Mac Music Library Software Advice

[ClearHearing]

I have a Mac that I use to listen to music in my home office. I am currently using Apple's Music app but the Apple Music cloud library does not support more than CD quality files (it transcodes any higher resolution files to CD quality when you upload to the cloud).

Is there any good consensus on an Apple Music replacement for managing my own music files that would be stored on a cloud service, in my case iCloud, for safekeeping and to free up storage on local devices?

I do not need to stream to any device other than the Mac in my office. But I need to be able to recover my music information, including metadata, if I replace my Mac with another one. It should be easy to edit metadata and add artwork. It should work with eventually large music libraries.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Martini]

Audirvana

 

[ClearHearing]

Audirvana

I want to play my own music files. At first glance, this app seems to be about external streaming services. Is it also useful for managing personal libraries?

 

[chelgrian]

I want to play my own music files. At first glance, this app seems to be about external streaming services. Is it also useful for managing personal libraries?

You want https://swinsian.com/

You can use Music entirely locally without cloud of any kind and use ALAC but it’s a little clunky because the UI is trying to push you towards Apple Music.

Edit: Misunderstood what OP wanted.

 

[JRowland]

I want to play my own music files. At first glance, this app seems to be about external streaming services. Is it also useful for managing personal libraries?

I have an external hard drive with just my music saved on it. When I’ve changed macs everything has worked well. I don’t stream, and I don’t play from my computer. I just use it to manage my iTunes on devices but now I’m mostly cloud and pay Apple .99 a month for unlimited music. I still have my own library I just run it off my phone or an iPod instead of computer.

 

[ClearHearing]

I installed a trial version of Audirvana and it does not seem to support streaming from files on a cloud service, like Apple's iCloud.

 

[ClearHearing]

You want https://swinsian.com/

You can use Music entirely locally without cloud of any kind and use ALAC but it’s a little clunky because the UI is trying to push you towards Apple Music.

Swinsian uses a Mac-looking interface and seems to play nice with the rest of the Mac's audio software, unless Audirvana, which wants to take the over the audio portion of the operating system.

Unfortunately, Swinsian seems to support only locally stored music, like Audirvana.

Independently of this thread, I have come across Evermusic as an app specifically about storing your music in the cloud and streaming it from the cloud instead of locally. Unfortunately, its interface seems to be a lot less Mac-looking than Swinsian.

Has anyone else used Evermusic?

 

[chelgrian]

I installed a trial version of Audirvana and it does not seem to support streaming from files on a cloud service, like Apple's iCloud.

Sorry I misread your post there aren’t really any things which allow you to stream your own files from a cloud service because it would cost too much.

Apple Music is really matching local music against its library for streaming purposes which means that Apple aren’t having to store any extra data over and above what they have to anyway.

 

[Phorize]

I have a Mac that I use to listen to music in my home office. I am currently using Apple's Music app but the Apple Music cloud library does not support more than CD quality files (it transcodes any higher resolution files to CD quality when you upload to the cloud).

Is there any good consensus on an Apple Music replacement for managing my own music files that would be stored on a cloud service, in my case iCloud, for safekeeping and to free up storage on local devices?

I do not need to stream to any device other than the Mac in my office. But I need to be able to recover my music information, including metadata, if I replace my Mac with another one. It should be easy to edit metadata and add artwork. It should work with eventually large music libraries.

Thanks for any advice.

VLC plays from several mainstream cloud storage services and is quite powerful software.

Edit: just seen you need iCloud support. I can't imagine apple would ever allow compatibility with iCloud and other software, their whole business model is about imprisoning their customers.

 

[ClearHearing]

VLC plays from several mainstream cloud storage services and is quite powerful software.

Edit: just seen you need iCloud support. I can't imagine apple would ever allow compatibility with iCloud and other software, their whole business model is about imprisoning their customers.

I mean iCloud Drive, which is just like Dropbox, etc.

 

[ClearHearing]

Sorry I misread your post there aren’t really any things which allow you to stream your own files from a cloud service because it would cost too much.

Apple Music is really matching local music against its library for streaming purposes which means that Apple aren’t having to store any extra data over and above what they have to anyway.

For the first statement, I found Evermusic, but there are things I do not like about it. Does anyone use it?

Apple Music allows me to upload any files I want to, it just transcodes them to CD (lossless) quality.

 

[MatrixS2000]

I mean iCloud Drive, which is just like Dropbox, etc.

I would suggest changing your use case slightly. Keep a copy of the music locally, then you can add the files to Music and stream your files locally. Use iCloud as a backup of your local files.

 

[obsessive9119]

The easiest option is keeping your files locally, on an external drive if needed. Personally, I run a mini pc as a server and stream music from it, though that’s only really worth the effort if you’re streaming to multiple devices (or like fiddling).

 

[JRowland]

The downside I find with iCloud is when moving through areas without cell signal. This probably wouldn’t apply for strictly home use. If you do use iTunes while moving around outside the home range with good probability of no cell signal intermittently like I have and want the songs (say in a playlist) to work at all times they still need to be loaded into the device memory itself.

 

[ClearHearing]

I would suggest changing your use case slightly. Keep a copy of the music locally, then you can add the files to Music and stream your files locally. Use iCloud as a backup of your local files.

For my intended library size, this would require an external drive and somehow getting iCloud Drive or another cloud service to have its local mirror on the external drive. But it would allow me to use Apple's Music app, which would be great.

 

[ClearHearing]

The downside I find with iCloud is when moving through areas without cell signal. This probably wouldn’t apply for strictly home use. If you do use iTunes while moving around outside the home range with good probability of no cell signal intermittently like I have and want the songs (say in a playlist) to work at all times they still need to be loaded into the device memory itself.

Sure. Any cloud idea is going to require a stable internet connection.

 

[ClearHearing]

The easiest option is keeping your files locally, on an external drive if needed. Personally, I run a mini pc as a server and stream music from it, though that’s only really worth the effort if you’re streaming to multiple devices (or like fiddling).

I want to have the music library in cloud storage to avoid the external drive, but I agree it is an option.

 

[JRowland]

Sure. Any cloud idea is going to require a stable internet connection.

This is why I suggested the external hard drive in addition to. You had asked about switching computers and not wanting to lose your library. Trusting a cloud is too much there for me personally. I’m probably over the top in that I have my originals, ripped versions on a hard drive, and a cloud. I’ve paid a lot of money for music over the years and trusting the storage to a corporation alone is a little scary, add in needing a communication corporation for access to what is stored by another corporation but I own by itself with no local back up is a no go for me.

 

[obsessive9119]

This is why I suggested the external hard drive in addition to. You had asked about switching computers and not wanting to lose your library. Trusting a cloud is too much there for me personally. I’m probably over the top in that I have my originals, ripped versions on a hard drive, and a cloud. I’ve paid a lot of money for music over the years and trusting the storage to a corporation alone is a little scary, add in needing a communication corporation for access to what is stored by another corporation but I own by itself with no local back up is a no go for me.

Ha, that’s not over the top. I have mine
- on my server
- synced to the cloud
- synced nightly to a “hot” external drive
- synched monthly to two “cold” external drives, one of which I keep at work.

 

[ClearHearing]

Apple Music allows me to upload any files I want to, it just transcodes them to CD (lossless) quality.

Oh wow, I just learned that in many cases this is not true. I ripped a CD and added it to the Music app library, which synced it to the cloud. I then clicked Remove Download in the Music app, which deleted the local files I had ripped. I then played the album in the Music app. The album started playing in Dolby Atmos format as there is an Atmos format of this album in the Apple Music streaming service. So Apple Music did look for a copy of the album in its streaming service library and played that instead.

What confused me earlier was that uploading CD quality audio files on your machine does work if the album cannot be matched to one Apple Music has in its archive. It appears you can look at whether a supposedly uploaded file is truly uploaded in CD quality or just matched to an Apple Music file by right clicking on the file, selecting Get Info, and then clicking on the Files tab on the upper right.