In 2025, Apple still makes it hard to play your own MP3s, so I wrote my own app

Am i slow or is there no download link for his app?
Yes i am slow, it isnt built as an IPA, creating a MacOS kvm for it as im writing this.

It’s not hard at all. Import your mp3 into iTunes library and it’s there. What’s so complicated about that?
- That work on Linux?
  
  I guess what I’m missing then is that this was a Linux circlejerk thread. My mistake I’ll shut up now.
- You need to use an external device to do that, making it extremely convoluted and annoying to do.
  
  USB’s are pretty easy to use…am I missing something? Assuming the file you want to import didn’t originate on the computer you would have to import from an external device via email or usb. It’s really not that complicated and I’m not sure why you are over exaggerating the complexity of the issue.
- Maybe nobody at Apple actually does quality assurance on that feature anymore because they think nobody still uses it.

It always confounds be to come across such bold claims that are so easily debunked by…just anyone doing the thing claimed to be difficult/impossible. I have my own mp3s on my iPhone right now. Like what?
- It’s annoying that its the same app as apple streaming
  
  and requires iTunes syncing, annoying, limited encoder support and not available on Linux unless you use a third party app, not that many open source or privacy-friendly ones

I remember back when iPods were a thing, I hated how you couldn't drag and drop files, and manage your own storage. Syncing seemed so stupid, and I couldn't believe that they were so popular. The thing they had going for them is it's idiot proof to the point where it pissed off anyone who knew what they were doing. That's been Apple's MO since roughly that era, and I can't stand their products because of it.
- The thing they had going for them is it's idiot proof to the point where it pissed off anyone who knew what they were doing.
  I'm solidly in that group lol. I had a 5th gen iPod Video in high school, and you bet your ass it drove me absolutely insane that I couldn't just drag and drop music onto it. The "manually manage device" setting was an absolute godsend, for sure, but I ended up installing RockBox anyway.
  I still have that iPod somewhere...

Apple technically lets you play music directly from iCloud via the Files app, but its functionality is not designed for music listening. It lacks essential features such as playlist management, metadata sorting, or playback queues. While it supports music playback, it’s very limited and overall not a good user experience.
I’m confused. Shouldn’t you be using the music app for all this stuff? That’s what I do.
- You need to pay the subscription to Apple Music to do it if I recall correctly.
  
  You can still use the music app just like iTunes. You don’t need a subscription.
  
  Not true. Plain and simple.
  
  You can also get an iTunes Match subscription. No idea what it goes for these days but it's a bit cheaper than Apple Music (doesn't give you access to any music but lets you sync your music in iTunes to all your devices - still requires a Mac or PC to use though).

Honest question, what’s hard about playing an MP3 on any Apple device?
- Nothing
  You can import music from itunes, if you like doing it the old way.
  There are a crap ton of media player apps with ability to connect to self hosted or cloud storages. Many are single payment and others are open source. One good one is nPlayer.
  You can put mp3 on the native files app and just tap on it.
  The article is just misleading ragebait turned into an excuse to show their app and things about iOS development.
- It’s not. I use my Windows 10 video game machine to drag and drop MP3s onto my iPhone from my 400GB library. I use iTunes to do it (but I listen using Foobar2000 on my computer, I only use iTunes to put music on my phone and make iPhone incremental image backups.)
  I wish I could drag and drop FLAC files, but I can easily convert them. I do t use my really nice cans on my phone anyway.
  
  Look into PlexAmp for lossless streaming. It’s pretty dope.
- Apples own Music app (without Apple Music subscription), VLC, PlexAmp…
  It’s not hard if you look.
  Edit, I’ve taken a look at what you’ve done and I quite like it. If my comment was snippy it’s because the question of easily playing mp3s is solved. But if the existing solutions don’t fit your niche workflow preference, like it sounds like it doesn’t, I love the idea of writing something that does.
  One issue I have with ALL the local and streaming platforms (save for Apple Music Classical, ironically) is every one of them organizes in Artist>Album>Track, whereas classical music have different organizational needs. I wonder if local wave can be altered a bit to accommodate such organizational changes?
  
  My solution: vmware fusion or virtualbox with windows installed on a vm and running winamp with passthrough audio.

I'm still using an ancient version of Winamp. I think it's some version of winamp 5.
If it keeps working I'm going to keep using it. Your mp3 player doesn't need to go online it just needs to play your mp3 files. Why would it ever need to be updated?
- foobar2k has been a thing for a couple decades.
  Or deadbeef on linux.

I have no trouble playing my own mp3s on any apple device whatsoever. It’s all stock, no special anything. Its very easy.
- You're supposed to just take the headline at face value. It helps maintain the outrage from people who never have used apple devices.

Cool, but things like Plexamp already exist and have an official iOS app.
- You do need to pay for plexamp
  
  No you don’t.
  https://www.plex.tv/plexamp/

You can easily sync your personal music collection to your iOS device using the macOS “Music” app in tandem with the Finder, or using iTunes on Windows. I’ve not explored the options on Linux, but I suspect they’re out there.
I’ve got a personal collection that’s growing steadily, mostly from CDs and digital purchases. I do not use steaming services, and my iPhone is my primarily listening device.
- i don’t think there’s anything like that on linux sadly
  personally i just use the VLC mobile app (yes, this exists!) to play my local music collection. it’s surprisingly good, and you can even send music to it from your computer to your phone wirelessly!
  
  My GF has an iphone, and on KDE I can just connect it via USB and it's visible in the file manager.
  There's also this.
  
  I think there was for KDE (there's almost everything for KDE).

Thanks for posting this, this is very helpful

Do they have a Tcl/Tk runtime in Apple-land?
I suppose that would solve the lack of many applications, by writing scripts good enough.
Found that no, but there are browser ones, so - sort of a variant.

Using apple products is a humiliation ritual.

Sad that one cannot create programs for their own devices.
- You can though? Developers can make apps and test them on their own devices, including iPhones.
  
  Yes but you have to reflash it every 7 days or it gets blocked. Either that or you have to pay 99 buckos per year for your own application.

It's Apple. They make everything other than just using their own stuff harder.
It's kinda their whole shtick.
- There are plenty of apps on the App store that let you listen to your own MP3s on your iPhone though. They haven't made anything hard.
- No, that’s quite literally the reason that Apple is so big. They successfully made MP3’s easy to get from CD, add to device and play. , I owned an early MP3 player, and ripping mp3s from CD and loading sucked compared to the first iPod/iTunes. Of course, over time it got better on the PC side, but it was trivial to teach somebody like your parents how to get their music on an iPod.
  It’s why Slashdot still gets mocked for their iPod review. While there were other MP3 players that had more storage or battery life, the cohesiveness of iPod/iTunes was unmatched, and that’s why few remember the nomad but every one remembers the iPod