Hey all, gathering some thoughts here. I’ve been using iTunes to purchase my music and port it to the Kompakt since I got the phone and it’s worked really well so far. BUT, I’m a really big music guy and I change my playlists weekly, if not daily, with my moods. I’d love the ability to more easily add music to my catalog.
So, I’ve been doing some digging and found that Spotify’s implementation is just not reliable enough for a production app and most Mudita users (rightfully so) do not want to use anything Google. So, with that said, how do most users feel about integrating with Apple?
I understand this would not be as mainstream of a solution as my CalmCast app because that requires no authorization with Apple but this one will. You’ll need an active Apple Music subscription and will need to authorize with Apple to access it via the app.
What the app would solve and what it will not: Being minimal, imo, should not require us to live without some of our wants. It should be thoughtful and workable without being intrusive. That means, you can search and add music via the Apple Music catalog. You will not see algorithms, suggestions, comments, or any other gamification.
I think there was a time when music was really fun and accessible without being intrusive and gimmicky. I’d love to help us find that balance again.
Before I commit to the $99 Apple developer charge, I’d love some thoughts and feedback from the community on this.
Hi David. Is having an Apple Music subscription a hard requirement? I prefer buying CDs and ripping them, and it would be nice to have an alternative to the default Music app that feels native to the MK.
I would be interested in a simple Apple Music integration as well. I just started using my Kompakt 2 days ago and I’m having fun adding musically intentionally again (though the default alphabetical ordering in the folders is a let down). I currently have about 15 albums loaded (organized in playlists so they are in correct order). Would the integration work such that we can more easily download albums/songs via Apple Music and interface would be old iPod/MP3 player style organized by artists/album etc?
awesome, count me as interested! I have not tried your CalmCast/Directory apps yet as I’m easing my way into the phone, but looking forward to trying them out soon.
Update: I’ve started working on the bones of the app.
Currently it is all local media with Apple Music wired up but not yet supported/tested. The overall look/feel of the app is pretty close to what I had envisioned but there will be a few changes here or there.
I’ve based the UI/UX on the Music app from the original iPod Touch. This might change slightly as features are brought on-board but I really do not want to stray too far from this initial look so I can keep some structure to my vision of workable, accessible music.
Here are some screenshots of what I have currently working.
It looks like your music app is sorting your tracks within albums in alphabetical order rather than the actual intended track order. Is that correct? And can it be fixed?
That’s a HUGE reason I still won’t touch the official Mudita music app. I cannot fathom not listening to albums in the order they were crafted to be listened to.
Bad album choice on my part. If track number is present in the meta data, it will sort by that. From my experience so far, meta data is an absolute mess in most media. Some track numbers are “1” others “01” (those are simple enough) and some are “01/12” or “1/12” etc… I’m working on handling these more common forms. Converting iTunes music to mp3 for instance loses the meta data because it’s not stored on the individual track from what I can tell. I’m looking into better ways of handling this.
I wish there was a way to get spotify going that would be so nice. I feel apple isnt any different than google. Maybe youtube music would also be good? I havent used it in awhile but dont they allow you to upload your local music and to stream it free?
Here’s some updated screenshots. All of these screens were updated in my most recent changes. You can see the updated album view now shows track numbers (if it exists in meta data) and orders by them. I also show playlist functionality (except the add ability because I forgot to grab that but it just shows the songs with checkboxes similar to the built-in app.)
note: I make weird playlist names so ignore those…
I actually looked into YouTube Music because that’s what I use personally with my family. I think it’s actually the best streaming service available. The problem is that there are no official APIs available for it. Some devs have found backdoors but I didn’t feel good using those.
Ah, that’s much better! I am extremely meticulous with my metadata and absolutely baby my music libraries.
Will there be an option to switch the way the Artists tab behaves from showing track artists to album artists? It frustrates me to no end to have featured artists dividing up my library. What I care about is the primary artist releasing the album.
I actually just learned that METADATA_KEY_ALBUMARTIST is a thing when fixing albums showing multiple times per featured artists
Albums should now only have one representation even if featured artists exist. I’ll do the same thing with the Artists entries. I agree you shouldn’t see featured artists in the artists list.
