Aliens Have Invaded Your Music Library!

I'm pleased to say that my new app Alien Pirate Radio has now gone live!

Alien Pirate Radio is a music player for silicon Macs that turns your music library into an alien radio station. Bear with. :D The best way to understand the app is to pop over to the Alien Pirate Radio page on this site where you can read all about it and download the trial version.

I first had the idea for the app back in 2011. At that time, of course, there was no easily accessible AI, and good TTS (Text To Speech) was difficult to source cheaply, so I ended up hitting too many brick walls to continue. But the idea never went away... and this year I thought I'd talk to ChatGPT and Codex about it. For decades I worked in IT as a dev, analyst, Project Manager - but Codex helped me scope the project and deliver a stunning app in super quick time. It also amused me no end that I was working with AI to create an alien radio station powered by AI!

For me, this is the best software I've ever created, and we're not finished yet! See the end of this blog post for the current roadmap (written at my request by Codex).

It Helps Charity Too

One thing you need to get the best out of the app is a reasonably sized music library of mp3s, m4as, FLACs, whatever. To add to my library I've been scouring charity shops for CDs, and then ripping them before donating them back to the shop. You can get CDs so cheaply this way, even if they're often just old Now That's What I Call... compilations. Thing is, adding variety to your libary helps the app's radio experience seem more alive. And this method means you're giving to charity too.

Roadmap

Alien Pirate Radio is live, but the signal is still evolving. The current version already plays your local music library, generates alien DJ links locally, reads Earth news bulletins, runs scheduled shows, supports playlists, filters, moods, jingles, and a one-hour trial.

Next on the roadmap:

• A smoother update process, so users can install new versions with less manual downloading and dragging.

• A Windows version, once the Mac version has settled.

• Better custom artwork throughout the app, including refreshed presenter and radio visuals.

• More recorded jingles, including some produced outside the app for a more authentic station sound.

• Continued DJ tuning, especially to keep the presenters funny, varied, and weird without sounding like broken AI.

• Possible weather reports and more localised Earth context.

• More flexible show formats, including experiments like weekend specials, and themed broadcasts.

• Better music-library intelligence, including smarter handling of aliases, moods, and genres.

• A more polished update/check-for-new-version experience.

The guiding idea remains the same: Alien Pirate Radio should feel like a real radio station that has somehow invaded your music library, hosted by aliens who are trying very hard to understand humanity and not always succeeding.