Ink
music
a music player that looks like nothing else. your files, your own server, youtube music and independent radio in one place; new music picked by people, not a feed; your phone and computer in step. for android, mac, windows and linux. no ads, no accounts, no paywall, ever. open source.
the computer's builds aren't signed yet. mac (apple silicon): the first time, system settings, privacy & security, open anyway. windows: more info, run anyway. linux: install with apt or dnf, which bring mpv along.
What you
hear
tap the format over any cover: the sound's whole way to your ears, step by step.
where it came from, the file, which decoder, even volume and the equalizer (turn them off right there and watch it change), what android does to it, and where it plays. cast to a receiver and ink music asks the receiver itself: a denon in direct says so, and the page says exact: yes.
plug in a usb dac and ink music drives it itself, on any phone: every sample as it is in the file, at its own rate and depth, past android's mixer, the dac's own clock read back to you. your headphones' correction can come along if you like, and the page says plainly which it is.
Find your
look
the cover, the background and a song's spotify canvas, each its own effect: dither, pixels, blur, fluted glass, or as it is.
covers move where a record has a moving one, and a song's canvas plays behind it. pause, and they settle.
Into the
next
automix: one song runs into the next, the way a dj would do it.
each song measured as it plays, so a fading outro hands over as it fades. where both beats are clear, the old song's end is matched to the new one's tempo and beat, and the bass handed across halfway. the progress line turns into a crossfader while it happens, the beats ticking along it. never inside a record played in order. or just a plain crossfade, if you'd rather.
Word by
word
lyrics, each word lit as it's sung.
timed word by word where better lyrics has them, line by line from lrclib or youtube music where it doesn't, and shown plainly where there are no times at all. drag to read them all; tap a line to play from there.
On your
computer
The same ink music
mac, windows and linux, in the same look: a rail of words, the page, and what's playing beside it. your files, your server, youtube music and the radio.
Full screen
the player as a record's inner sleeve: the cover, the lyrics big, up next, the notes. or a mini player, a strip over everything else.
Exact sound
pick the output, have it to itself, and hear files as recorded, at their own rate and depth. flac, alac, gapless, by mpv.
The look
moving covers, a background behind the player in blur, fluted glass, pixels or dither, and a song's spotify canvas, signed in on your phone.
What you hear
click the format over the cover: the sound's whole path as mpv plays it, step by step, and whether it's exact.
In step
pair your phone once with a code, and the two keep each other current over your wifi: what you've heard, what you love, your sign-ins. nothing goes through anyone else.
Continue here
start a record on your phone and pick it up on your computer where you left off, or the other way round. steer the phone's music from the computer.
From wherever
it lives
Your files
everything in the phone's music folder, filed by record and artist, flac and hi-res as they are.
Your server
navidrome or any subsonic server: your whole library from home, or kept on the phone to play with no signal.
YouTube Music
search and play without an account. signed in: your playlists, likes, mixes and uploads, both ways, and premium's 256 kbps if you have it.
Spotify playlists
brought in from a file (exportify, or spotify's own download), each song found in your music or on youtube music.
Independent radio
sixty-odd listener-powered stations chosen by hand, kexp to nts to radio alhara, each saying what it's playing.
Podcasts
any show from apple's directory or any feed, at any speed, the silences skipped, your place kept on phone and computer.
Ink
music picked by people, not a feed. ink weekly is its cover: what we're listening to at ink, a new volume every friday night.
then the record of the day, what critics and djs are picking (pitchfork, bandcamp daily, npr, the quietus and more), what's out this friday, festivals coming up, and moods made by ink. each song plays from your own copy when you have it, and from youtube music when you don't.
Made for you
from your listening and nothing else: fresh finds, deep cuts, loved long ago, a year ago today, new to you. and what's new from your artists, at the top of listen.
The details
Sound
even volume (replaygain), an equalizer with tunings for thousands of headphones, soft pause, 24 bit kept 24 bit, and bit-perfect to a usb dac.
Lyrics
word by word or line by line, big over the cover; tap a line to play from there.
Five looks
the player whole-screen over the cover: blur, fluted glass, pixels, dither, plain. an ipod clickwheel on the cover to scrub.
Everywhere
chromecast speakers and tvs, dlna receivers with the original hi-res file, android auto, a home-screen widget.
Yours
your year, any day of it. scrobbling to listenbrainz and last.fm. radio when the queue runs out. private listening, when you'd rather it wasn't kept.
Offline
your server's songs and youtube music's kept on the phone or computer, to play with no signal.
Free, and open
gpl-3.0, the source beside the download. no ads, no accounts of ours, no tracking. nothing of yours leaves your phone or computer except to your own server, your own other devices on your wifi, and the services that answer what you ask for.
built with claude as a coding partner: the design, the decisions and the testing are done by hand, and every release is tried on a real phone and computer first.
it's ink's little sister. if you like how it looks, ink is the home screen in the same look: the launcher, for phones and tvs.
