This month in digital music libraries - September 2026
September 25, 2026 in digital music by Dan Gravell
New local music players arrived this September: a cross-platform upstart, a polished macOS app and an open-sourced mobile client for self-hosters. Meanwhile, on the Web, ListenBrainz hit some serious growing pains, a new site maps classical concerts around the world and a beautifully crafted site documents how far the comforts and technologies of our domestic environment has come. In the real (physical) world: audio player hardware, a car industry experiment proved how much we care about phone integration and someone stored music on paper (and its not what you’re thinking).
New waves of local players
Three new ways to play your own files landed this month, and pleasingly, all three are free and open source. Each takes a different angle: one aims at every desktop and phone, one is a love letter to macOS, and one is a white-label client for Subsonic servers.
First up, a new cross-platform player that promises media “without the friction”. We’ve heard it before, but it’s free to try so…
A new cross platform local music player ppplayer.com
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-23T14:00:44.945Z
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Where PPPlayer spreads itself across every platform, Petrichor is unashamedly Mac-only - and very polished for it, with impressive support for over 40 formats and streaming-app-style discovery aimed squarely at the music you already own.
A new #macOS music player for local files petrichor.page
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-13T13:01:34.300Z
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And for the self-hosters, our sister-service Astiga has open-sourced its iOS music player. It “speaks” Subsonic so can connect to any Subsonic server, runs on Android too, and we’re openly asking for help with development!
We've published an #opensource version of our #iOS music player. It connects to any #Subsonic server and actually runs in #Android too. Want to help in the development? Check it out: github.com/Astiga/KSub #selfhosted
— Astiga - the streaming service for your own music (@asti.ga) 2026-09-03T15:15:12.505Z
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The portable player question
If new software wasn’t enough, September also asked: is a dedicated portable player still worth buying in 2026? One writer weighs up the case for and against against the smartphone that’s already in your pocket.
When should you get a dedicated audio player, and when should you just settle for an Android based phone? kevinboone.me/pmp.html
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-01T13:30:39.664Z
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Speaking of dedicated listening: after months of rumour, Sonos confirmed its long-awaited headphones, alongside a new soundbar and a helping of AI features.
Sonos confirm headphone rumours, new soundbar and AI improvements www.techradar.com/audio/multi-...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-07T14:15:07.867Z
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Services and discovery
On the Web, two very different pieces of music infrastructure caught the eye this month.
The first is a cautionary tale about success: ListenBrainz’ use has spiked - from one billion listens in seven years to two and a half billion over the following 18 months - that its statistics and playlists are now failing weekly while the team rebuilds the backend. Your listens are safe; the visualisations, for now, may be inaccessible.
#ListenBrainz - a victim of its own success! blog.metabrainz.org/2026/08/19/g... KUTGW!
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-03T14:15:07.379Z
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Now, a genuinely useful resource that maps classical music concerts around the world, filterable by composer or even by individual work. For classical enthusiasts, it’s a rabbit hole - hopefully a good one.
A great resource: classical music concerts around the world classicalbot.com thanks @RobertDruska
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-16T14:15:27.106Z
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Experiments and curiosities
Two stories this month that are equal parts experiment and head-scratcher.
First, the car industry accidentally ran an A/B test. GM dropped CarPlay from its EVs; Honda rebadged the same Chevy as the Prologue and kept it. The result: the Honda has outsold its twin by 43%, 73% and 166% over successive periods. Drivers, it turns out, vote with their dollars for phone integration.
It's not _really_ an A/B test, but there's probably some truth in this... a.wholelottanothing.org/the-car-indu...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-11T14:15:13.155Z
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And backups in a different way: storing music on paper, by encoding around 3MB of actual audio into a QR code on each sheet. Not a link to the audio - the audio itself.
The Internet continues to be magnificent.
Storing music on paper - how to store a 3MB music file in a QR code (the audio... not a link to the audio!) www.instructables.com/Paper-Tunes-...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-08-30T14:01:26.597Z
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A moment of awe
We’ll finish on a gentler note. A beautifully written study on everyday domestic abundance opens with Edward Bellamy’s 1888 vision of music “perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will” - then notes that he imagined this as the very limit of human felicity. A nice reminder how far we’ve come.
A retrospective on progress, leading with an insightful and highly temporally accurate declaration from the nineteenth century ordinaryabundance.com
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-09-05T15:01:51.060Z
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See you next month!
Photo by Bruno Bučar on Unsplash
