Looking for an uncomplicated Discord status for Apple Music that just works?

I'd like to present Music Presence, a program I have created which integrates with Discord to show off what music you are listening to, which works reliably and offers tons of customizability.

It's available for Mac and Windows and works with any media player! Yes, any media player!

GitHub: https://github.com/ungive/discord-music-presence
Downloads: https://github.com/ungive/discord-music-presence/releases/latest

To keep it short, here are the most notable features:

• Works with Apple Music, iTunes and any other media player (more info)
• Can be toggled and customized to your heart's content, for each media player individually
• It also shows paused media, so you don't even have to play it to have it in your status!
• It always shows the correct cover image, even for local music files. It's magic!
• Trivial to set up, just download it from the release page and install it like any other program. Some media players need additional steps (including iTunes), see the "more info" link above.
• The tray icon always reflects whether the Discord status is active or not
• And a lot more...

In the future there will also be support for media from browsers, scrobbling and Linux releases. There's a lot to come! If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer all of them.

Disclaimer: I am the developer of Music Presence.

Here's also a screenshot of the program and its tray menu:

If anyone is up for testing my new Apple Music client, I would appreciate it, please comment or dm me and I’ll send a TestFlight link. The app has been pending App Store review for a week, I guess they are pretty backed up right now. Looking to get as much feedback as possible before official launch.

Pricing is FREE for most use. For Pro, the pricing is TBD, but there will be a lifetime purchase option so you don’t need yet another subscription. Pro in this TestFlight version is free of course. Pro unlocks smart playlists, folders, Mac bridge, and DJ (although I may make DJ free as well).

TestFlight Link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ZKQwDMN7

Features include:
Browse your full library — your own music + Apple Music
Customizable bottom tabs, startup tab (Playlists, Songs. Artists, Albums, Search/Discover)
Styles/themes selection
DJ, Radio, Discovery modes
Sonos speaker control
Folders, Smart Playlists
Mac Bridge enables full library control and full metadata viewing/editing from iPhones/iPads (just install the Mac version of the app, and you’re good to go!)
and a whole lot more!

I've been building a replacement motherboard for classic iPods. This clip is a 3rd gen iPod streaming Apple Music over WiFi, with the original screen, buttons and clickwheel. The iPod is playing audio to a Bluetooth speaker off camera.

It uses MusicKit on the web. It's so much better than the Spotify API, but it's quite power hungry as it needs a whole web browser running to work.

A bit about the board:
- It's a drop-in replacement for the iPod 3rd/4th gen. No soldering, and it's fully reversible.
- It uses all the original iPod parts except the battery and hard drive, so it still looks and feels like a classic iPod.
- WiFi for streaming, plus Bluetooth audio for wireless headphones and speakers.
- A HiFi DAC (CS43131) through the original headphone jack.

Also working on a lower power board that only does offline playback but adds WiFi and Bluetooth.

Still working on stations and radio, but so far it works great.

Sign up for updates to learn when it's ready: https://www.crowdsupply.com/certain-things/sprout-pi-mainboard

More demos here: certainthings.studio/sprout

Full disclosure, I'm the developer, Crankshaft is my app.

I've been an Apple Music subscriber for many years, and built this to fix the two things that always bugged me: shuffle quietly replays the same handful of songs, and recommendations go stale fast. Crankshaft sits on top of your existing Apple Music library and catalog through MusicKit, so it needs an active Apple Music subscription, and it runs your music differently.

How it works

Instead of relying entirely on what you say you like, it reads what you actually do. It weighs the songs you finish, the timing of your skips (bailing at 8 seconds is very different from bailing at 2 minutes, and it treats them differently), and a deliberate crank of the volume, which it reads as a strong "I love this." Skips that look like a distraction or a bad moment get set aside so they don't poison your profile.

From that it does two things base shuffle doesn't:

• It reaches deep into your own library, surfacing the songs you own but never hear instead of cycling the same fifteen favorites.
• It reaches outward into the catalog around the artists you actually love, so discovery keeps opening instead of going stale.

Controls power users might care about

• A Discovery Level dial, from safe to Explorer, so you set how far it wanders.
• Filters like Studio Only (skip live versions) and No Remix.
• A "Shadow Ledger" that shows your entire collection scored, so you can see exactly what it has learned, search it, or jail a track.
• One-tap banning for songs you never want to hear again.
• A Parent mode that filters songs labeled by Apple as "Explicit" and keeps that as a separate ledger.
• Road Trip Mode that pre-loads music for areas with no signal.
• (EDITED): Full CarPlay integration (though I will admit that car head unit volume controls don't communicate with Apple Music, so that led to the creation of the crank button - fire emoji.)

Privacy

Everything it learns lives on your phone. No account, no tracking, nothing leaves your device. You can export your whole profile as a JSON file or wipe it anytime. It's completely free, I'm not charging a subscription, and I'm not selling data.

Honest limitations

It's built for iPhone, it's a first release, and it needs an Apple Music subscription since it plays through your library and the catalog. This is really for people who already live in Apple Music, like I do. If that's you, it makes the thing you already pay for and love work noticeably better over time, at no extra cost.

I built this solo over eight months and listened to nothing but it the whole time, so I'd genuinely love this community's feedback, especially the picky kind. Tell me what's missing or what feels off. I know that this still has imperfections and I have blind spots. I plan to be around for the near future (and the next few days, as time permits) to answer questions, so please don't hesitate.

This was a labor of love and side project, and I'm thrilled with how it came out - I hope you like it!

Site: https://crankshaft.fm

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759019414

(EDIT: Added CarPlay functionality/integration)

EDIT (Aug 13): Mods, if updating the original post like this is discouraged, just say the word and I'll pull it, no issue. I don't plan to update continuously, but wanted to post this for folks who are following for updates.

Quick update for anyone landing here:

1.1 is live now. It's a stability and polish pass that cleans up the rough edges people flagged after launch. Thank you to everyone who reported things, it genuinely helped.

1.2 is already built and in review, and it comes straight from your feedback in this thread. It adds a "Save to Apple Music" menu: save your recent picks as a playlist, add them to a playlist you already have, save songs to your library, or capture whatever's playing. The now-playing share button also creates a real Apple Music link you can send to anyone.

That was the whole point from the start. Crankshaft is meant to work with Apple Music, not wall you off from it.

Still free, still no data collected, still entirely on device. Thanks for the support, this has been wild to watch.

I made an concept for AI songs and AI artists, getting a AI tag, that everybody knows if a song is made fully with AI etc.

My idea:

The tag not only serves to provide information, but is also suitable for a setting that allows you to show or hide AI songs that have this tag.

Rules:

Each label/distributor must indicate whether a song was entirely developed with AI in order for Apple Music to display it.

Note:

I made two versions showing where the tag might be and what it would look like.

And a version on the artist page.

I hope my idea is understandable :)

Hey folks!

Hezel is getting an exciting iOS 18 update that now lets you quickly back up your music with controls on the Lock Screen & Control Center!

There’s also a gorgeous new app icon that is dark & tint mode ready!

Here’s my favorite part: You can now configure your Action Button to start a backup on Hezel!

If you’re looking to upgrade to Hezel Ultra, there are new options which I wrote about over here.

Check it out!

Hey r/AppleMusic fam,

I fell in love with Apple Music in early 2024, especially its clean and minimalist interface - it's just beautiful.

But here's the thing that bugged me: whenever I wanted to share my music with friends or on social media, the sharing options felt... boring? Limited? Like, we have this gorgeous app but the sharing experience is just meh.

So I thought, "What if I could create beautiful posters from Apple Music links?"

Maybe it's a super niche need, but I figured if I wanted it, maybe others would too. With the help of AI tools, I spent 6 months building TuneShift.

How it works:

1. Copy any Apple Music link
2. Open TuneShift and paste
3. Boom! Beautiful poster ready to share

The poster feature is 100% FREE. No ads. No catches. I just wanted to make something cool for the community.

I'd love it if someone actually finds this useful. Even just one person using it would make those 6 months worth it.

I've been an Apple Music user for years and my two biggest frustrations have always been: shuffle isn't actually random, and Apple Music has no equivalent to Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect for playing on other devices without audio degradation.

So I built Real Shuffle.

The shuffle problem: Apple's shuffle favors certain songs. If you have 6,000+ songs, you'll keep hearing the same ~200. Real Shuffle uses an algorithm to give truly equal probability for every song. No AI engagement algorithms or any of that other crap.

The remote playback / Hi-Fi problem: With the companion app Remote Shuffle, you can control playback on a second device (Apple TV, iPad, Mac, another iPhone) over your local network.

The remote device plays the music directly from Apple Music (no AirPlay, no Bluetooth compression).

Any combination works:

- iPhone → Apple TV (perfect for your living room Hi-Fi)

- iPhone → Mac (great for desktop speakers or a DAC)

- iPhone → iPad

- iPhone → another iPhone

- iPad → Apple TV

- Mac → Apple TV

- Mac → iPad

- ...you get the idea. Any Apple device can control any other.

Other features:

- Artist/Album quick filters — like what's playing? Shuffle only that artist or album

- Explore — search the full Apple Music catalog and add songs to your library

- Playback history — keeps track of your listening session so you can revisit what played

- Song details — date added, composer, year, and more

- iPhone, iPad & Mac, 9 languages

Both apps are on the App Store. Would love feedback im still working for improvements and connection stability

https://apps.apple.com/ar/app/real-shuffle/id6755942832
https://apps.apple.com/ar/app/remote-shuffle/id6759857268

Hey folks,

Developer of Denim & Hezel here! I'm sharing some awesome Apple Music apps that've been updated for iOS 26:

1. Marvis Pro - A beautiful Apple Music client for power users
2. Denim - A fun playlist cover art app
3. MusicBox - A delightful app to save music for later
4. MusicHarbor - An app for tracking new music releases
5. NowPlaying - An app for discovering new music
6. SongCapsule Quiz - A music quiz app
7. Dynamic Lyrics - A dope live lyrics app
8. Playlisty - A playlist transfer tool
9. BopQuiz - A social music quiz app

Hope you like them! Let me know if I'm missing anything.

Cheers

Jelly Music is finally live in the App Store, thank you to everyone who helped test these last few weeks!

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jelly-music-by-jellylabs/id6800010152

Pricing is FREE for most use. Pro is available for a one-time or yearly payment and unlocks Mac Bridge Sync, smart playlists, a duplicate song finder, and additional Songs page scopes (show songs in your library vs library + playlists vs only playlists).

Features include:
Browse your full library — your own music + Apple Music
Customizable bottom tabs, startup tab (Playlists, Songs. Artists, Albums, Search/Discover)
Styles/themes selection
DJ, Radio, Discovery modes
Sonos speaker control
Folders, Smart Playlists
Mac Bridge enables full library control and full metadata viewing/editing from iPhones/iPads (just install the Mac version of the app, and you’re good to go!)
and a whole lot more!

A lot of new stuff will be coming out in the next few weeks too. The next update is pending review now, and has some great improvements like support for Sonos controls on your lock screen if you’re on iOS 27. If you have questions / suggestions / bugs etc please let me know here, or over at [r/JellyMusicApp](r/JellyMusicApp).

Note: the Mac app is NOT ready to replace your Apple Music app, not yet :) Right now it is mainly intended for iPhone/iPad users who want to enable Mac Bridge. It is also a full music player, yes, but I still need to add a lot of polish before it’s worthy of becoming a go-to music client. You’re welcome to use it, just please try not to judge Jelly by the Mac version yet, the focus is iPhone/iPad so far.

Note: you definitely don’t need a Mac to use Jelly, but without a Mac, you won’t see full metadata, and some things you do in Jelly won’t sync back to Apple Music (they will live locally in Jelly). That’s what Mac Bridge is for; Apple’s iOS APIs don’t expose all the necessary endpoints.

Edit: Thank you so much to everyone who’s purchased Jelly over the past couple of days! Your support has shown me that this app is filling a real need and motivates me to keep improving it.
For anyone who is interested in pro but isn’t ready to commit to $15/yr, a $2.99/month option will be available soon is now available!

Hi friends,

Developer behind Hezel & Denim here. I recently dropped a big update to Hezel, my music library backup and recovery app. (If you're wondering why anyone would want to back up their library, I've written a post here explaining why.)

I wanted to share some of the new features with you:

New Liquid Glass Design

The entire app has been redesigned for iOS 26. Big Liquid Glass buttons make the app really satisfying to use. The icon has also been updated, so it looks just as gorgeous in clear and tinted modes.

Backup Export

A lot of you have been asking for a way to export your backup, so I added a new .hezel file format that lets you quickly transfer your entire backup to other devices running Hezel. You can even export your backup as a .csv file if you want an easier way to play around with your data.

Select Multiple Songs to Restore

Earlier, if you wanted to restore multiple songs, you had to tap on each of them individually. Now there's an easy way to select as many songs as you want and restore them with a single tap. This works even inside playlists!

Play Music From Your Backup

Have you ever wondered what you were listening to this time last year? Now you can browse your backup from then and simply tap the song you want to listen to, it'll play just like that on Apple Music. I highly recommend revisiting your music library back in time, it's super fun!

Backup Reminders

Even if you don't enable automatic backups, you'll get helpful reminders when it's been a while since your last backup.

There are other features and improvements like support for collaborative playlists, more reliable Auto-Backup, and a simple way to manage all your backups in one easy list.

Some of you might already be familiar with the update since it's been out for a while. If you haven't tried it yet, get it from here!

I really hope you like the update. Thanks for your support.

Also, if you've been meaning to get Hezel Ultra, now is a great time before the lifetime and yearly plan prices change later this year.

Cheers!

Hey everyone,

Thank you for all the positive feedback on my previous post. It has really motivated me to continue polishing and adding features.

FocalSonic is a new Apple Music client I've developed for Windows 11 (and soon Linux 🤞) that has a lot of new exciting features:

- Dolby Atmos support

- Last.FM scrobbling and Discord presence

- Chromecast streaming

- Coverflow-inspired 3D shelf

- 10 band equalizer with speed, reverb, and impulse response control

- Miniplayer, playlist folders, and a couple quality of life features

Dolby Atmos will work on around 50% of Apple's spatial audio catalog. On their end they are slowly enabling more atmos tracks to work with widevine DRM. (still no lossless)

For those interested, search up FocalSonic on the Microsoft store.

There is a one time purchase $3.50, however you get a 7 day free trial to try it out (No card required). I believe it's a fair price relative to the dev work (it's not vibe coded), and I've also added regional pricing for those who need it.

If you have any suggestions or complaints, don't hesitate to comment. I appreciate all the support ❤️

Hey fellow Apple Music lovers!

For over a year I've been working really hard to make the (hopefully :p) best music discovery app for Apple Music, it already supported Spotify but I'm really excited to announce that it now also supports Apple Music flawlessly! It's out now and the free version has basically everything most casual listeners would want :)

Just sign in, it'll analyze your streaming history and categorizes your music tastes into different clusters/genres and then starts giving recommendations a little outside (and inside) of your current music.

You can use it to casually swipe around and find new music or use it to build/extend playlists. Theres also all kinds of ways to take control of the algorithm yourself by using sliders (energy, mood, danceability etc)

I'm constantly improving it so please let me know if you have any issues or any cool features you want to see added! It would mean a lot to me if you can try it out and share your feedback ❤️

ps. It's also available as full desktop app on MacOS 😏

Hey everyone,

I’ve been an Apple Music user for years, and I’m the type of listener who still adds complete albums to my library rather than just loose tracks. I want the full artwork, the correct tracklist, and the whole experience in my collection.

But that is exactly where Apple Music’s algorithm falls flat.

If I add a 16-track album because I absolutely adore 4 specific songs, Apple's algorithm treats passive plays of the other 12 "filler" tracks or interludes with the exact same weight. Over time, my library got cluttered with music I only half-liked, completely diluting my Discovery Station and Heavy Rotation.

I didn't want to break up my full albums or delete items from my library just to fix my recommendations. So, I built an iOS tool to solve this: AlgoRythm. It just went live in the App Store today!

It acts as a tuner for your algorithm, not a manager for your collection. It lets you keep your full albums intact while surgically training the backend.

Here is the tech behind it:

• The RF-Index: Instead of simple play counts, the app measures Momentum. It balances Recency (freshness) against Frequency (velocity). For example, your weekly rotation heavily favors Recency (85/15), while your yearly rotation favors Frequency (20/80). It finds out what tracks on those albums you actually care about right now.
• Surgical Track-Level Tuning: The app gives you a streamlined dashboard to push ratings directly to the core of your Apple Music profile. You can keep a full album in your library, but aggressively push "Love" to the standout tracks, sending a much stronger signal to Siri and your Discovery Station than passive listening ever could.
• The "Filler" Quarantine: It makes it incredibly fast to identify and bulk-tag unwanted tracks, kids music, or party playlists with "Suggest Less" before they contaminate your profile. Way faster than digging through Apple's native menus song by song.

I hate subscriptions, so the core feature (Algorithm Training) is 100% free forever. There is a one-time purchase to unlock the deep stats (The Liner Notes) and high-fidelity album art grids (which look amazing if you are an album lover). No accounts, no cloud, everything runs locally on-device.

You can check it out here:https://apps.apple.com/app/algorythm/id6762609957

Would love to hear what the fellow users in this sub think!

Hey guys,

some of you might know, but I made the app Daft Music for macOS. It's a full-blown alternative to Apple Music. Thank you guys for supporting the app, after the launch.

Anyway, I started working on an iOS app to make the experience complete, and here are some WIP screenshots. The app will gain all the same features as its parent app, like Spotify Connectivity (you can import Spotify Playlists or Subscribe) or Shazam Radio Detection, and stuff.

Let me know what you think of. Btw if you haven't heard of Daft Music, check it out: https://daftmusic.app

I made this app because I got tired of not having real backups for my iCloud Photos and files — and wanted something that “just works” without monthly fees.

It’s called Parachute Backup — a set-and-forget Mac app that automatically backs up iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, and your Apple Music library to your own storage (external hard drive, SSD, or even another cloud). For those of you using Logic Pro for music creation, it will backup those iCloud files as well.

After hearing from others who’ve lost irreplaceable memories due to sync issues or expired iCloud plans, this became a tool I personally couldn’t go without.

Would love any feedback or feature ideas to make it even more useful. Available on the Mac App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parachute-backup/id6748614170?mt=12

Hey everyone! 

About three months ago, I shared the beta for MelodyScape which is an app I built that uses Apple Music to turn routes and places into personalized soundtracks. 

Essentially, you attach music from your Apple Music library to real-world zones and routes. Playback then changes based on where you are within a location or along a route. You can share individual zones and routes or entire maps with your friends, and even collaborate together on maps!

After months of testing and feedback, it’s officially available on the App Store! It’s been a long time coming, and I’m excited to finally share it with you all.

The core experience is free to use, with optional in-app purchases for additional features. I’d genuinely love to hear what you think, especially what you’d like me to improve or add next. I plan on supporting this app long term and I'm already working on some major updates.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/melodyscape/id6760735178

EDIT: Shortly I'll be making a 2 week free trial available within the app. Thanks everyone for the support!

EDIT: There's been an issue preventing in-app purchases from being available. The new update should fix this so hopefully it gets past review soon! Until then, I'll keep the beta open.

Hi all,

I've made https://mixtape-rho.vercel.app/ which links to your Apple Music account, and lets you make mixtapes.

You can choose your tape, add a front cover, add tracks and share it with others. It also links with YouTube just in case your friends don't have an Apple Music account.

I wanted to bring back the nostalgic feeling of curating, personalising and sharing a great tape in a digital way.

I've built this on my own, in my spare time and I really need people to test it out and give me some feedback.

You just need your email to to sign in. I don't collect or sell any data.

I've also set up a new Subreddit r/sayitwithmusic to collect feedback and hopefully share tapes.

Feel free to message me directly too.

Thanks

Craig

Setto is a swipe based AI DJ that learns your taste in real time. You pick a few artists you love, start swiping, and the music adapts.

No accounts. No playlists. No cloud. No tracking. Your taste stays on your phone.

Like a track? The DJ dives deeper. Skip? It branches out.

I built it because I host radio shows and the thing I love about DJing is reading the room, and adjusting on the fly based on what's landing. Most algorithms don't do that. They optimize for engagement, not for what actually resonates with you right now.

It's free, runs entirely on device, and needs an Apple Music subscription to stream.

Still early, I shipped version 1.0 this morning and I'm collecting feedback to make it better.

Would love to hear what you think, especially if you're someone who's tired of the same 30 song rotation.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/setto-ai-dj/id6759359276

I built this small iOS app that helps you discover new music, it works kind of like tinder but for Apple Music!

You swipe right to keep a song and left to skip it. The app keeps track of the songs you keep and saves them into a playlist.

You can start from a song and have the feed only show songs similar to that one.

Or start from one of your playlists and swipe through new tracks that match the vibe of that playlists. When you swipe right, the song gets saved straight to that playlist.

You can also use it to clean up playlists by swiping through the songs you already have and keeping only the ones you actually still like.

Quick update for anyone coming back to this thread — the App Store version is live now. Thanks again for all the feedback here.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/muse-music-discovery/id6756804590

https://reddit.com/link/1q7ui6u/video/vzwnkkpu68cg1/player

Edit: This started as a Christmas gift for my girlfriend. I didn’t expect such a positive response — thank you all for the feedback, I’m actively fixing bugs and making improvements mentioned in the comments.

Reading Ready Player Two a couple of years ago, there's a scene where a track plays the moment a character arrives at a specific location. I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I built it.

It also reminded me of times I used to try and find the right song for picking up a mate, or arriving to the game.

Nearplay lets you save "Destination Drops" — a location plus a track or playlist from your Apple Music library. When you walk, drive, or cycle within range of that location, your music starts playing automatically. No phone tap needed.

A few use cases that have come up:

• Pulling into the gym car park → your pump-up anthem fires. Walk through the front door → your full Gym playlist takes over.
• Halfway home from work → a wind-down track kicks in
• Arriving at the seaside / a friend's house / a favourite pub → a song that means something to that place

It's native iOS, uses Apple Music directly (no playlist juggling, plays whatever you pick from your library), and the geofencing runs in the background.

Free version gets you 2 drops. Premium unlocks unlimited drops + ETA mode (track plays as you approach a destination based on your route).

Built it solo over the last few months. App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/nearplay/id6761690544

Would love feedback from anyone who tries it — especially edge cases. The Apple Music integration was the trickiest part to get right.

My mom (72) recently got her first iPhone. She’d never used a smartphone before, but thanks to iOS Assistive Access, she got comfortable with it quickly!

Apple Music also supports Assistive Access, but in that mode it’s very limited: it only plays Apple’s pre-curated playlists. My mom, on the other hand, wanted to search for artists and albums, just like she’s used to from her CD shelf.

So I built Music for Seniors, an Apple Music player designed for older adults and people with cognitive impairments. It’s free. No analytics, full accessibility. It’s the app I wish had existed when I went looking, and one you can install on your parents’ or grandparents’ smartphones with complete peace of mind. 😊

If you like it, I’d really appreciate a quick rating. I don’t prompt for ratings inside the app (especially less tech-savvy people find those pop-ups irritating), but a rating helps the app reach more people.

I’d love to keep building more apps tailored specifically to seniors’ needs.