Listening to music has changed a lot. I remember having a big collection of CDs and DVDs filled with albums and mixtapes that I would load up on a DVD player connected to a TV for listening to songs.
As the years passed by, I slowly moved to MP3 playback on my computer and mobile phone, which had a 3.5 mm headphone jack that allowed me to listen to tunes on the go.
These days, I stream music on my Android smartphone, and it's been a game-changer for my music-listening journey, opening up new genres and artists that have refined my music taste like never before.
With this article, I want to introduce an open source, ad-free music streaming app that doesn't require an account.
Musify: Tunes On The Go
Based on Flutter, Musify is a collaborative undertaking of over twenty contributors, with Valeri Gokadze leading the project. This app takes inspiration from another app of the same name, but with a different approach to key elements like the user interface.
Musify sources songs from YouTube and does not store or host any media on its servers. I ran it on an Android 12 smartphone that has a 3.5 mm headphone jack to listen to some songs on my IEM.
The Home page is the gateway to songs and artists where you can get recommendations for songs, albums, and playlists that are in the mainstream right now. If you go into the Search tab and type a song/artist/playlist name, the search page populates with multiple results, all arranged neatly.
Simply tapping on one of the songs will start playing it. The music player is a very well-equipped one with a typical song cover photo at the top and playback controls like play/pause, next/previous, shuffle/repeat, and a few extras towards the lower part of the player.
If you notice above, the bottom toolbar includes buttons to save a song for offline playback, add it to a custom playlist, load its lyrics, or add it to the liked songs list. Do keep in mind that loading up the lyrics of a song is subjective, as not all songs will have lyrics available.
Moreover, when you are playing songs from a playlist, another list-like button shows up near the add to playlist button for quick access to the current playback queue.
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When saving songs for offline playback, ensure that you keep the offline playback button (the first one) in the same state as shown above.
The Library page is where you will find any created playlist, recently played songs, liked songs, and songs that have been saved for offline use. If you click on the plus button to the top-right, then you can create a new playlist by giving it a name and image (sourced from the web).
Musify also features a range of customization options for the user interface, allowing users to enable things like a pure black theme for OLED displays, SponsorBlock for avoiding any sponsor segments in long-form content like podcasts, and more.
Even if you have your phone locked, you can use the media controls on your lock screen to easily control playback. During my use, I noticed that switching between songs can be slow, both in the app and via media controls. I am not sure why it happens, but it's manageable.
Overall, Musify is a joy to use, offering a smooth and enjoyable way to stream music, making discovery of new tracks simple, and playbacks effortless.
Install Musify
You can find the recent releases of Musify on F-Droid, and if you want even newer releases, then you can source the APKs from the official website or the project's GitHub repo.
Sourav Rudra
