Shrinks to the cover
One click turns the player into just the album art, with controls on hover. Drag a corner to make it any size.
Muse
The Winamp feeling, rebuilt for macOS
A tiny music player that wears any skin.
It floats above your windows, shrinks to just the cover, lives in the menu bar, and changes its whole look with one small file.
Install Muse, a Winamp-style music player for Mac, by following https://tinymuse.app/install.md. Then play the music in my ~/Music folder and make me a skin that looks like a 1980s boombox.
Paste it into Claude Code, Codex or any coding agent. It installs Muse, plays your music and makes you a skin.
curl -fsSL https://tinymuse.app/install.sh | sh
Installs the app and the muse command. No sudo.
Read the script
Download for Mac
Unzip and drag Muse to Applications. The first time, right-click it and choose Open.
Free · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon
Translucent window tinted by the cover art.
Small on purpose.
It floats above your other windows, so it's always where you left it. Turn that off with the pin.
Or lives in the menu bar
Move it up there and the window and Dock icon disappear. The whole player is one click away.
✎ Edit Info…
Fix the tags
Click a cover to rename a song, set the artist, or drop in new artwork. Your files are never touched.
Looking for Winamp on your Mac?
Winamp never really made it to the Mac. Its Mac version was a short-lived beta back in 2013, and today the closest things are old downloads and Webamp, a faithful copy that runs in a browser tab.
Muse is a native Mac music player built around what made Winamp great: small, always within reach, and yours to reskin.
Muse isn't affiliated with Winamp. It's a new player for people who miss it.
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A tiny window that stays on top
It floats above your other apps, and shrinks to just the cover, like the old mini mode.
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Skins that change everything
Not just colours: the layout, the shapes, even a spinning record or a turning tape.
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Your own music files
MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV and AIFF. No account, no streaming, no library to import.
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A playlist you're in charge of
Drop in files or folders, drag to reorder, double-click to play. Shuffle and repeat, of course.
Make it yours.
A skin can move every button, reshape the window, spin a record or wind a tape. It's one JSON file, and Muse reloads it the moment you save.
{
"name": "Pill",
"vars": { "gap": 5, "cover": 124 },
"layout": { "main": {
"type": "hstack", "spacing": -44,
"children": [
{ "type": "cover", "shape": "circle",
"width": "$cover", "spin": 14 },
{ "type": "vstack", "spacing": "$gap", … }
]
} }
}you Make me a Muse skin like a 1980s boombox
✓ muse skin new "Boombox" --from Tape
✓ muse skin validate Boombox
✓ muse skin snapshot preview.png --skin Boombox
agent Done: chrome faceplate, red VU meter, chunky buttons. It's in your Skins menu.
Muse comes with a skill that teaches agents the format, so they can check and preview their own work.
Questions
Is there a Winamp for Mac?
Not a current one. Winamp's Mac version was a beta released in 2013 and discontinued the same year. Muse is a free, native Mac alternative that brings back the small, always-on-top, skinnable player.
Can Muse use classic Winamp skins?
Not yet. Muse has its own skin format: one JSON file that can change the whole layout, not just the colours. It comes with eight skins, and you can make your own or ask an AI agent to make one.
What makes Muse “agentic”?
Muse comes with a command-line tool and a skill for AI agents such as Claude Code. Describe a look, like “a 1980s boombox”, and an agent creates the skin, checks it and previews it for you.
Which audio formats does it play?
MP3, AAC and M4A, Apple Lossless (ALAC), FLAC, WAV, AIFF and CAF. It plays files on your Mac; there's no account or streaming service.
Is Muse free, and which Macs does it run on?
Muse is free and runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later.