I always enjoy "best of" lists for the software platforms I use, not for the winners specifically, but because I usually find out about an app or service I didn't know existed.

In the case of MacStories Best Apps of 2022, it was fun to see apps I already use make their list including Audio Hijack for best app update, Raycast for best Mac app, and Pixelmator Photo for best design - but also interesting how many of the apps that made their best of revolve around organizing and playing music. I'd never even heard of Marvis Pro which won their app of the year award.

Apple's Music app for iOS (*let's not even bother talking about the Mac version * 🤮) is usable at best. But generally it's a really frustrating process to find the music you want to play in a given moment. It feels like it's never in the right mode for whatever music I'm looking for. If I'm trying to find a song I know I've added to my library and listened to a lot, it can never find it. And if I'm trying to find a new song someone is recommending to me, it seems to find random music by artists completely unrelated.

I think the only thing keeping Apple Music alive and subscribed to in our family is the Apple One bundle we pay for that includes iCloud storage, Arcade, Apple TV+, and Fitness. At least half of my family is ready to fight for a switch to Spotify at any moment.

So I'm tempted to try out a new music player app like Mavis Pro since it's not so much the library of Apple Music that is the issue - it's, ironically for Apple, the user interface of their app that seems to be the issue.

But $11.99CAD is a lot to toss out on a hope and prayer that it'll be better at navigating our Apple Music library for me, and more importantly, for my family.