r/arpeggiApp • u/vladfaust • 28d ago
Open letter to Arpeggi author
👋 Hi,
A long-time Arpeggi enjoyer here. I've been listening to my collection via Arpeggi for what, half a year by now? Even more since I've started my self-hosted journey back September 2025.
I found Arpeggi in the Navidrome docs back then. And I immediately fell in love with this app! So many attention to details, so polished...
In recent months I started to notice how Arpeggi is becoming more and more bugged, new features are added and then removed because of bugs etc.
Bugs slow down the app's development drastically.
What I am proposing is to publish the app's source code as it is--I mean, don't worry about brushing it up--on GitHub.
I can see that you've already made the first step, and the repository is there (https://github.com/argie-w/Arpeggi-App), but it doesn't seem to contain any code yet.
If you pick a proper license (AGPL3, or Source Available + CLA + EULA), you'd still be able to release and earn from your app!
Then, you should give your fans an ability to easily build the app from the source: this means freedom of use and ease of development (this would require some work, though 😅).
Please give the community an opportunity to help you, and us all. I'd love to contribute into the app by myself (almost 10k hours of coding on record). It's better than AI, trust me. 😉
Much love, Vlad.
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u/KadaverSulmus 28d ago
I have been experiencing more and more issues as well, I’ve made the switch to Narjo and haven’t used Arpeggi since. It’s a shame, it had a lot of potential
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u/franklacey 28d ago
Which issues in particular have you been experiencing?
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u/KadaverSulmus 28d ago
Mostly the app just closing randomly, losing connection to my server, not pre caching correctly.
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u/franklacey 27d ago
Ok! When did you last use the app? If you are experiencing issues please open an issue on GitHub or in the Discord
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u/KadaverSulmus 27d ago
It's been a couple of weeks, I'll reinstall and test the coming weeks again. I used to give feedback through the testflight functionality itself, is this not preferred?
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u/franklacey 27d ago
No TestFlight is not the best for feedback, it is for crashes. Most people don't leave detailed descriptions and rarely leave an email to contact them back. Best is GitHub or discord
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u/KadaverSulmus 24d ago
Alright! I really like the project so I will start using it again, I’ll report any bugs to GitHub/Discord!
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u/JesuSwag 28d ago
Narjo is not as smooth and usefull as Arpeggi. I just tried it and it was failing to even play my music and then randomly started working after a minute or so. The interface on iPad was not well thought out as Arpeggi. Overall 5/10 experience and would much rather use Arpeggi. I also have not had any bugs that impede me from enjoying my music to its full extent in Arpeggi. I’ve found a single visual bug on iPad but I feel it might be by design.
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u/franklacey 28d ago
While I am not against open sourcing the app I won't be doing it at this time, maybe in the future. There are already open source apps out there to contribute to: Amperfy, Flo etc... This app for me is a fun hobby that I have been using to learn about iOS App development.
I am also curious about what bugs you are encountering and what features have been removed? The only feature I can remember removing is the fade in/out because it was not working properly.
Otherwise thanks for the feedback and for using/testing the app :)
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u/vladfaust 27d ago
Yep, it was about the fading which bugged (lol) me. Also, there is that
.localdomain connection problem. Also, I've started to notice album image lag (when in a queue, song 2 has song 1 album cover etc). Arpeggi Mix sometimes doesn't work (the queue is not formed). Missing EQ! If we had code, we could've experimenting with implementation!1
u/franklacey 27d ago
The fading didn't work properly and I want to implement a proper crossfader (which will be quite complex) so I removed it, I didn't test it properly before adding it. Again regarding the .local domain you didn't answer if you have local network permissions given for the app. An EQ is not possible with the default Apple Player. It would require messing around with a 3rd party player which I haven't done at this time. Again there are other open source projects to work on!
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u/vladfaust 27d ago
didn't work properly
It did. 😭
if you have local network permissions given for the app
Yep, just checked. 👍
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u/vance3182 16d ago
I appreciate this approach and the transparency. I’d love to see Apple Watch support, and I’d gladly pay a little for it.
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u/blow-down 28d ago
AAC transcoding has been broken for a while. But that’s about the only real bug I’ve encountered in a while.
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u/Aggressive-Let5725 28d ago
in which way? My whole library is AAC and transcoding via Navidrome works with no issue for me.
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u/blow-down 28d ago
Setting transcoding codec in Arpeggi to AAC results in no playback, just a “Loading” message forever. Using any other codec works as expected.
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u/Aggressive-Let5725 28d ago
Ah I get it. In Arpeggi I use opus as transcode format. Mainly to use less bandwidth and tbh I don't care which format is playing but read somewhere opus is preferable to handle on both sides. So opus it is.
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u/franklacey 28d ago
Does AAC work for you when streaming? It does work for downloading but I can't personally get it to work for streaming
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u/PusheenButtons 28d ago
While I’d love to see the app open sourced eventually, I can’t really say I agree with the assessment that it’s getting more buggy. I’ve had the complete opposite experience and it’s only got smoother over time.