Collection and wishlist
Every release you have bought or added, sorted by artist, title or newest first. The filter field narrows the grid as you type, and the wishlist has its own view.
Features
What it does
Side A reads the Bandcamp collection you already own and keeps it in one place. It plays releases, stores copies for offline listening, downloads your purchases and browses the rest of Bandcamp.
Full release playback
Play any release in your collection at Bandcamp quality. Queue the whole record, shuffle it, repeat one track, or open the expanded now playing view.
Offline copies
Save a release and Side A keeps its cover art and 128 kbps audio on disk. Storage is tracked per release, so you choose what stays and what goes.
Purchases and downloads
Download the FLAC, WAV, AIFF or MP3 you paid for, or grab a single track in the quality you pick. Files go to the download folder set in Settings.
Integrations
Scrobbles queue locally and reach Last.fm when the connection returns. Discord shows the current track with a live progress bar. Both are optional.
Appearance
Dark and light themes, any accent colour, a background gradient, and a cover-art theme that borrows its accent from the release you are playing. Reduced motion turns off page and artwork animation.
Discover
Discover
Search artists, albums and tracks across Bandcamp, open a discography, and stream a release before you buy it. Discover results play through the same player as your collection, and nothing is added to your library unless you add it.
- Artists, albums and tracks in one result list
- Artist pages with bios and complete discographies
- Streaming for releases you do not own
- Playback pauses your library queue and picks up where it left off
Account
Sign in
Bandcamp handles the sign-in in its own window. Side A keeps the session cookie in the operating system credential store, reads your collection, wishlist and purchases, and sends nothing else.
There is a public demo collection if you want to look around before connecting an account. Sign out at any time from the sidebar.
Download
Download
Free and open source, MIT licensed. Both installers are per-user installs and do not need an administrator password.
macOS
macOS 12 Monterey or newer, Apple silicon
The build is ad-hoc signed, so open Side A normally from Applications. If macOS still asks you to approve it, run:
xattr -cr "/Applications/Side A.app"
Windows
Windows 10 (1809) or newer, 64-bit
SmartScreen may warn about an unsigned installer. Choose More info, then Run anyway. The warning goes away once the build is code signed.
Per-user install
No admin rights
About 120 MB
Older builds and source: All releases and GitHub.
Latest release
Release notes
Version 2.1.5
Release notes and checksums are on the GitHub releases page.
FAQ
Questions
Is Side A free?
Yes. It is MIT licensed and the source is on GitHub. You still need a Bandcamp account and music in your collection. Side A plays what you own and does not sell or stream a catalogue of its own.
Do I have to sign in?
Signing in lets Side A read your collection, wishlist and purchases. There is also a public demo collection if you want to look around first.
Where is my session stored?
The session cookie is sealed by the operating system credential store: Keychain on macOS and DPAPI on Windows. Offline tracks and cover art live in the app data folder, and purchased downloads go to the folder you choose in Settings.
Why does macOS say the app is damaged or unidentified?
The build is not notarized because that needs a paid Apple Developer certificate. It is ad-hoc
signed, so open it normally from Applications. If macOS still objects, clear the quarantine flag with
xattr -cr "/Applications/Side A.app".
Is there an Intel or Linux build?
Not right now. The macOS build targets Apple silicon and the Windows build targets x64. The source builds on both platforms, so a fork can add other targets.
How do updates work?
Side A checks GitHub for a newer release when it starts and shows a pill in the top bar when one exists. Settings also has a check button. Downloads are manual, from the releases page.