The iTunes alternative for people who still own their music

iTunes was retired in macOS Catalina (2019). The Music app that replaced it is built around Apple Music streaming, not your local library. If you have a real collection of audio files — purchased downloads, ripped CDs, bandcamp albums, lossless rips — you need a music player that treats your library as the main thing, not a side panel.

Why iTunes users feel orphaned

iTunes used to do three things at once: manage your local library, sync iPods and iPhones, and sell you music from the iTunes Store. When Apple split iTunes into Music, TV, Podcasts, and Finder-based device syncing, the local-library use case became second-class. The current Music app:

• Defaults to Apple Music streaming and surfaces it everywhere
• Mixes "in my library" with "available to stream" in ways that confuse
• Doesn't run on Windows the way iTunes did (the new Windows app is limited)
• Doesn't run on Linux at all
• Has no clean equivalent of the old Smart Playlists workflow for advanced users

What SongCart does instead

• Local library first. Point SongCart at your music folder. It scans your files, reads tags, and builds a library that is yours and only yours.
• Cross-platform. macOS, Windows, and Linux. Same app, same data.
• Lossless support. FLAC, ALAC, WAV play natively, with full metadata.
• Smart playlists. Reborn for the modern collector — rules-based playlists with the depth iTunes users miss.
• Massive libraries. Built to stay fast on collections in the 100k-track range.
• No account required. No iCloud sign-in. No "Sign in with Apple ID" gate. Just open the app and use your music.
• No telemetry. Your listening history is yours.

Migrating from iTunes / Apple Music

If you still have an iTunes Library.xml or a Music app library, your audio files almost certainly live somewhere on your disk (commonly ~/Music/Music/Media or ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media). SongCart will scan that folder directly. Playlists exported as M3U or PLS can be re-imported. Ratings and play counts that the Music app stores in its database don't transfer automatically — that's a roadmap item.

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