Lo-Fi Player

Lo-fi music has seen a surge in popularity over the last few years or so. Whether listening to it actively, or simply having it in the background, it’s a genre of music that is known for its relaxing and cozy sound signature.

Going to YouTube and playing some lo-fi playlists from there is what most people do. But if you don’t want to use a browser tab or window just for that, Lo-Fi Player can help as it provides a bespoke solution just for your lo-fi music needs.

The program is an effort to provide more seamless access to two popular lo-fi music playlists: the unmistakable lo-fi girl and the cozy Purrple Cat. As the player will stream the respective tunes off the web, internet connection is required.

Music-wise, the application seems to pull the songs from the respective YouTube livestreams, as playing both at the same time would essentially play the same song. A bit of a missed opportunity is that you cannot see the name of any given song, which is a shame as the YouTube streams do include the name of the currently playing track.

While a more modern machine probably won’t have much trouble handling the app in the background, it’s nevertheless worth pointing out that CPU usage ramps up when using it.

The app window is movable, but non-resizable. The default proportions looked just fine on my desktop, but I can’t speak on how it would look on larger resolution screens.

As it stands, Lo-Fi Player is a nice concept, but some further optimizations would be appreciated. Optimizing its performance would be a start, including the name of the currently playing song to help users bookmark anything noteworthy they come across, while adding more streams wouldn't be a bad idea either.