Cacophony for Apple Music

Cacophony is an Apple Music app for Windows and Mac. The interface is native, written in Rust instead of being a website stuffed into a window, so it's quick and light. On my PC the window is up in under a second, and while a song plays it uses about 300 MB of memory, only around 100 MB of which is Cacophony itself. The rest is WebView2, the Edge engine that does the actual playing. On a Mac, where Apple's WebKit plays the music, it's about 150 MB.

Sign in with your Apple Music account and it's all there: your library and playlists, Home, New, Radio, search, and Explore for digging through genres.

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What's in it

• Synced lyrics that move along with the song, full screen if you want. When Apple has no lyrics for a track, Cacophony checks LRCLIB.
• A 10-band equalizer with Apple's presets.
• A mini player you can park in a corner.
• Scrobbling to Last.fm and ListenBrainz, and a Discord status. They stay off until you connect them.
• Media keys and the Windows media controls, cover art and seeking included.
• 52 languages, the same ones Apple Music comes in.

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), or macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, on Apple silicon or Intel.
• An Apple Music subscription for full songs. Without one you only get the 30-second previews.
• On Windows, Microsoft Edge WebView2, which is what actually plays the music. Windows 11 already has it, and on Windows 10 the app tells you if it's missing.

Good to know

• Songs play at 256 kbps AAC, the same as Apple's web player. There's no Lossless, no Dolby Atmos and no offline downloads.
• The Windows download isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen will probably complain the first time you open it. Click "More info", then "Run anyway". The Mac download is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other app.
• The Mac version is newer, and I've tested it less than the Windows one. If something's off on your Mac, tell me in the comments.
• No account, no analytics, no ads. Here's exactly what it sends, and where.

It's $5 once, no subscription, and you get both the Windows and the Mac download. If something breaks or you want a feature, tell me in the comments below.

Cacophony is an independent app. It isn't made, endorsed or sponsored by Apple. Apple Music is a trademark of Apple Inc.