Ferric vs Audio+MIDI Player

Ferric brings back the cassette tape as a real music player for your iPhone. Not a gimmick, not just a skin over your library. A full cassette experience where you build the tapes, curate the tracks, and watch the reels spin while your music plays. MAKE YOUR TAPES Start by picking a shell. Chrome, midnight black, amber, clear, oxide brown, electric blue, or retro. Each one has its own look and feel. Give your cassette a name, then fill both sides with songs from your music library or Apple Music. Side A and Side B are real. Flip the tape during playback just like you would with a physical cassette. The progress carries over correctly, the reels spin the right direction, and the tape fills up as you listen. DECORATE THEM Every cassette has a drawing surface you can paint on. Use the pen tool to write labels, draw art, or scribble whatever feels right. Swap between colors, adjust the brush size, drop in stickers, or grab the eraser. You can decorate the front, the back, and the top spine. It is your tape. PLAY YOUR MUSIC The player shows your cassette up close with both reels animating in real time. The supply reel shrinks and the takeup reel grows as the tape runs, using the same physics as a physical cassette. The reels spin faster near the end of the tape and slower near the start. Tap forward or back to skip tracks. Hold to seek. The speed ramps up the longer you hold, so scrubbing through a long tape stays quick. Lock screen controls and background playback work the same as any music app. BUILT-IN WEAR Every cassette accumulates wear as you listen. Scratches and surface marks appear gradually, placed deterministically based on each cassette's own wear pattern. No two tapes age the same way. Heavy-use tapes start to show it. YOUR LIBRARY All your cassettes live in a grid view. Tap any one to see its track listing in a style that mirrors the J-cards that used to come inside cassette cases. From there you can flip to the other side, launch the player, or open the drawing editor. WHAT FERRIC IS NOT It is not a streaming service. It does not generate playlists or make recommendations. It is a deliberate, analog-feeling way to organize and play music you already own or have access to through Apple Music. Building a cassette takes a minute. That is the point.

MIDI and music, in one player. Audio+MIDI Player plays MIDI files, MusicXML scores and audio files from a single library. Play them on the iPhone's own grand piano, or send them to your Mac or digital piano — one output button switches where the notes go. ■ MIDI, scores and audio • Standard MIDI files (.mid), with tempo, meter and key • MusicXML (.musicxml / .mxl), played with dynamics, accents, fermatas and more • mp3, AAC / m4a, WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC and ALAC — hi-res FLAC and ALAC as they are ■ On the iPhone, or on your MIDI gear • The built-in grand piano, or an imported General MIDI SoundFont • Wi-Fi (network MIDI / RTP-MIDI) to your Mac or DAW • Bluetooth LE MIDI to digital pianos and wireless MIDI devices • Low-latency USB to a Mac or MIDI gear over one cable • Connects to MIDI Speaker on your Mac automatically ■ A player that's fun to watch • Live spectrum analyzer • 12 effects including vinyl record, cassette, aurora, shooting stars, fireworks, galaxy, snow globe, VU meters and piano keys • Effects like the piano keys follow the notes — even for audio files, analyzed right on the iPhone • Playback speed 0.5–2.0× ■ A library that finds it fast • Group by album, artist, year and more • Search, sort and favorites • Cover art and song info editing • Thumbnail and list layouts, and editing many songs at once • Automatic folders by artist, album, year or type ■ Keep your songs where you like • On this iPhone, in iCloud Drive, or in a Files app folder (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox…) • With iCloud Drive, songs download when played, and ones you haven't played can be removed from the iPhone automatically • Favorites, playlists and song info sync between devices using the same place ■ Playlists • Your songs in your order, reordered by dragging • Shuffle and repeat ■ Songs from anywhere • Import many files at once from the Files app or iCloud Drive • "Open in Audio+MIDI" from other apps' share sheets • Take just the sound of a video in Photos • Copy from the Finder on a Mac over File Sharing ■ Widgets and the Lock Screen • Home Screen widgets (small and medium) show and control what's playing, with the spectrum • Dress up the medium widget with classic skins (.wsz) ■ Apple Watch • See what's playing, and play, pause, skip or move through the song from your wrist • Pick from songs, favorites and playlists, and switch the output and the effect ■ Share songs via iCloud • "Share to iCloud" hands songs to our piano app Lesson One and MIDI Speaker Every feature is free (ads appear on the Library and Settings screens). Available in English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese.