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I hate "Music", can someone recommend me an App for files I own?

R

rawdawg

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
550
111
Brooklyn
iTunes used to be perfect. Over the years Apple began tweaking it and changing it until now IMO it is garbage. Especially with streaming services being available.

Every time I enter a vehicle car-play immediately starts. I periodically must delete any music on my phone because that is the only work around (even according to Apple whom I called about this issue). Somehow it keeps reappearing. I want it completely off my system.

But.. I have some audio recordings that are not available streaming that I still want to listen to. The problem wit Music is I don't have the convenient 10 second rewind button if I miss something. For a long podcast I need to drag the bar instead and it's impossible to do this without a huge headache.

Are there any apps that allow me to import something I want to hear that also has a convenient 10 second rewind button like Spotify (when listening to their podcasts)?
 
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I use nPlayer on iOS and VLC for macOS. Both seem to do what you're asking.

For VLC I use the keyboard arrow keys and it jumps forwards/backwards 10s.
 
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You mentioned podcasts. I keep my podcast and music on separate apps. I like Overcast and it has a 30 second rewind button but I think you can change the time.

For CarPlay randomly starting the music app other than actually uninstalling the music app you can download a blank song with “a a a” in the name. The lazy way is to buy the song or you can manually create one. This will prevent you from having to hear the first song on the list when your car starts.
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571F56B9-B62F-40C2-9C76-E097F12E9211.jpeg
 
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rawdawg said:
iTunes used to be perfect. Over the years Apple began tweaking it and changing it until now IMO it is garbage. Especially with streaming services being available.

Every time I enter a vehicle car-play immediately starts. I periodically must delete any music on my phone because that is the only work around (even according to Apple whom I called about this issue). Somehow it keeps reappearing. I want it completely off my system.

But.. I have some audio recordings that are not available streaming that I still want to listen to. The problem wit Music is I don't have the convenient 10 second rewind button if I miss something. For a long podcast I need to drag the bar instead and it's impossible to do this without a huge headache.

Are there any apps that allow me to import something I want to hear that also has a convenient 10 second rewind button like Spotify (when listening to their podcasts)?
Click to expand...
I know this doesn't answer your question but I need to vent in agreement. The Itunes or MUSIC or whatever it is now is absolutely terrible. And I'm not difficult. Brutally terrible.
 
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I used to use Vox, which is a great service no doubt about that. Just a bit pricey compared to a Plex lifetime pass but you do get unlimited storage with Vox, so you don't have to worry about maintaining your own (but what the hell, I've already got more than 80TB and I'm always expanding).
Then I used a wide variety of different apps on both macOS and iOS. However, for a while now I've given them all up and just switched over to PlexAmp (I was already a lifetime subscriber anyway), they've definitely improved it a lot over the past while.

As someone who has a considerable collection of losses and Hi-Res music, a mix of purchased and digitised from my vinyl, playback quality is very important to me and that's one area they've really upped their game, but on Mac at least, the PlexAmp app also offers a 10 second skip forwards/backwards feature, which like yourself, I also like to have for listening to tracks from artists I work with.

Plus it gives me the all in one place, access anywhere in the world convenience I like to have for all of my media. One potential sticking point for some people is the need to have a PlexPass subscription, but if you don't mind paying, it's a good option (I'd definitely go for lifetime, it maybe seems a bit of a big outlay to start, but you'll never have to worry about a subscription, price increases or anything else).
 
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You can still use iTunes, even with a new Mac.

Download "Retroactive":
github.com

GitHub - cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive: Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve.

Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve. - ...
github.com github.com
It's free.

Then use it to install a copy of iTunes.
See how that works for you.
 
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T'hain Esh Kelch said:
I am a bit surprised that no one has stepped up and made an iTunes clone. All the playback functionality is built into the OS, so you'd "only" have to whip up an interface
Click to expand...
I believe that (the aforementioned) Swinsian comes pretty close.
Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
Just use VLC
Click to expand...
VLC is like a good Swiss Army knife: it does many things reasonably.
But some - especially Music - not very well.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the application, its format and output support and cross-platform availability. The library management for music leaves much to be desired though, and it often fails to do basic things.
 
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TrueBlou said:
As someone who has a considerable collection of losses and Hi-Res music, a mix of purchased and digitised from my vinyl, playback quality is very important to me and that's one area they've really upped their game,
Click to expand...

Just ran a test on my current favorite hires Tidal album 192kHz 24 bit. Plexamp says that it is playing it at 44 kHz/16 bit? Maybe the best classical recording I've ever heard.

Bernstein Beethoven #9.png
 
HDFan said:
Just ran a test on my current favorite hires Tidal album 192kHz 24 bit. Plexamp says that it is playing it at 44 kHz/16 bit? Maybe the best classical recording I've ever heard.

View attachment 2049507
Click to expand...

I only use Plex for my own media, either purchased or vinyl rips. But with those it’s fine, or at least it reports that it’s playing full quality. In blind tests I’m usually 4 for 5 at noticing the difference (otherwise I wouldn’t bother with Hi-Res, other than for archive purposes maybe). I think Plex, and indeed Emby, are great for media you own and curate yourself, but at this time, less so for anything else.

With Plex and Tidal, you're limited to 'just' Lossless 44/16 FLAC, as Plex does not support MQA, Dolby Atmos, or Sony 360 Audio, and I'm sure Tidal still use MQA for their Hi-Res tracks. (I could be wrong, I've not used it in a while).


iOS:

F51F94E1-C117-4B48-8AD1-35C5FEDD0034.jpeg


macOS:

Screenshot 2022-09-01 at 08.32.40.png
 
Fishrrman said:
You can still use iTunes, even with a new Mac.

Download "Retroactive":
github.com

GitHub - cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive: Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve.

Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve. - ...
github.com github.com
It's free.

Then use it to install a copy of iTunes.
See how that works for you.
Click to expand...
Fantastic!! This is exactly what I’ve wanted for years. Thanks for the link and kudos to the dev.
 
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rawdawg said:
iTunes used to be perfect. Over the years Apple began tweaking it and changing it until now IMO it is garbage. Especially with streaming services being available.

Every time I enter a vehicle car-play immediately starts. I periodically must delete any music on my phone because that is the only work around (even according to Apple whom I called about this issue). Somehow it keeps reappearing. I want it completely off my system.

But.. I have some audio recordings that are not available streaming that I still want to listen to. The problem wit Music is I don't have the convenient 10 second rewind button if I miss something. For a long podcast I need to drag the bar instead and it's impossible to do this without a huge headache.

Are there any apps that allow me to import something I want to hear that also has a convenient 10 second rewind button like Spotify (when listening to their podcasts)?
jccrtv said:
I know this doesn't answer your question but I need to vent in agreement. The Itunes or MUSIC or whatever it is now is absolutely terrible. And I'm not difficult. Brutally terrible.
Click to expand...
When I updated to OS Monterey,Music was loaded by default. More than three quarters of my music is unplayable now. It shows on the screen but when I click on a song it says file not found. Can’t find the files anywhere.
Click to expand...
 
Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
Skill issue lmao
Click to expand...
Organising and playing music shouldn’t require great skills.

VLC‘s caching/buffering/loading of files is just wonky for me:
- Playback every now and then stutters from my external hard drive while in a song. Admittedly, it‘s a „slow“ WD Red NAS drive that aggressively tries to spin down, but other applications don’t exhibit this behaviour as often. Could I tinker with its caching options? Maybe, but I feel I shouldn’t have to for a simple music player.
- Editing / saving of Metadata doesn’t work reliably. Sometimes I begin to type and VLC seems to discard my edits every few seconds (as if it was loading the file and „refreshing“ its metadata from disk. Oh, and „Display, and saving of metadata currently only works while the file is played or paused.“ Until at least not long ago - not sure if this has been improved.
- It doesn‘t handle external file operations gracefully (e.g. if you rename or move a file on repeat playback, it’ll just spawn error messages endlessly)
 
I wish Winamp were an option For Mac :-/

I don’t mind “Music” app usually, but have fond memories of Winamp and would use it (in a windows dual boot or wine-skin) if I was really that bothered by Music.
 
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rawdawg said:
But.. I have some audio recordings that are not available streaming that I still want to listen to. The problem wit Music is I don't have the convenient 10 second rewind button if I miss something. For a long podcast I need to drag the bar instead and it's impossible to do this without a huge headache.
Click to expand...

In Music (on your Mac), all you have to do is select all these recordings in question, press command+i (or right-click and select "Get Info"), then click on Options and check the box that says "Remember playback position". You may have to un-sync all those tracks from your phone and them re-sync them for the change to take effect on your iPhone, but then you'll have the option to skip back or forward 30 seconds when listening to these tracks on your phone.

Screen Shot 2022-09-03 at 1.14.05 PM.png




IMG_A8BEA5495B7C-1.jpeg
 
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