Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#21

Post by gpm » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 4:35 AM UTC

dewey wrote: post #20

If you are looking for a “old school iTunes” kind of player there’s also https://swinsian.com/

The Readme mentions that app under "Motivation"

> Motivation

> I have a large collection of music files that I’ve gathered over the years, and I missed having a good offline music player on macOS. I used Swinsian (great app, by the way!), but it hasn't been updated in years. I also missed features commonly found in streaming apps; so I built Petrichor to scratch that itch and learn Swift and macOS app development along the way!

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#22

Post by darthcircuit » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 4:38 AM UTC

MangoToupe wrote: post #19

darthcircuit wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything is better than that dumpster fire. They changed the name but the ui is still straight out of the early 2000s. It’s an exercise in frustration to find the music you’re looking for, and if you subscribe to Apple Music, the radio suggestions rarely match what mood you set. I was listening to some early 2000s alternative rock today and then randomly in the middle of my radio station it started playing a kids fre…

> Anything is better than that dumpster fire. Nonsense, you could be using Spotify.

I’m going to try giving up on all of them and just growing my local collection monthly instead.

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#23

Post by Cockbrand » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 4:43 AM UTC

programmarchy wrote: post #13

This sounds like a breath of fresh air as a disenchanted Spotify user. My only hesitation is that I’ve lost touch with collecting music. I used to rip CDs and download music and curate a library etc, but I’ve lost my collection and collecting habits since adopting streaming. How do people collect music nowadays? Is there a legit way (fairly compensating artists) to do it?

Bandcamp comes to mind. Not sure about artists who aren't on Bandcamp, though.

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#24

Post by zdw » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 4:46 AM UTC

Any thoughts on syncing against an external music library that uses the Subsonic API (like Navidrome or similar) so an offline/"away from home" laptop could still listen to music?

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#25

Post by 8mobile » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 4:51 AM UTC

Congrats for Petrichor, really impressive work! I love the clean, modern UI. I’m currently using Swinsian (still solid in many ways), but Petrichor feels like a breath of fresh air, especially for those of us who still care about local libraries. I truly hope you’ll bring this to iOS. Thanks

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#26

Post by newscracker » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 4:58 AM UTC

dlivingston wrote: post #9

Beautiful app, well done. Pleaaaaaaaase make this available on iOS. Bonus points if the desktop version could do syncing with my iPhone. I could finally treat my iPhone like an iPod!

I haven’t done a detailed comparison, but there’s been a free app called Decoupled [1] on iOS that supports various formats and loading music into it. The app hasn’t been updated in about four years though.

[1]: https://decoupled.app/

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#27

Post by thek3nger » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

gpm wrote: post #21

dewey wrote: post #20

If you are looking for a “old school iTunes” kind of player there’s also https://swinsian.com/

The Readme mentions that app under "Motivation" > Motivation > I have a large collection of music files that I’ve gathered over the years, and I missed having a good offline music player on macOS. I used Swinsian (great app, by the way!), but it hasn't been updated in years. I also missed features commonly found in streaming apps; so I built Petrichor to scratch that itch and learn Swift and macOS app development alo…

For the people interested, Swinsian has a beta version that is actively developed. I got an update a couple of weeks ago. So it is not abandoned.

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#28

Post by newscracker » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 5:02 AM UTC

Two suggestions, if you have the time to look at the effort and difficulty to implement them:

> P.S. I plan publish it on Homebrew soon.

1. Please consider publishing on MacPorts too.

2. Please consider supporting m4b audiobooks (it’s a different file extension from the common m4a, but also supports chapters).

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#29

Post by thek3nger » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 5:04 AM UTC

programmarchy wrote: post #13

This sounds like a breath of fresh air as a disenchanted Spotify user. My only hesitation is that I’ve lost touch with collecting music. I used to rip CDs and download music and curate a library etc, but I’ve lost my collection and collecting habits since adopting streaming. How do people collect music nowadays? Is there a legit way (fairly compensating artists) to do it?

I buy from Bandcamp and Qobuz (especially for classical and artists that are not on Bandcamp).

Re: Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

#30

Post by integricho » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 5:11 AM UTC

For me, the ideal music player UI started and ended with Winamp, and I never liked any of the higher level ones, no need for music libraries etc. Recursive directory scan, delete what is not needed, flat playlist, can save any, the end. Also, the minimalistic window of Winamp is just perfect.