Introducing TradPlayer: Traditional Irish Music, Beautifully Presented
I’ve loved Irish traditional music for about 40 years. (My first introcution was actually to Scottish trad music, but Irish is adjacent). I’ve been playing it myself on various instruments for a while, too.
A few years ago, I discovered Radio Siamsa, a free, Internet radio station playing Irish trad music 24 hours a day. You can listen through your browser, and they have a free iOS client, but it didn’t have everything I wanted, specifically CarPlay support.
So I built my own.
Introducing TradPlayer.
TradPlayer is a dedicated, native client allowing you to listen to Radio Siamsa wherever you are, on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
What it looks like
Here’s TradPlayer on iPhone, showing the now playing screen with full album artwork and real-time track details:
On the Mac, it’s a native application via Mac Catalyst, providing full media key support and Control Center integration:
And on iPad, it takes advantage of the larger display to show an extended track history:
And of course, my most-wanted feature, full CarPlay integration:
Features
- HiFi Streaming — switch between 256kbps HiFi and 128kbps Low Data mode on the fly.
- Live Album Artwork — real-time album art, track titles, and artist names fetched directly from the station’s API.
- Track History — scroll back through everything that’s played during your session to see what you missed.
- AirPlay Support — stream the music to any AirPlay-compatible speaker, Apple TV, or HomePod.
- Native Experience — no ads, no tracking, no account required. Just the music.
- Platform Integration — full lock screen controls, media key support on Mac, and native CarPlay dashboard integration.
Getting started
TradPlayer isn’t free, but it is pretty cheap. It’s a one-time purchase of $2.99 on the App Store. No subscriptions, no accounts, and no tracking.
Download
TradPlayer is available now on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac: