Hello AltStore and Music outside the Music app

With the state of things and everything happening in tech, I've been very curious about alternative marketplaces.

Here in Europe, we have access to the AltStore, and I've been trying to figure out how it works. Although they have some excellent resources on their website, for some reason I initially struggled to figure out how to actually discover apps which are available for download. I guess years of leaning into App Store habits can make one somewhat blind to alternatives. 

They're called Sources: “Sources are links to apps provided by developers, and they control what apps are available to download through AltStore PAL. When you find an app you want to download from AltStore PAL, just add the source from the developer's website and their apps will appear in the Browse tab.”

In effect, every developer (publisher) has complete control over the marketing aspects of their app. In order for one to be able to install their apps, one needs to add one of these “source” links into the AltStore apps, and it will list all apps available from that developer. As Hot Tub was in the news recently, I used that as an example:

I think this is a very cool way to approach it because it gives publishers and creators complete agency over how their would go about their app's presence and reaching their users.

As a millennial, I'm proficient in the usage of various devices and techniques for listening to music. Over the years (and especially high-school), I've gone through owning a Walkman, a CD Player, an MP3 Player, an iPod…. It's 2025 and the tools du jour are music streaming services. I bought my first Spotify sub in 2012, then Apple Music, then Deezer, then Spotify again.

Would it be possible to enjoy music in a form which doesn't require a subscription and an internet connection? I tried to find out by heading over to the web shop of one of my favourite bands, and I bought a few of their albums on CD. Since Within Temptation is a band from The Netherlands, I only had to wait for a day for them to arrive. Imagine my surprise, when I discovered that these days, audio CDs include both MP3, FLAC, and WAV versions of all songs, so all I had to do is import them into my library! So cool!

By the way, there is an app called Recordfy: Vinyl & Record Store on the iOS App Store which makes it effortless to discover local shops where one can purchase vinyl records!

In last week's newsletter, I published a survey asking folks where they're currently publishing their apps, and where do they plan to publish in 2025?

I was very surprised by the number of responses, with a total of 57 submissions! Thank you so much, I truly appreciate you taking the time 🙏.

• 2 AltStore submissions were from folks currently outside the European Union, thus unable to take advantage of alternative marketplaces on iOS.
• Options with 0 votes were removed from the graphic: KDE Store/Open desktop
• Free text options like Own Website, Mastodon, and Containers were added based on the free text responses

Thanks for reading! 💜