retro_player.mp3 is an offline MP3 player for iPhone and Mac. It plays the music you already own on a square LED display, the way a player from 1983 would have if it had been designed in Germany and shipped in 2003.
Free. No account, no streaming, no ads.
Bars: twelve columns with red peak caps that hang, then fall.
Tap the display to change style, like in the app. The demo is silent. Pick or drop an MP3 to see your own music; it never leaves this tab.
One App Store listing, one free download for both. The Mac gets the same player in a window, with your lists and a search field beside it.
Warm paper by day, black glass after dark. The app follows your device; this page follows the switch at the top.
Requires iOS 17 or later.
for iPhone
Requires macOS 15 or later.
for Mac
Black, white and one red. Less, but better.
A 36 × 36 LED panel plays along with your music, unlit dots and all. Six styles: Bars, Mirror, Scope, Pulse, Warp and Rain. Tap the display and the dots fly over to the next one.
Leave Auto VJ on and now and then the panel plays an effect on its own: a swirl, a burst, a dissolve or a CRT wipe.
Turn it on and every track crossfades into the next. retro_player trims the silence at the end of one song and the start of the next, so the mix lands on the music.
Hi-Fi, Warm or Club, shaped as it plays: an EQ, gentle compression and a limiter on everything you hear. It can’t restore what an MP3 threw away, and your files never change.
Every song gets its own generated LED cover: invaders, synthwave suns, rings, skylines. It shows on the lock screen and in Control Center too.
Show track names clean, as the raw file name, or the way they looked on a 2003 file share.
xX~gRiD tHeOrY - lEsS bUt BeTtEr~Xx.mp3
Your music lives on your device, so it plays with no signal. MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV and AIFF. Make lists, reorder them, play them.
retro_player.mp3 has no store and no streaming. You bring the files. Three ways to get them onto an iPhone:
On the Mac app itself, drag files onto the window or press ⌘O.
retro_player.mp3 never sees your music. Your files, titles, artists, file names and list names stay on your device. There are no ads, and nothing tracks you across other apps or websites.
To find bugs, the app sends anonymous crash reports and counts of which features get used. You can turn that off in Settings › Privacy. This website has no cookies and no analytics.
Yes. retro_player.mp3 is free on the App Store for iPhone and Mac, with no ads and no subscription.
Completely. It plays files stored on your device, so it works in airplane mode, on the underground and anywhere else without a signal.
No. It plays audio files you own: MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV and AIFF. Downloads from streaming services are locked to their own apps. Music you bought from the iTunes Store, ripped from CDs or downloaded from Bandcamp works.
Yes. The same App Store listing installs a native Mac app with the full player, your lists, search, a mini player and keyboard shortcuts. It needs macOS 15 or later.
No. Each device keeps its own library, inside the app. Import the files you want on each one.
Any iPhone with iOS 17 or later. On iPhone Duo it opens into two panes: the player on one side, your lists on the other.
Imported copies, lists and settings are removed with the app. The originals you imported from stay where they were.
It’s the app’s display code, ported to the browser: the same 36 × 36 grid, the same six styles and the same transitions. If you play your own file here, it is analysed inside this tab and never uploaded.
Something else? See support or email josepbordesjove@gmail.com.