Why Early Access?

“Open Music is a desktop music player that is still in active development. An Early Access release, if approved for this software product, would let us validate playback reliability, search, artist pages, recommendations, and desktop compatibility with users before calling the product complete. We want to use specific bug reports and community feedback to prioritize fixes and improve the experience. The current release is usable for music search and audio playback, but it is not feature-complete and still has known limitations.”

Approximately how long will this software be in Early Access?

“We expect to remain in Early Access for roughly 6 to 12 months while we stabilize core features across desktop platforms. We will share meaningful progress and any timeline updates rather than promise a release date we may not meet.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The full version is planned to focus on a more reliable and polished player, improved search and playback handling, broader testing across supported Linux distributions, Windows and macOS, and refinements to artist profiles, recommendations, and accessibility. Features will be prioritized using user feedback. We have not committed to a release date or to features that are not already announced, and the final scope may change during development.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current alpha includes YouTube Music search, audio-only playback, a playback queue, artist profiles and discography, lyrics where available, listening-based recommendations, and Discord Rich Presence (which requires the Discord desktop client). Artist directory results are limited to Official Artist Channels. Steamworks checks that the launching account owns App ID 4119740 before opening the app. In a configured build, users verify their Steam account with the Supabase service for playlists, artist subscriptions, playback settings, and new listening summaries. Daily, weekly, and yearly summaries, listening-based XP levels, and private-by-default Steam community profiles are included; profile visibility and listening-stat sharing require separate opt-ins. Genre rankings depend on genre metadata being supplied by the music provider. These online features require deployment of the Supabase project and Steam publisher secrets. Existing playback preferences and history continue to use Steam Cloud. Video playback is temporarily disabled. Open Music is ad-free for all users; planned Pro benefits are profile customization only, not ad removal. The application depends on network access and third-party YouTube Music interfaces, so availability and metadata can change. This is an early desktop build that needs broader hardware, operating-system, and long-duration playback testing. Steam Deck verification has not been completed.”

Will this software be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We plan to gradually raise the price as we ship new content and features, and we will announce any change on the Steam store page in advance.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We plan to use Steam Discussions and user-submitted bug reports to collect feedback about playback, search results, artist information, usability, and desktop compatibility. We will review reports, ask for diagnostic details when needed, and use recurring issues to help prioritize updates. We will post development notes when there is meaningful progress. Community feedback will inform development, but it will not guarantee that every suggestion can be implemented or that a specific fix will ship by a particular date.”