Rip your CDs. Keep your files. Play your music your way.
Kanora is a native music library app for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It helps you build and manage a collection you actually own, from ripped CDs and existing folders to vinyl and cassette captures. No subscription. No account. No rented catalogue.
What I've been building.
Product notes, build logs, and the occasional wrong turn.
Open the Dev DiaryMade it to G
I have been ripping my CD collection into Kanora alphabetically, and as of this week I am somewhere in the Gs. Just under 4,000 tracks. About 150 GB so far.
Everything starts with your own music.
Rip CDs, import folders, fix metadata, record analog sources, and listen across the devices and speakers you already use.
CD ripping
Rip a CD, check the album details, choose artwork, and save the files into the folder structure you already use.
Metadata and artwork
Edit album details, track names, genres, and artwork with a preview before changes land in your files.
Analog to AirPlay
Route a turntable or preamp through Kanora and out to any AirPlay speaker in the house. Still dialing in latency.
DLNA and AllPlay speaker support
Play your library through older DLNA and AllPlay-era speakers that still sound good.
Vinyl & cassette recording
Connect a turntable, tape deck, or line source, then record, split, tag, and save the result into your library.
MiniDisc support
Make MiniDiscs from your library with NetMD transfer where possible, or a clean line-out recording path when the deck wants to work the old way.
Apple Watch player
Control the iPhone from your wrist, sync selected music to the Watch, and play local albums without carrying the phone.
Your library stays yours
Your files stay where you put them. Your metadata stays under your control. No account, no tracking, no subscription.
Old formats. Good hardware. Still worth using.
Network speakers that still sound good
DLNA and AllPlay-era support helps older receivers and speakers stay useful instead of becoming abandoned hardware.
MiniDisc, properly welcome
NetMD transfer and line-out friendly playback give MiniDisc a clear place beside CDs, files, and analog captures.
Vinyl and cassette into your library
Record analog sources on Mac, iPhone, or iPad, then split tracks, edit metadata, and save the result with the rest of your music.
Sixty seconds in the actual app.
The library at rest, a rip in progress, a metadata edit, and music routing to AirPlay. No tour narration. Just Kanora doing the work.
Recording brief
A highlight reel rather than a walkthrough. Show the library browsing naturally, a rip running in the background, a quick metadata correction, and music routing out to AirPlay. Nothing guided or explained. The app should look confident and unhurried. Shoot in 2x or with Focusee's zoom tracking so the interface reads cleanly on a small screen.
A collection should survive service changes.
Streaming is useful for discovery, but it is a weak place to keep the only copy of music that matters to you.
Kanora gives local files, physical media, and older playback hardware a modern place to live.
Your files stay yours.
Kanora keeps your folder structure, filenames, and drive layout understandable. You decide where music lives.
The details should be editable.
Fix album titles, track numbers, artwork, genres, and release details with previews before changes land.
Good hardware should keep working.
Play through Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, CarPlay, AirPlay, DLNA speakers, and AllPlay-era hardware as support matures.
Music you bought should not need an account.
Kanora is built around local files, optional personal iCloud use, and no account requirement for your own collection.
“Buy a CD, rip it, tag it properly, and play it on the devices you use now. That simple workflow should still exist.”
Ben Reed · Building Kanora
Interested in trying Kanora?
I occasionally share builds with a small number of testers when there is something useful to learn. There is no open beta schedule, but you can tell me about your library and the devices or audio hardware you would like to try.