u/tos666

We had the best of both worlds and I don't think we appreciated it. A whole childhood of hand-lettered mixtapes, wearing out one album because it cost two weeks of allowance, guarding the Walkman battery for the bus ride home — and then we grew up into infinite streaming where music is free and somehow means less.

I keep coming back to how much the friction was the point. Saving up for a cassette, hunting through the shop, taping a song off the radio and cutting off the last two seconds every single time — it was hard, and that's exactly what made a new album feel like an event instead of a notification.

So I built a small thing to keep a bit of that in my pocket: an iPhone app called TapeBoy that turns your now-playing song into a spinning cassette — reels turning as it plays, cover art on the tape, right on the home screen. It's my love letter to the era, not a pitch.

But mostly I want to hear yours: what tape or mixtape is burned into your memory? The one a crush made you, the one you wore thin, the J-card you lettered yourself? That's the good stuff.

TestFlight (free): https://testflight.apple.com/join/pMGH2Tef

Disclosure: I'm the developer — posting under the Self Promo - Apps flair, after feedback more than anything.

I made TapeBoy, an iPhone app that gives your now-playing track a cassette-deck look: a home-screen widget where the current song rides on a spinning tape, reels turning as it plays. It hooks into your Spotify now-playing, so whatever you're listening to shows up as a little animated tape.

I grew up when music took real effort to get, and that friction is exactly what made it feel precious — this is my attempt to bring a bit of that feeling to how I listen on Spotify now.

It's free on the App Store; the cassette widget is a one-time $2.99 unlock (no subscription). If you'd rather try the widget before paying, there's a TestFlight where purchases run in sandbox and never charge you.

Would genuinely love feedback from Spotify users — how reliably it tracks now-playing, song changes, artwork, sync delay, anything that feels off.

Two things I'd love you to drop in the comments:

- A nostalgic one: what cassette or mixtape is burned into your memory? The hand-lettered J-card, the tape you wore out, the one a friend made you — I'm collecting these both for inspiration and because I just love the stories.

- A practical one: what features would make you actually keep this on your home screen? Different tape/deck styles, themes, Lock Screen support, animations, colors — tell me what you'd want and I'll build toward it.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6781805772

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pMGH2Tef

Disclosure: I'm the developer — posting per the sub's developer guidelines.

I made TapeBoy, an iPhone app that gives your Apple Music now-playing a cassette-deck look: a home-screen widget where the current track rides on a spinning tape, reels turning as it plays. It works with Apple Music — I grew up when getting music took real effort, and I wanted my library to feel like that again.

It's free on the App Store; the cassette widget is a one-time paid unlock (no subscription). If you'd rather try the widget before paying, there's a TestFlight where in-app purchases run in sandbox and never charge you.

Not here to hard-sell, genuinely after feedback what you miss functionally and visually and how does the app work for you.

Not here to hard-sell, genuinely after feedback on how it fits into how you use Apple Music.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6781805772

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pMGH2Tef

Hi everyone! I’m the solo developer behind TapeBoy.

I’ve been an iOS developer for 15 years, but this is my first hobby app. Everything I’ve built before was for work, so finally making something purely because I wanted it to exist has been a lot of fun.

I grew up when getting new music felt special. Buying a cassette or CD meant saving money, visiting record stores, and spending days listening to the same album. Music wasn’t an endless feed—it felt like something you owned and valued. TapeBoy is my little tribute to that era.

The app was inspired by MD Vinyl and similar “Now Playing” apps, but I wanted to build a cassette deck instead of a turntable. The biggest challenge wasn’t the code—it was the design. I’m much more comfortable writing Swift than drawing realistic cassette decks, so getting everything to look more or less right took far longer than expected. I experimented with AI-generated assets too, but they never quite matched specs and what I had in mind, so most of the final look still required a lot of manual tweaking.

What it does:

• A retro cassette-style music player for Apple Music.
• The cassette reels spin while music is playing.
• Album artwork appears on the cassette label.
• A Home Screen widget that shows your currently playing song as a miniature spinning cassette.

I know there are plenty of music player apps, but most of them follow the same clean glass aesthetic. I wanted something that feels tactile and nostalgic instead.

The app is free to download. The Home Screen widget is a one-time $3 unlock (so it’s freemium), but if you’d like to try it first, the TestFlight version includes the widget for free because TestFlight purchases use Apple’s sandbox and don’t charge anything.

Since this is my very first indie project, I’d genuinely love any feedback—whether it’s about the design, usability, missing features, bugs, or just whether the idea resonates with you.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6781805772

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pMGH2Tef

This is the widget from TapeBoy, an app I made. It shows your current track as a cassette on your home screen — reels spin while music plays and the cover art sits on the tape.

A bit about me: I've been a developer for 15 years, but this is my first hobby app — everything before was work. Fair warning, my Photoshop skills end at photo retouching, so designing something from scratch (even with AI helping) turned out to be the hardest part by far — the code was the easy bit; making it look right nearly broke me.

I was inspired by the MD Vinyl app and its widgets — credit where it's due. Mine is the cassette take on that idea, and I'll be honest: my designs are pretty cheap-looking next to theirs right now. That's very much the plan to improve — if the app finds a bit of an audience, polishing the look is my top priority.

Why a cassette, of all things: I grew up when music was a precious gift, not an infinite feed. Finding a new release meant saving up, hunting through shops, taping songs off the radio — it was hard, and that's exactly what made it so satisfying. This widget is my little tribute to that feeling: your current song, spinning on tape, right on your home screen.

App name/link (per rule 2): TapeBoy: Retro Cassette Player

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6781805772

I'd love feedback on the widget specifically. Easiest way to try it free is the TestFlight — the widget is a paid unlock in the app, but TestFlight purchases are sandboxed and don't charge you.

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pMGH2Tef

Nothing replaces a real deck and a shelf of tapes, and I'm not pretending it does. But cassettes are genuinely where my love of music started — the ritual, the artwork, the hiss — and I wanted to keep a bit of that feeling in my pocket.

So I made a small iPhone player styled after a cassette: spinning reels, the song on the tape, the whole vibe. Full disclosure, I'm the one who built it — I'm posting here because this is the crowd whose taste I actually trust, and I'd love to hear what rings true and what doesn't.

Not selling anything here — it's free on the App Store, and there's a TestFlight if you're curious.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/tapeboy-retro-cassette-player/id6781805772

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pMGH2Tef