Do you remember when a music player felt like it belonged to you?
Back then, players were small, colorful and full of personality. You could change their skin, move every window exactly where you wanted it, watch the spectrum bounce at 2 a.m. and recognize every button without thinking.
Then music apps slowly turned into large, quiet rectangles designed to keep you inside a subscription.
PixelAmp brings a little of that old magic back to the Mac.
Your music library called. It misses the year 2000.
PixelAmp is a native Apple Silicon music player for Navidrome and other Subsonic-compatible servers. It gives your self-hosted collection the compact desktop player it deserves, complete with separate windows, bright colors, tactile controls and a spectrum that moves with the music.
If you ever spent far too long choosing a skin or lining up a playlist window pixel by pixel, you will feel at home immediately.
The look is deliberately nostalgic, but the application underneath is modern Swift built for macOS. No emulation, no ancient binary, no compatibility tricks.
Old-school personality, modern Mac features
- A compact player with artwork, LED-style track information and a live audio spectrum
- Albums, songs, artists and playlists from your Navidrome library
- Fast search, favorites, queue management and scrobbling
- A real 10-band equalizer with ReplayGain and clipping prevention
- Global shortcuts, media keys and macOS Now Playing integration
- Menu bar controls and optional track-change notifications
- Lyrics, artwork caching and session restoration
- M3U8 playlist import and export
- Private automatic updates through Sparkle
Your server. Your files. Your player.
PixelAmp does not try to replace your music server. It simply makes it more enjoyable to use.
Your collection stays on your own Navidrome or Subsonic-compatible server. There are no ads, no recommendation algorithm and no engagement feed. You choose the music. PixelAmp plays it.
If you do not have a server yet, I wrote a separate guide about running Navidrome with Docker and taking back control of your music library.
Made properly for macOS
PixelAmp is signed with an Apple Developer ID, uses Hardened Runtime and is notarized by Apple. Gatekeeper can verify it just like any properly distributed Mac application.
Your purchase includes a personal licence for the initial download and future private updates. PixelAmp stores that licence securely in the macOS Keychain, while Sparkle handles signed updates inside the app.
€6.66. Once.
PixelAmp costs €6.66 as a one-time purchase. There is no subscription, no premium equalizer and no monthly fee for the privilege of listening to your own music.
You get the signed and notarized Apple Silicon app, your personal licence and access to future private updates.
PixelAmp currently requires macOS 14 or newer on Apple Silicon, plus access to a Navidrome or Subsonic-compatible server.
Put some pixels back in your playlist
If the words “skin folder”, “visualizer” and “playlist editor” still make you smile, PixelAmp was made with you in mind.
Visit pixelamp.archy.net, turn up the volume and make your Mac a little less boring.