I Built My Own Audio Player

In 2025, playing your own music on an iPhone is surprisingly hard, unless you pay Apple or navigate a maze of limitations. So I built my own player from scratch, with full text search, iCloud support, and a local-first experience. GitHub link Why I Built My Own Audio Player Like many people, I’ve picked up too many subscriptions, some through Apple (iCloud, Apple Music), others got lost in random platforms (like Netflix, which I forgot I was still paying for). I actually used Apple Music regularly (and previously Spotify), but the streaming turned out to be more convenience than necessity. With a curated local library, I didn’t lose much, just the lock-in. Initially I thought, I’d just keep using iCloud Music Library for cross-device music synchronization, but once I cancelled the Apple Music subscription, the sync stopped working. Turns out this feature is behind a paywall. You can technically get it back via iTunes Match ($24.99/year). Match just stores 256-kbps AAC copies online; ... Read full article.