Cider 4.0.0

Cider 4.0.0 is almost here, and it’s more than just a typical update. It represents months of dedicated work, late nights, and a vision to build the ultimate music platform.

We want to start by saying a massive thank you to our community. ❤️ Your feedback, bug reports, and passion for Cider have been our biggest motivation. This release is for you, it marks a turning point where we’ve moved away from legacy dependencies to build something truly our own. We're incredibly proud of how far we've come together, and we can't wait for you to hear the difference.

A Reimagined Audio Experience (MKLite) 🎧

At the heart of 4.0 is MKLite, our new custom-built audio engine. We’ve moved away from standard playback libraries to give you more control and better sound quality than ever before.

• Automix: Experience perfectly timed, beat-aware transitions between your favorite tracks.
• Spectral Crossfading: Say goodbye to jarring skips. Our new crossfader analyzes audio to blend songs together seamlessly.
• Dolby Atmos & Spatial Audio: We’ve brought full support for immersive audio assets, giving you that concert-hall feel right from your desk. 🌌
• Smart Volume (Normalization): No more reaching for the volume knob. LUFS-based normalization ensures every song plays at the perfect, consistent level.
• Lightning Fast Performance: By using WebAssembly (WASM), we've offloaded heavy audio tasks to keep the app feeling light and responsive. ⚡
• Instant Start: Our new "audio warmup" pre-loads the system so your music starts the moment you hit play.

The Queue, Rebuilt for You 📂

We’ve completely rewritten the queue system from the ground up. It’s now faster, smarter, and ready to handle even the largest playlists with ease.

• Smarter Management: The new architecture is significantly faster, making scrolling and navigating your queue feel buttery smooth.
• Know Your Music: "Collection Divisioning" clearly shows you where each track in your queue is coming from.
• Intelligent Sorting: New algorithms work behind the scenes to keep your music flowing perfectly.
• Better Drag-and-Drop: We've polished the way you move songs around, making it more intuitive and reliable.
• Recently Played History: Easily look back at what you’ve been listening to with a dedicated history section.

A More Polished Interface ✨

The 'Sugar' Layout

We've introduced a new design language codenamed **Sugar**. It’s all about making the app feel "snappier" and more alive. - **Type-Ahead Navigation:** Just start typing to jump exactly where you want to go in any list. ⌨️ - **Beautiful Artwork:** An updated artwork system that features gorgeous transitions and uses less memory. - **Better Windows Integration:** Our Windows Tray Player now looks and behaves better than ever, with improved support for multiple monitors. 🪟

'Lakshmi' - A Better Start

Getting into Cider is now faster and more beautiful thanks to **Lakshmi**, our new installer and onboarding tool. It’s designed to get you set up and listening in record time. 🚀

Technical Improvements 🛠️

• Modern Foundation: We’ve upgraded our entire core to the latest versions of Vite and Vue, making everything from loading to clicking feel faster.
• Better Visuals: Our WebGPU rendering has been refined to give you smoother gradients and richer colors. 🎨
• True Independence: By removing MusicKit.js, we've reduced the app's size and made it more stable.
• Improved Networking: Better support for network proxies means Cider works more reliably in more places. 🌐

More Bug Fixes than we can even count! 🐛🔨

We ran deep with this update to truly deliver as many bug fixes as we could. We've spent countless hours squashing glitches in audio playback, UI alignment, and platform-specific quirks to make this the most stable version of Cider yet.

Coming Soon: Local Music Support & Provider API 🏗️

Preparations are underway for integrated local file support. This version includes the foundations for playing your own audio files directly on Windows.

This is just the beginning. We’re also working on a new Provider API system. This will eventually allow you to use plugins to connect Cider to other services like Jellyfin, Plex, and more, fulfilling our ultimate goal of making Cider the one place for all your music.

Cider 4.0.5