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.
Cool, but things like Plexamp already exist and have an official iOS app.
You do need to pay for plexamp
No you don’t.
https://www.plex.tv/plexamp/
Ah neat, it used to require PlexPass to use the app at all. Now it only requires PlexPass for most of the app, including some pretty basic features like downloads.
Still, it is nice that there’s some level of “free trial” for it.
To be clear I love PlexAmp and use it as my main audio player, but I’ve paid for a plex lifetime pass.
The point of a streaming music service is to stream, not download.
It’s not a “free trial”. It’s free with paid features.
I also have a lifetime Plex Pass and don’t really use any of the paid features of Plexamp despite using Plexamp a lot.
Nothing there is necessary or really even remotely a “must have”