Swinsian overview

Swinsian is a music manager and player for OS X.

Features

Supports FLAC/Ogg Vorbis as well as MP3, AAC, WAV, APE, AC3, WavPack, WMA, and cue files
Copies tracks from iPods and iPhones
Watches folders for new files
Fetches album art
Quick control window
Imports iTunes libraries
Playback over AirTunes
Duplicate finding
Bulk tag editing with regex support

What's new in version 3.0.8

Adds more customization options for art grid labels.
Adds hidden options to make interface text larger (use 'defaults write com.swinsian.Swinsian ExtraLargeTableTextSize -bool true' and 'defaults write com.swinsian.Swinsian ExtraLargeInspectorTextSize -bool true').
Fixes playback of quadraphonic Flac files.
Fixes transcoding rules not being saved correctly.
Fixes problems removing tracks from iPod playlists.
Fixes sorting in the 'complete tags' window.
Stability improvements.

Performance improvements when using the playback queue.
Improvements to Applescript support.
Upgraded libPNG.

Fixes problems transcoding tracks when copying them to iPods.
Fixes problems exporting m3u playlists when file names contain unicode characters.

Improves playback quality of some HE-AAC files.
Allows dragging tracks directly into the playback queue.
Track length and time remaining in toolbar now refelects custom track start and stop times.
Fixes appearance setting not being saved.
Fixes saving of equalizer settings.
Fixes recording global shortcuts on recent versions of macOS.
Avoids enabling hog mode if the output is set to the system default.
Avoids importing DRM protected tracks when importing Music library.
Improves accuracy of custom track stop times.
Fixes crashes when removing tracks from the playback queue.
Prevents adding the same folder twice to the watched folders list.
Adds hidden option to use system locale for sorting.
Fixes several visual glitches and bugs.

Adds an option to override the system appearance setting.
Adds support for separator characters in the composers field.
Adds support for playing over HomePod speaks using AirPlay (experimental).
Adds a command to remove duplicate tracks from playlists.
Adds the ability to limit the duplicate finder to currently selected tracks.
Smart playlist rules can now reference playlist folders.
Improvements to XML library export to fix rekordbox import problems.
Fixes issue transfering files to iPods when the files had been moved.
Fixes missing total discs item in the track table columns menu in main menu bar.
Fixes a memory leak when copying tracks to iPods.
Fixes a potential crash when removing tracks from the playback queue.
Improvements to AppleScript support.
Various minor UI fixes.

Fixes a crash when using album by year mode in the browser.
Fixes a layout problem with the export playlist alert on Tahoe.
Fixes a problem transcoding ALAC files when copying to iPods.

Adds support for album by year in the browser column.
Adds the option to generate absolute paths in exported playlists.
Improves podcast file name generation.
Improves track length calculation for some VBR MP3 files.
Fixes a potential crash when removing tracks from the playback queue.
Fixes toolbar button glitches on macOS 10.13.
Fixes very slow scrolling when in fullscreen mode.
Fixes ejecting iPods from within Swinsian.
Fixes problems writing disc subtitle tag to some MP3 files.
Adds more confirmation dialogs when removing tracks from playlists.
Includes various other UI improvements and fixes.

Now remembers searches and filters between app restarts.
Now remembers current track position between app restarts.
Fixes crash when connecting to encrypted AirPlay devices.
Allows copy and pasting tracks into playlists.
Adds confirmation dialog to reorganize command.
Adds confirmation dialog before removing tracks from iPods.
Adds contextual menu command to export multiple playlists.
Adds contextual menu commands in playback queue.
Fixes visual glitches in the art grid.
Fixes artwork not loading in the art grid after editing tags.
Fixes inability to import Music app library on macOS 15+.
Various UI tweaks.
Improves generation of podcast episode file names.
Improve tag autocompletion when automatic tag splitting is enabled.

Attention: Version 3 is a paid update!
Native Apple Silicon support.
Support for dark mode.
Support for ReplayGain tags.
New fields: Movement, Movement Name, Work, Original Release Date, Barcode and Lyricist.
Support for custom sort fields.
Support for per-track volume settings.
Support for per track start and stop times.
Option to show file system folders in browser columns.
Built in equalizer presets.
Option to copy music files when exporting playlists.
Command for exporting the library as an iTunes style XML file.
Adds an option to enable exclusive output on the audio device (hog mode).
New playback queue.
Gives more control over changing the audio device settings to match the current track.
Many bug fixes.

4.3

(62 Reviews of Swinsian)

Comments
User Ratings

Lounge-Deluxe

Nov 9 2025

3.0.3

0.0

Version: 3.0.3

I've given Swansian another try after approx. 5 years or so, and I have to come to the conclusion that it now works pretty much as my beloved iTunes did until version 10. My only wish would be the ability for Swansian to connect directly to an IOS device and copy playlists to such device.

Derekcurrie

Nov 7 2025

3.0.0

Version: 3.0.0

v3.0.3 is out. The changelog is here: https://swinsian.com/support/changelog/

PeacheyMcKeitch

Dec 22 2024

2.3.6

5.0

Version: 2.3.6

Recently swatched back to Swansian after a few years of enduring Apple Music. Long story short, it’s like old iTunes but better. Handy hint, it’s not had an official update in a while but if you hold ALT and click on the Swinsian menu in the menu bar you can opt in to the betas :D. Last update was December I think. At some point in the betas my only real annoyence with the app was fixed. The album art in the table view wasn’t scaled consistently. But that’s fixed now! Would like to see an apple silicon version when 3.0 is out but apart from that couldn’t be happier to be back.

Lvdoc

Oct 16 2021

Seriously? Dark mode for Apple has been available for how many YEARS now, and Swinsian still doesn't have a dark option? It's a decent player, but please, developer: Enter the 21st century.

paulforthomme

Sep 30 2021

swinsian is a superb program how to save or backup the command text of my smart playlist on a file and how to recover these smart playlist text control later ? thank you

Wunderhorn

Aug 21 2025