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native macOS menu bar app for DI.FM internet radio

11 starsSwift

Free, open-source native macOS client for di.fm

by thucydides·Feb 28, 2026·6 points·1 comment
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AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemSolve My ProblemCozy

Native Swift DI.FM client at 35 MB beats 200+ MB Electron, but requires paid DI.FM membership.

Strengths
  • •Dramatic resource efficiency (35 MB vs 200+ MB) plus instant startup proves native worth for audio streaming
  • •Media key integration and accurate elapsed-time state machine show thoughtful UX polish
  • •Minimal 1-2 MB app size with zero idle CPU demonstrates constraint-driven Swift craftsmanship
Weaknesses
  • •Requires DI.FM premium subscription; free tier users cannot use the tool at all
  • •Niche streaming service limits addressable market; only useful if you already pay for DI.FM
Category
Productivity
Target Audience

macOS users streaming DI.FM, audio enthusiasts avoiding resource-heavy desktop apps

Similar To

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Post Description

I built a menu bar app for streaming DI.FM internet radio on macOS. Swift/SwiftUI, no Electron.

The existing options for DI.FM on desktop are either the web player (yet another browser tab) or unofficial Electron wrappers that idle at 200+ MB of RAM to play an audio stream. This sits in the menu bar at ~35 MB RAM and 0% CPU. The .app is about 1 MB.

What it does: browse and search stations, play/pause, volume, see what's playing (artwork, artist, track, time), pick stream quality (320k MP3, 128k AAC, 64k AAC). Media keys work. It remembers your last station.

Built with AVPlayer for streaming, MenuBarExtra for the UI, MPRemoteCommandCenter for media key integration. The trickiest part was getting accurate elapsed time. DI.FM's API and the ICY stream metadata don't always agree, so there's a small state machine that reconciles the two sources.

macOS 14+ required. You need a DI.FM premium account for the high-quality streams.

Source and binary: https://github.com/drmikexo2/DIBar-macOS

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