Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS
53 comments
·July 9, 2025Meekro
I've been searching for the perfect "old school iTunes" program for a while. I'm pretty sure it does not exist, maybe I'll try to make one someday unless someone beats me to it? Here's what I want:
* Smartlists, preferably with nested rules
* Proper search, the way iTunes did it: you have a huge excel-like list of songs that filters as you type
* Volume leveling
* Corresponding Windows/Mac/iPhone programs, with the ability to sync my collection like Dropbox
I would gladly pay $100 for this.
dewey
If you are looking for a “old school iTunes” kind of player there’s also https://swinsian.com/
Meekro
Thanks for the recommendation! This one's the best "old school iTunes" program I've tried so far. I might stick with this one for now. I especially like how I can make smartlists with nested rules.
The main thing I'm missing is volume leveling.
gpm
The Readme mentions that app under "Motivation"
> Motivation
> I have a large collection of music files that I’ve gathered over the years, and I missed having a good offline music player on macOS. I used Swinsian (great app, by the way!), but it hasn't been updated in years. I also missed features commonly found in streaming apps; so I built Petrichor to scratch that itch and learn Swift and macOS app development along the way!
thek3nger
For the people interested, Swinsian has a beta version that is actively developed. I got an update a couple of weeks ago. So it is not abandoned.
bigyabai
quodlibet comes highly recommended for Windows/Linux users that want a more retro media player: https://github.com/quodlibet/quodlibet
Cenk
If you’re looking for a “iTunes before it went to shit” vibe I can also recommend Doppler: https://brushedtype.co/doppler/
Meekro
Thanks for the recommendation! I gave it a try, but unfortunately this one doesn't have the stuff that I liked from old-school iTunes. At first glance: no smart lists; search doesn't work the way I want (I want a giant excel-like list that filters as I type); no volume leveling.
8mobile
Congrats for Petrichor, really impressive work! I love the clean, modern UI. I’m currently using Swinsian (still solid in many ways), but Petrichor feels like a breath of fresh air, especially for those of us who still care about local libraries. I truly hope you’ll bring this to iOS. Thanks
uldos
I can suggest Cog (https://cog.losno.co/) as simple but powerfull music player that plays flac
newscracker
Two suggestions, if you have the time to look at the effort and difficulty to implement them:
> P.S. I plan publish it on Homebrew soon.
1. Please consider publishing on MacPorts too.
2. Please consider supporting m4b audiobooks (it’s a different file extension from the common m4a, but also supports chapters).
eviks
> Everything you'd expect from an offline music player!
I'd expect winamp-level UI customization, cross-platform support, iTunes library smart playlist support...
syspec
Ah, I guess he was talking to the person behind you
pinoy420
[dead]
zdw
Any thoughts on syncing against an external music library that uses the Subsonic API (like Navidrome or similar) so an offline/"away from home" laptop could still listen to music?
beschizza
Without even looking at anything else, I love the name.
gpm
Anyone want to let me in on the joke/reference/pun/pronunciation/why it's a clever name?
kushalpandya
There you go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
> Petrichor is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil.
null
johng
It's actually my favorite scent in the world. I grew up in New Mexico.
null
null
reader9274
Will it support playing lossless files in FLAC or ALAC format? Will it be able to change the audio sampling rate per song to match the song's sampling rate?
dwiehoff
Airplay is kind of a must
lowbloodsugar
I use Roon.
I have a large collection of music files gathered over the years, so I was sorely missing a decent offline music player that can serve as a frontend for the collection. I tried several Mac apps over the years, but since streaming music is mainstream now, there aren't good offline music players that meet my needs. So I spent the last 3 months building Petrichor! The idea is to solve my problem and learn Swift UI development along the way, while giving back to the community with this open-source project! Here's a list of features it has, with more getting added in future;
- Everything you'd expect from an offline music player!
- Map your music folders and browse your library in an organised view.
- Create playlists and manage the play queue interactively.
- Browse music using folder view when needed.
- Pin anything (almost!) to the sidebar for quick access to your favourite music.
- Navigate easily: right-click a track to go to its album, artist, year, etc.
- Native macOS integration with menubar and dock playback controls, plus dark mode support.
- Search quickly through large libraries containing thousands of songs.
The app is still in alpha, so things may look unpolished, but I've been testing the alpha builds for the past few weeks and fixing issues as I find them for v1 release. I welcome any feedback (and contributions!) on GitHub repo. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!