, 4GB GTX 770, 4 easily-swapple internal hard drives, all in spent under $1,000, used, parts and all - not a bad deal, would anyone agree?). Of course, I'll probably be moving it to Linux at some point after Apple gives up on 10.14. I'm a very atypical case these days - I don't stream music, I actually buy CDs sometimes (often cheaper on Amazon shipped to your door giving you a hard copy backup and freedom vs buying the digital version they offer). I like to repair and upgrade older hardware. This kind of music player is right up my alley. I'm not trying to complain. This is awesome. Maybe I'll buy it anyway just for whenever I get around to upgrading my macbook.
  - happynacho 5y ago
    I wanna chime in to say that's a great Mac. You could use a patcher to get it to Catalina but I definitely wouldn't go any higher. That will extend software support life a bit more.
- edwellbrook 5y ago
  Honestly, it's unlikely. I'm gauging interest, and while there is some, I have to weigh it against the extra dev time (and other things like compatibility, support etc). I'm just one designer/developer, so I'll need to see fairly substantial demand before I can commit to it. Not what you wanted to hear, I know, but hopefully it makes sense!
tailspin2019 5y ago
This looks awesome. I'm a fan of electronic music (house, trance, drum and bass, EDM...) and consume the majority of my music these days via podcasts put out by various DJs/producers. I've often felt that people like me are not catered for very well with the current crop of apps. There are no "music focussed" podcast apps (at least that I'm aware of) and since Apple pulled podcasts out of iTunes back in the day, my music listening experience feels very siloed. I go to Apple Music for albums, and go to whatever my current flavour of podcast app is for the latest DJ mixes. So... question to the developer - have you considered incorporating podcasts into this app? Specifically music-focussed ones... I'd love to have an alternative to Apple's Podcasts apps (which I dislike, but haven't found anything better at least on Mac). On my iPhone I used Overcast specifically to organise and listen to my music/mix podcasts, and PocketCasts for all other non-music based podcasts. (I listen to a LOT of podcasts, so putting all the music ones in a separate app helps me keep things organised).
- edwellbrook 5y ago
  Thanks! Can relate to feeling like there aren't apps out there that really focus on this specific problem. Happy to see Doppler resonate with a lot of people today. I've thought about incorporating music-focused podcasts into Doppler. There's a lot of really high quality ones out there (e.g. Resident Advisor). It's not something planned for the short term, but it's definitely on my radar. Good to know I'm not alone in thinking it would be useful!
- bredren 5y ago
  SoundCloud is good for sets still as far as I can tell. Daftcloud is an indie dev paid MacOS app that wraps SoundCloud without the high resource overhead found in soundcleod.
  - tailspin2019 5y ago
    Daftcloud looks v interesting. I've also experimented with DI.FM recently too.
    - 5y ago
happynacho 5y ago
A couple of questions and I'll buy it. 1) Does it feature 2-way sync? ie changes on playlist/data/playcounts on mobile will also change on the desktop. 2) On mobile, when browsing inside a single artist, do you have the option to see all songs by a particular artist? Apple stock Music only allows by Artist then single Album and I hate it.
- edwellbrook 5y ago
  1 — This first version is just Mac -> iPhone (Same as iTunes). 2 way sync is in development and I'm hoping to have it out within the next couple of months. Playlists, liked songs, play history would be included in the sync! 2 — Not right now, but please drop me a quick email (https://brushedtype.co/contact/ https://brushedtype.co/contact/) and I'll let you know when it's out!
fattybob 5y ago
yup, can agree, meeting all my needs so far, can recommend
timothyduong 5y ago
As someone who has been archiving my music (FLAC) and looking for the right player that isn’t too expensive, this has been a godsend. The existing market for Lossless playback and library management for macos is pretty abysmal. I’ve been testing many (Audirvana, clementine, swinisian, Vox) and so many of have such basic feature sets (vox) that don’t meet my needs or are bloated as hell and run like a dog on a well speced 2020 16MBP.. Keen to try and review this one!
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

19 points by edwellbrook 5y ago

Always good to see new apps for those of us who still buy and manage our own music files. Your app looks fantastic. Any chance it will gain support for macOS versions before Big Sur?

sentientforest 5y ago
I was scrolling down the page, thinking, "this application looks great, I have wanted something to replace iTunes for years. It plays FLAC _and_ ALAC! I would love to pay money for this." But I don't currently have a mac running anything later than Mojave, 10.14. And the primary machine I would want to host music on can't upgrade past it (2010 Mac Pro, 12 cores, 64 GB Memory, 4GB GTX 770, 4 easily-swapple internal hard drives, all in spent under $1,000, used, parts and all - not a bad deal, would anyone agree?). Of course, I'll probably be moving it to Linux at some point after Apple gives up on 10.14. I'm a very atypical case these days - I don't stream music, I actually buy CDs sometimes (often cheaper on Amazon shipped to your door giving you a hard copy backup and freedom vs buying the digital version they offer). I like to repair and upgrade older hardware. This kind of music player is right up my alley. I'm not trying to complain. This is awesome. Maybe I'll buy it anyway just for whenever I get around to upgrading my macbook.
- happynacho 5y ago
  I wanna chime in to say that's a great Mac. You could use a patcher to get it to Catalina but I definitely wouldn't go any higher. That will extend software support life a bit more.
edwellbrook 5y ago
Honestly, it's unlikely. I'm gauging interest, and while there is some, I have to weigh it against the extra dev time (and other things like compatibility, support etc). I'm just one designer/developer, so I'll need to see fairly substantial demand before I can commit to it. Not what you wanted to hear, I know, but hopefully it makes sense!

tailspin2019 5y ago

This looks awesome. I'm a fan of electronic music (house, trance, drum and bass, EDM...) and consume the majority of my music these days via podcasts put out by various DJs/producers. I've often felt that people like me are not catered for very well with the current crop of apps. There are no "music focussed" podcast apps (at least that I'm aware of) and since Apple pulled podcasts out of iTunes back in the day, my music listening experience feels very siloed. I go to Apple Music for albums, and go to whatever my current flavour of podcast app is for the latest DJ mixes. So... question to the developer - have you considered incorporating podcasts into this app? Specifically music-focussed ones... I'd love to have an alternative to Apple's Podcasts apps (which I dislike, but haven't found anything better at least on Mac). On my iPhone I used Overcast specifically to organise and listen to my music/mix podcasts, and PocketCasts for all other non-music based podcasts. (I listen to a LOT of podcasts, so putting all the music ones in a separate app helps me keep things organised).

edwellbrook 5y ago
Thanks! Can relate to feeling like there aren't apps out there that really focus on this specific problem. Happy to see Doppler resonate with a lot of people today. I've thought about incorporating music-focused podcasts into Doppler. There's a lot of really high quality ones out there (e.g. Resident Advisor). It's not something planned for the short term, but it's definitely on my radar. Good to know I'm not alone in thinking it would be useful!
bredren 5y ago
SoundCloud is good for sets still as far as I can tell. Daftcloud is an indie dev paid MacOS app that wraps SoundCloud without the high resource overhead found in soundcleod.
- tailspin2019 5y ago
  Daftcloud looks v interesting. I've also experimented with DI.FM recently too.
  - 5y ago

happynacho 5y ago

A couple of questions and I'll buy it. 1) Does it feature 2-way sync? ie changes on playlist/data/playcounts on mobile will also change on the desktop. 2) On mobile, when browsing inside a single artist, do you have the option to see all songs by a particular artist? Apple stock Music only allows by Artist then single Album and I hate it.

edwellbrook 5y ago
1 — This first version is just Mac -> iPhone (Same as iTunes). 2 way sync is in development and I'm hoping to have it out within the next couple of months. Playlists, liked songs, play history would be included in the sync! 2 — Not right now, but please drop me a quick email (https://brushedtype.co/contact/ https://brushedtype.co/contact/) and I'll let you know when it's out!

fattybob 5y ago

yup, can agree, meeting all my needs so far, can recommend

timothyduong 5y ago

As someone who has been archiving my music (FLAC) and looking for the right player that isn’t too expensive, this has been a godsend. The existing market for Lossless playback and library management for macos is pretty abysmal. I’ve been testing many (Audirvana, clementine, swinisian, Vox) and so many of have such basic feature sets (vox) that don’t meet my needs or are bloated as hell and run like a dog on a well speced 2020 16MBP.. Keen to try and review this one!

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]