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

(github.com)
198 points kushalpandya | 1 comments | 09 Jul 25 22:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.23s | source

I have a large collection of music files gathered over the years, so I was sorely missing a decent offline music player that can serve as a frontend for the collection. I tried several Mac apps over the years, but since streaming music is mainstream now, there aren't good offline music players that meet my needs. So I spent the last 3 months building Petrichor! The idea is to solve my problem and learn Swift UI development along the way, while giving back to the community with this open-source project! Here's a list of features it has, with more getting added in future;

- Everything you'd expect from an offline music player!

- Map your music folders and browse your library in an organised view.

- Create playlists and manage the play queue interactively.

- Browse music using folder view when needed.

- Pin anything (almost!) to the sidebar for quick access to your favourite music.

- Navigate easily: right-click a track to go to its album, artist, year, etc.

- Native macOS integration with menubar and dock playback controls, plus dark mode support.

- Search quickly through large libraries containing thousands of songs.

The app is still in alpha, so things may look unpolished, but I've been testing the alpha builds for the past few weeks and fixing issues as I find them for v1 release. I welcome any feedback (and contributions!) on GitHub repo. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!

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tambourine_man ◴[10 Jul 25 12:50 UTC] No.44520427[source]▶
I've been looking for an alternative since Apple decided to turn iTunes into the mess that is Apple Music. But I still need to import the two decades of playing statistics (skips, last played, etc) along with ratings, date added, etc. Petrichor looks really good, congratulations, I'll try it out.
replies(1): >>44520770 #
carlosjobim ◴[10 Jul 25 13:25 UTC] No.44520770[source]▶
I'm in the same situation, but if we take a rational look at it those statistics don't really have any value. If you can make different playlists in your new player according to your old ratings, then that should be enough.
replies(1): >>44520818 #
tambourine_man ◴[10 Jul 25 13:28 UTC] No.44520818[source]▶
On the contrary, I find them priceless.
replies(1): >>44522932 #
afewscribbles ◴[10 Jul 25 16:46 UTC] No.44522932[source]▶
Ditto.

I would also add that what has stopped me from ever using an iTunes or Music alternative is the inability to directly transfer the "Date Added" data, along with the statistics you mentioned. I cannot express the value to me in being able to chronologically look at how (and in what direction) my music collection has grown.

replies(2): >>44523612 #>>44524456 #
1. tambourine_man ◴[10 Jul 25 17:50 UTC] No.44523612[source]▶
Exactly. And the ability to create smart playlist that explore them, for example, songs I haven't heard in more than 2 years that I've never skipped. Things like that.