CalmMusic review by ArmchairSetup

ArmchairSetup · May 10, 2026, 12:41pm

CalmMusic — Community App Review
Version: 1.1.9-beta-10

A calm, E‑ink‑friendly music player that puts your attention and privacy first.

CalmMusic brings together your local files, YouTube Music search/streaming, and optional Apple Music support into one quiet, distraction‑free place to listen.

“Let’s make technology useful again.”

Levi · May 14, 2026, 5:46pm

The Apple Music function is not working for me. It says coming soon. Is this an issue with my end?

ArmchairSetup · May 14, 2026, 6:13pm

You’d have to ask @davidray , I’m assuming “comin soon” means it hasn’t been implemented yet - so not a bug in the app

adizzy · May 14, 2026, 8:54pm

Love the app. Is there a way to prevent the tiny player overlay that can only be removed by dragging down? I can’t remember if I gave that specific permission upon installing.

davidray · May 14, 2026, 9:11pm

Hey! Thanks for the review. Apple Music is still listed as “coming soon” and will hopefully be available in the next few months. I’ll update here as soon as it is ready for testing.

davidray · May 14, 2026, 9:16pm

There is not a way from the app itself. The permission is requested when first installed but I don’t expose the option in the settings of the app. I’m looking for a way to find it in the device settings if I can remember where it is. I’ll post here when I find it again.

ploum · May 17, 2026, 7:54pm

This app is exactly what the default Mudita music app should be. It does exactly what a music player should do: play my library by artist, by song or by album. What else ?

There are also some Youtube/Apple Music features that I consider bloat but those are not annoying in day to day use.

Minor annoyance:

It doesn’t use the Mudita music folder by default and you should manually rescan it when you add songs.
The overlay, while useful, is really hard to kill (you have to drag n drop it to the opposite of the screen)
The name: I listen to very loud metal. It’s strange to launch it by clicking on CalmMusic

So, yeah it is awesome, thanks for it!

alexanderevans24 · May 20, 2026, 11:47am

love this apk it has so much potential. when it has the apple feature it will be great! it sometimes stops for no reason but a lot of the time its great. you do have to do a detailed search for the streaming

zyny · May 20, 2026, 3:20pm

How to set up YouTube streaming? I can’t seem to make it work. Thanks!

somastudy · May 20, 2026, 10:24pm

Hi David! Are we able to delete individual songs that have been downloaded? Thank you

davidray · May 20, 2026, 10:38pm

Hey, from the “Songs” list view, you should be able to tap-and-hold on a song and see a delete button. If it’s been added to your library but not downloaded, you should see a “Remove from library” button.

davidray · May 20, 2026, 10:39pm

YouTube streaming is on by default. All you have to do is search for whatever song you want and then you can stream it. When streaming you can download, add to library, add to playlist. Let me know if that doesn’t work.

davidray · May 20, 2026, 10:42pm

Thanks for the review. I’ll be working on search in the future. If it keeps stopping over time it’s probably because your battery optimization is “killing” it. Make sure you have “Background optimization” allowed under the General tab in settings of CalmMusic.

somastudy · May 21, 2026, 12:09am

Hi David! I tap and hold and press delete but nothing ends up deleting. Are you able to look into this? It would be cool to edit the meta data of local files on the app as well! Just an idea but I know that we can do that through third party apps.

zyny · May 21, 2026, 7:38pm

Thanks, David. I reinstalled the latest app, and the YouTube stream works now. Not sure why it didn’t work before, but I’m glad it does now! I appreciate your work. It’s one of the few reasons that’s keeping me from leaving Kontakt!

zyny · May 22, 2026, 5:43pm

Is it possible to hide the overlay window when not listening to music and using other apps? I love the pop-up on the home screen, but a small horizontal window remains active all the time. I’m happy to send a picture if that would help, but I thought there might be an easy workaround. Thanks!

thilodus · May 23, 2026, 7:03am

To begin with, I am very satisfied with CalmMusic and strongly prefer it over the stock music app. However, two points strike me as questionable.

1. Why does the “Artists” section apparently read the “Artist” tag rather than the “Album Artist” tag? This sometimes results in an unusable view, as illustrated here by the example of the Gorillaz. In my files, all songs on this album are tagged with “Gorillaz” under “Album Artist.” Wouldn’t it make more sense to prioritize reading the “Album Artist” tag, and only fall back to “Artist” if the former is not set?

2. Once I have made a selection under “Artists,” the app defaults to displaying the list of individual songs. I have to navigate to the specific albums separately. Wouldn’t it represent a more natural hierarchy if I were presented with the list of albums first?

adizzy · May 25, 2026, 1:53am

Agreed

davecartwright · May 26, 2026, 2:56am

@davidray Is there a way to choose the micro SD card or a folder on a microsd card to scan for music? I couldn’t figure out how to do that. I keep a fairly large music library on a card for the device. If there currently isn’t, do you have any plans to add that?

thilodus · May 26, 2026, 5:11am

More Settings Local Add folder Burger menu top left Choose card Choose folder