Oops... I guess I built Connect for Apple Music... :-)

Tinkering
1

Like most, I have a profound love/hate relationship with Apple Music – the latter stemming mostly from the fact that it’s all but impossible to stream lossless audio across – let alone hi-res.

I’ve been toying around with MusicKit for a bit, building a menu bar app for the Mac. Before I knew, I ended up with a round of apps (Mac, iPhone and iPad) that offer Now Playing, list browsing your Apple Music account, search and queue. All good, nothing world shaking. Good fun.

It got interesting when I added a little bridge (wrapping together ApplicationMusicPlayer, a small http-server and a bit of Bonjour/mDNS trickery) running on a Mac, connected to a dedicated endpoint (DAC or Digital transport). Suddenly I the app became a nice little remote, able to ship lossless/highres Apple Music around. Then I built the bridge into the remote apps – suddenly any Apple device running the app (or bridge) can play by itself and becomes a play target for any other remote.

15
15732×1350 138 KB

I run the bridge on a Mac mini, through a USB/Coax converter into my speakers (hi-res without compromise) – but also play on my MacBook. Or iPhone. Or iPad. Simultaneously, if needed. (I never need it, but still… ;-)).

Not sure where I am going with this. There’s a bit more to discover in MusicKit – and a full-blown dekstop app could be fun as well. We’ll see. Anyone interested, let’s discuss.

8 Likes
2

Refining iOS a bit… Now Playing sliding card, For You, Mini player. Play/Shuffle/Play Next/Play Later. Draggable queue. Apple Music album editorials.

IMG_0203.PNG
IMG_0203.PNG1260×2736 312 KB

IMG_0202.PNG
IMG_0202.PNG1260×2736 317 KB

IMG_0201.PNG
IMG_0201.PNG1260×2736 128 KB

IMG_0196.PNG
IMG_0196.PNG1260×2736 220 KB

IMG_0197.PNG
IMG_0197.PNG1260×2736 180 KB

IMG_0198.PNG
IMG_0198.PNG1260×2736 189 KB

IMG_0199.PNG
IMG_0199.PNG1260×2736 176 KB

IMG_0200.PNG
IMG_0200.PNG1260×2736 166 KB

Oh – and I started sketching the desktop app. :face_with_tongue:

3

You could also use Lysoniq: https://www.lysoniq.app

4

Yeah – and that’s what you should use if you have any interest in this area. Just dusted mine off (tried it when it first came out, but never quite gelled with the app and device linking was a flaky then. My premium is still active though).

They seem to have made great strides since then: Lynk (and +) are impressive and solid now. There’s a core difference: with Lysonyq there’s one sender and multiple remotes – I’m toying with a a solution that is zone centric: each zone has their own stream and their own queue – synchronously if you want. That also opens the road to grouping in the future.

Still – Lysoniq is what is out there now and available for use. If you have any interest in toying with Apple Music – go get it and support the developer.

I’ll keep on chugging on for the fun of it (MusicKit is surprisingly versatile) and shaping the app into what I actually want to use (not surprisingly that’s not the Music App :slight_smile: ).

1 Like