foobar2000 4+

Much better than iTunes, which seems obsessed with a slick/minimalist aesthetic but lacks/has stripped basic functionality - you can actually read song information, list/sort stuff as you would expect from a file browser and easily play/control music from the file system/outside Apple’s closed/proprietary ecosystem... The options for eg. experimenting with tempo/crossfeed are wonderful to have if you are a musician/dj/actually know a little/are interested in sound & there’s likely much more besides that I haven’t had a chance to use yet… I really just initially downloaded it because I wanted to play a folder of files of various types that I had either made myself/bought from other sources (with a sane interface/no data collected)! Deepest thanks to the developers/testers for treating users with respect/not patronising/exploiting them! :-)

When you install the app it asks to “find and connect to devices on your local network” and “access Apple Music…”. I suspect these are fine, but I’ve always been paranoid about apps asking for permissions. You can say no to both and still use the ftp feature to add music from your computer. You simply turn it on with write access (an internal app permission, not system wide) then visit the ftp address in a file system eg windows explorer to copy and paste files. This maintains the security of the Apple app sandbox. Turn off the ftp server and you’ve turned off write access even to foobar2000s disk space.

The high resolution option that is available sends this app into the stratosphere for listening quality it is now even better the only iTunes output this is a mobile. astonishing The sound quality difference is now approaching what I hear on my desktop three amp and pro audio equipment chain. Of course I listen only to listen to some music I don’t do MP3 how silly. Finally and even without utilising my sound back for mobile I’m satisfied with the music I hear through my AirPods Pro when I’m out on my electric unicycle. Thank you foobar Apple have a moving shop to the pool for music fans were for otter BS. Of ITunes musicAnd it’s regular ability to mess up your digital music and lose music tracks