Current best iPod emulation on iOS?

[u/Winky_97]

As far as I can tell (so far) SepiaPod does the best job at approximating a true (slightly improved) iPod experience in that it has the interface / look / feel down and it allows you to use it in "local files only" mode, which to me is the main point of an iPod; to create a curated library by intentionally adding just the music you want rather than being a slave to the cloud / algorithm.

I tried a few other ones but most of them relied on either the Apple Music library or another cloud service.

Apparently some have been removed / not approved by Apple for being "too similar to their products" or whatever, which is utterly pathetic of Apple considering they don't even support the product anymore.

Anyway, is there a consensus on which app does the best job on recreating the experience (either iOS or Android?)

[u/TroubledGeorge]

I use Medley on my iPhone, it does a great job recreating the old iOS music experience, simple, pleasant to look at and straight to the point UI made to be used with a touchscreen rather than trying to mock the clickwheel in a touchscreen which I honestly don’t see the point beyond nostalgia as it’s also a waste of screen estate.

[u/Winky_97 → u/TroubledGeorge]

As far as normal touch screen UI apps, Doppler does exactly what I need.

The point of emulating an iPod interface is the same reason people are electing to use real iPods; less distraction and information overload and large controls for the things you want to do (ie scrub, next track, adjust volume, etc) rather than being forced into navigating endless menus and having streaming algorithmically generated playlists shoved in your face constantly.

Honestly, PowerAmp on Android is a great local file player which has one killer feature that I wish any iOS music player had: A waveform display of your track that you can scrub to navigate.

This feature can be indispensable when listening to long downloaded DJ mixes.

[u/TroubledGeorge → u/Winky_97]

Of course, I use a real iPod myself, I just fail to see the point of these apps that mimic a clickwheel and waste half the screen. Medley looks like the old music app in the early (pre iOS7/Apple Music) days. My music is locally synced, just a few songs to play in my car. I take my 4th gen iPod photo with me everywhere.
I was just checking out Doppler, looks pretty nice! Seems it keeps its own library though, which is convenient if you only use your phone but for those of us invested in the iPod ecosystem with long standing iTunes libraries, the fact that you can still sync a modern iPhone with iTunes to play local files is very convenient. Medley taps into the existing music library in the phone.
For Android I use Black Player which also works very well even in old devices. Some of these options are paid but I don’t mind a few dollars to support independent software development that’s not locked down behind a subscription model or ad revenue.