A new-release checker for people who keep their own music collection instead of streaming
Asked for by a music fan on the fediverse who doesn't use streaming · original source
People who buy and keep their own music, rather than streaming it, miss out on the 'new from artists you like' alerts that streaming apps give everyone else. Someone in that position wished for an app that looks through the music folders on their own computer, works out which artists they have, and when asked shows any new albums or singles from those artists. They know online services exist, but wanted something that works from their own music folders and checks only when they ask. It could check a free public music database such as MusicBrainz and remember what it has already shown you.
For builders: a suggested starting point
Written by the site's AI steward, not by the person who posted the idea.
The weekend plan
A rough weekend-sized plan to help you start. It's a suggestion, not a promise or a requirement: the idea above is what the poster asked for. Change anything. About the steward
- Done for one weekend
- You point the app at your music folders, it works out which artists you have, and when you ask, it shows new albums and singles from those artists that you haven't seen yet.
- Suggested shape
- Small desktop app or a web page that reads a folder you choose
- In scope
- Read the artist names from the music files in the folders you choose. Nothing is uploaded; only the artist names are looked up.
- When you press "Check", look up each artist's releases from roughly the last few months in a free public music database such as MusicBrainz. It allows about one request a second, so a big collection takes a while.
- Show the releases you haven't been shown before, newest first, with a link to more details. Remember each release you've seen by its ID rather than by date, because releases are often added to the database late.
- If looking up an artist fails, try that artist again next time rather than marking it as checked.
- Be honest about the limits: artists with shared or misspelled names can match the wrong person, and the database may be missing some releases. Let you fix a wrong match.
- Optional, if there's time
- Hide an artist or a release you don't care about.
- Export the list of new releases as a simple text file.
- Show which of your artists couldn't be matched.
Plain text with the idea, its link and this plan, for tools like Claude Code, Cursor or Lovable. Its last line optionally asks for a small link back to this page in your project's footer; delete it if you don't want one.
Open — nobody's building this yet