
Show HN: Decoupled – A lightweight music player for iOS - tzahola
https://decoupled.app
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jens-c
I have been looking for something like this for a long time on iOS. I am not
into streaming at all, but I have a large collection of physical media
converted into electronic form. (I also very much appreciate your no tracking
and analytics policy.)

One feature that I still do miss is to organize or browse my collection on the
app by a self-defined folder structure. Most apps offer to sort by artist,
album titles, genres etc., but I do not find this sufficient or convenient,
especially if your collection is very heterogenous.

For example, I have my pop albums sorted by artist, but my classical music by
composer (rather than artists/performer). I also have a large collection of
singles which I prefer to have in a separate folder (to not clutter the pop
artist directory too much), sorted chronologically. Similarly, I keep
compilations in a separate folder, and do not want every artist of a single
song in a compilation appear in my overall list, or have all compilations
lumped under "Various Artists".

As far as I can see, Decoupled already maintains the files in the user-given
folder structure, and technically I can just click on "Files" and then browse
through it. Would it be possible however to place this option more prominently
on the main screen that is visible when the app opens up? Or even make the
options on the main screen user-configurable, similar to how the iOS music
player allows enabling and disabling the "Artist", "Genre" etc. entries in the
media library?

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tzahola
Hmm, how about putting “Files” in another tab at the bottom like “Library” and
“Playback”?

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jens-c
That would be an option, too. Can I then set the app to open with the "Files"
view by default?

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tzahola
Sure, that's how I would implement it.

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tzahola
Around a year ago I've became tired of not being able to play FLAC or Opus on
my iPhone, so I've checked third-party apps in the AppStore which supported
these formats. Sadly, all of them looked very unpolished, so I've decided to
write my own.

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arthurcolle
You should totally make this a few bucks

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tzahola
Thanks, but I'm not planning to monetize it. If it gains adoption in its
niche, that's enough for me.

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mStreamTeam
Hey there,

Would you be interested in collaborating on a music project. I'm working on a
selfhosted music streaming server called mStream that allows you to stream
music from a home computer to any device. I began writing it several years ago
when I couldn't find a good solution for FLAC streaming.

The main thing I'm missing is an iOS app. Let me know if you're interested.

The project:
[https://github.com/IrosTheBeggar/mStream](https://github.com/IrosTheBeggar/mStream)

~~~
confounded
Interesting. I’m looking to set something like this up soon. What are the
advantages compared to more established protocols with servers and clients,
like Subsonic/Airsonic, or Ampache?

~~~
mStreamTeam
Subsonic/Ampache wins when it comes to client support. mStream's biggest
downside is the lack of good mobile clients.

mStream has an advantage in the areas of DB and installation. mStream makes
use of LokiJS, an in-memory DB that is VERY fast. mStream also comes packaged
as a single click installer for Win/OSX (see the release pages for this).
These installers have no dependencies and are configurable via a GUI, making
very easy for non-technical people to setup their own home servers.

mStream is also taking a turn to support a different market in the future. I'm
working on adding eCommerce tools to the server, so bands and musicians can
use it as a way to sell music/merch without having a 3rd party take a cut of
the revenue.

Also mStream will always be FOSS, if that matters to you

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wilsonnb
> An app for those who take music seriously.

> Do you like music streaming services?

> Do you enjoy companies telling you what you should listen to each week?

> Did you stop buying music years ago?

> If you answer with "yes" to any of these questions, Decoupled wasn't made
> for you. Sorry.

Why bother alienating people who enjoy streaming services? Plenty of people,
myself included, use Spotify but also have music that isn't on Spotify and
want a good player for it.

I would also argue that anyone who takes music seriously should love music
streaming services, because they offer an incredible value for the price.

~~~
tzahola
Sorry for making you feel alienated. It’s just a snarky tagline, that’s all.
You can have Spotify and Decoupled installed side by side.

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jamesgeck0
This is very nice at first glance.

I liked the multitude of transfer options in VLC, but felt like the UI was too
busy. Decoupled has most of the same transfer options, but looks a lot more
like an iOS app.

One odd thing I noticed; I uploaded several directories of music using
AirDrop, and every single file I uploaded shows up on the device with a
corresponding 212 byte file with the prefix ._ mixed in. Does Decoupled add
that? It makes reading the file list a bit harder.

~~~
tzahola
That's called a resource fork:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork)

Those files contain out-of-band metadata for the given file. Now, for file
systems that don't natively support resource forks (read: anything but Apple's
own filesystem(s)), Finder insists on storing them as dot-underscore files.
E.g. Mac clients are notorious for littering SMB shares with these dot-
underscore files.

As for why it's created when sharing stuff through AirDrop, from one Apple
device to another, that's beyond me...

I think it might make sense to hide these dot-underscore files from the file
browser, along with .DS_Store and maybe thumbs.db (I'm not even sure whether
modern Windows still creates thumbs.db). Will do it in the next version.

Thanks for the feedback! I wanted exactly this iOS-native look & feel you're
talking about. I personally don't like other apps forcing their designers' UX
vision on me... A curated music library with quality artworks speaks for
itself. I don't want my app to stand between users and their libraries :)

~~~
Nadya
>I'm not even sure whether modern Windows still creates thumbs.db

Just chiming in here to let you know it does. Quite at random it seems (at
least that's what it feels like) - but it does! Also thanks for shedding some
light on the mysterious ._ folder/files that get created for me when I use
Beets ([http://beets.io/](http://beets.io/))

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eyeball
Cool. As someone with a giant library of ripped cds organized in a nice file
structure, this is definitely interesting. I hate going through the iTunes
library.

Any chance you could let it access audio files stored in Dropbox?

~~~
tzahola
Hmm, I guess accessing files from Dropbox is not too hard in itself. You can
already do that in a somewhat roundabout way by choosing “Open in...” in the
Dropbox app and then selecting “Copy to Decoupled”.

Indexing and keeping track of all items in Dropbox, without actually storing
them locally is a bit harder. But then I guess you would need streaming for
those files too, which is another can of worms.

Long story short: possible in theory, but unlikely in near term.

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JKCalhoun
Sent you an email. I would love to be able to add "weight" to songs in my
"shuffled" playlist so I can identify songs to play less often and other to
play on "heavy rotation".

~~~
tzahola
Got it! Check your inbox ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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richjdsmith
Nice work grabbing a .app domain!

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tzahola
Actually Decoupled wasn’t the original name of the app, but when the .app TLD
was opened, that original name was already taken. So I had to come up with a
new name for the release.

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kchr
You should add the application/project name to the post title.

~~~
tzahola
Hmmm, is it possible to edit post titles? :/

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brudgers
For an hour or two, usually. Then it goes away. When it is possible to edit
the title, you will see an |edit| link under your submission.

~~~
tzahola
Meh. I'm way past that unfortunately. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

