swmpc

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Tired of janky MPD clients? Same.

swmpc is a fast, elegant MPD client built exclusively for macOS & iOS. A clean, native interface that feels right at home on your Apple devices.

What you get:

• Fast library browsing: Search artists, albums, and tracks instantly.
• Sane queue management: Add, remove, reorder. Drag and drop. No friction.
• Full playlist support: Create, edit, delete, and populate playlists without fighting the UI.
• Favorites: Quick access to tracks you actually listen to.
• AI-powered smart fill: Generate playlists or queue tracks by genre or mood.
• Menu bar controls: Skip, pause, adjust—without switching windows.
• Widget support: Control playback from your home or lock screen.
• Open source: Inspect it, fork it, contribute. It's your app too.
• Universal purchase: One price. Get it for both Mac and iPhone. Done.

Screenshots

Installation

The latest version of swmpc is available on the App Store. I've decided to make swmpc a paid app to help offset the many hours spent developing it, as well as expenses like the annual $100 Apple Developer License fee. Of course, you're also welcome to compile swmpc yourself from source.

swmpc is an universal app, meaning you only need to purchase it once to get it on both macOS and iOS.

If you built it yourself and still want to chip in, you can sponsor me on GitHub instead.

Requirements

• macOS 27.0 or later
• iOS 27.0 or later
• A server speaking MPD protocol 0.21 or later

Server compatibility

swmpc speaks the MPD protocol, not one particular implementation. The floor is protocol 0.21, which is where everything the app relies on arrived: filter expressions, server-side sorting, albumart, and the plugin name in outputs. Newer versions unlock readpicture (0.22), larger artwork chunks (0.22.4), and sorting the queue and by song title (0.24).

	Server	Protocol	Notes
✅	MPD	0.21+	The reference implementation, and what swmpc is built against.
✅	MPD appliances such as moOde and Volumio	varies	Real MPD underneath, so they behave like the above. They often pin an older build than MPD's current release.
⚠️	OwnTone	0.23	Browsing, playback, queue and artwork work. Playlists are add-only: it implements none of playlistclear, playlistdelete, playlistmove or rename, so creating, renaming, reordering and removing from playlists (including un-favouriting) all fail. Forced rescans are unavailable too. Reported as owntone-server#2034.
❌	Mopidy with Mopidy-MPD	0.19	Below the floor, so swmpc refuses to connect. Mopidy-MPD targets the 0.19 protocol: no filter expressions, no sort, and no albumart or readpicture, so no album artwork (mopidy-mpd#17). It also sends track numbers as 3/12 where MPD sends 3 (mopidy-mpd#83).

✅ supported  ·  ⚠️ works with limitations  ·  ❌ not supported

Compatibility is judged purely on the version a server announces. A server that announces a version whose commands it does not actually implement is a bug worth reporting to that project rather than working around here.

Also by me

Check out my other project, Tripstitch — a smart trip planner that puts together your perfect itinerary.