lytti
a music player for people who own music
Just the music you already own.
Features
six tracks, all on device
Karaoke-style lyrics that follow along as you listen. Portrait or landscape.
Flip between library views until it feels like yours. Fix titles, artists, covers - they're your records; edit them like it.
"More like this" - matched by the artists and genres already in your library. Computed entirely on your phone. No server ever hears what you play.
Why it exists
Apple Music is hostile to my own library. The search doesn’t find what’s on my phone, and the settings I want aren’t there.
So I made the app I’d rather use. On my phone, and on the media players I keep docked.
Kay Tomas
Fair questions?
A1Where do I get the music?
From the library you already have - your old MP3s, your ripped CDs, your old iTunes library. Want more? Buy albums on iTunes or anywhere else and import them into your Apple library, then sync them across; lytti picks them up like everything else. One catch worth knowing before you start: Apple's Sync Library setting and syncing from a computer cannot both be on - see A5.
A2Is FLAC supported?
Not yet, and whether it gets built depends on how many people ask for it - it's on the roadmap, planned for late 2026. If FLAC is your dealbreaker, tell me below.
A3Is it really free?
Yes, right now, in full - nothing is held back and there is nothing to buy inside it. Later versions will add a one-time unlock for people arriving then, never a subscription. Download it while it is free and you keep everything, forever.
A4Why can't I edit my playlists?
The ones you make in lytti are yours completely - name them, reorder them, add and remove songs, delete them. The ones that came over from the Music app are read-only, and that's Apple's rule rather than mine: an app is only allowed to change playlists it made itself. Getting round it would mean asking you to sign in to an Apple Music account, which is the whole thing lytti exists to avoid. So there's “Edit a Copy in lytti” instead - you get your own version to rearrange, and the original stays exactly as it was.
A5What if I use Sync Library?
Then your computer-synced albums aren't on the phone any more, and that's Apple's doing rather than mine: turning Sync Library on replaces them with your Apple Music library, and only what you've downloaded plays offline. lytti shows what the phone actually has, so the shelf looks the same in here. If those albums are the ones you care about, keep Sync Library off and sync from your Mac or PC the way you always have - that's the setup lytti is built around.
Roadmap
what has shipped, and what is comingYour library on the car's screen: your own menu as the tabs, albums as covers, and what's playing. Offline, like the rest of it.
Next upMove your own FLAC files onto the phone and they sit next to the library you already have - one library, not two apps. It only gets built if enough people ask, and if it does it's a one-time purchase, never a subscription.
Q4 2026The same library on a bigger screen, not a separate app for each device.
Q1 2027When another device on your network is already playing, drive it from the one in your hand - see what's on, skip, pause, put something else on. Same Wi-Fi, same Apple ID, nothing to sign into.
Q1 2027Complete
v 1.0Aug Sept 2026
The first release - free, no account, nothing to subscribe to.
v 1.1Sept 2026
Sync an album or buy one, and it is there the next time you open lytti.
The lyrics tagged in your files, synced ones included, with no connection needed.
Every play is kept, and written to a spreadsheet file you can take with you.
v 1.2Oct 2026
Heart a song or an album, and find them all under Favorites in the menu.
Turn it on and what you listen to goes to your Last.fm profile, also after a spell offline.
Artists open on a photo, a few lines about them and the albums you don't have yet.
With lyrics open the controls step aside, upright as well as on its side.
On a charger lytti stays awake, shows what's playing and dims.
Albums, artists and the player fill the whole screen. Tap a cover to see it up close.
A soft wash of color behind the library, or plain if you'd rather.
Everything you've played lately, newest first.
Dates are intent, not a promise. Only what is under Complete has shipped.
