Legend Music

Legend Music is a macOS-first local music player that treats your library like a first-class citizen. It stays private, keeps playlists synced as you organize files, and remembers your queue between sessions. The multi-window UI includes a Skia visualizer and floating overlay—all without accounts or uploads.

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Why you'll love it

• Local-first and private: uses your folders, reads ID3 tags, caches artwork, and never uploads your library.
• High performance, low consumption: It uses minimal CPU and memory to avoid draining your battery.
• Always in sync: native filesystem watcher rescans when Finder changes happen; queue and preferences persist across restarts.
• Flexible workspace: multiple windows for library, visualizer, and settings with drag-and-drop queue management.

Install

• Install the latest version from Releases

Add and browse your library

• Library folders are watched natively; adding or removing a folder triggers a rescan and artwork caching.
• Browse playlists and search; double-click to play or drag tracks into the queue.

Play your music

• Drag files or folders from Finder straight into the playlist to enqueue; reorder with drag-and-drop.
• The queue is persisted (queue.m3u plus saved index/time), so the session survives restarts.
• Customize playback toolbar and bottom bar shortcuts under Settings → Customize UI.

Windows and shortcuts

Window/Action	Default hotkey	Notes
Toggle Media Library	L	Opens the tree + track list.
Toggle Visualizer	V	Skia visualizer with preset picker.
Search current list	J	Focuses the omnibox/search input.
Play/Pause	Media key or Space	Space works when the playlist has no text focus.
Next/Previous	Media keys	Falls back to queue navigation controls.
Toggle Shuffle	⌥ + S	Uses settings$.playback.shuffle.
Cycle Repeat	⌥ + R	Off → track → queue.

Visuals and overlay

• Skia-driven visualizer window streams FFT frames from the native player.
• A floating current-song overlay can stay on top while you work elsewhere.

Technical details

• Stack: React Native 0.78 for macOS, @legendapp/state, NativeWind/Tailwind (global.css, tailwind.config.js), design primitives in src/legend-kit.
• Native modules: Objective-C++ bridges in macos/LegendMusic-macOS (AudioPlayer, WindowManager, DragDropView, FileDialog, FileSystemWatcher, SFSymbol) consumed via src/native-modules.
• Persistence: JSON caches and settings under ~/Library/Caches/LegendMusic plus queue exports as .m3u; state is restored on launch.
• Scripts: bun run start (Metro), bun run mac (macOS app), bun run test (Jest), bun run lint/bun run lint:fix (Biome), bun run build (Release build), bun run package (codesign + notarize), bun run publish (build + package).
• Build notes: run bun bootstrap once (installs dependencies and pods), then use bun run build for a Release .app. Tests live in __tests__/ or *.test.ts(x).

Build and launch from source

1. Prereqs: macOS 13+, Xcode 15+ CLI tools, Node 18+, Bun, Ruby + Bundler + CocoaPods; Watchman recommended.
2. Install dependencies and pods: bun bootstrap.
3. Start Metro in one terminal: bun run start.
4. Launch the macOS app in another: bun run mac (opens Legend Music.app).
5. Open Settings → Library and add your music folders.