Support
How can I help?
I hope the app is treating you well! Please drop me a line if you have feedback or questions about anything.
Get help
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Report a problem
Something not working right? Drop me a line.
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Feature ideas
Feedback and ideas for the app are welcome.
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Privacy
How the app and the website handle your data.
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App Store
Live Music Archive for iPhone and iPad.
Common questions
Playback
What happens when a recording won't play?
A banner tells you and offers another recording of the same show when there is one, or lets you skip the track or try it again. The mini player says Won't play under the track title until you move on, and you can use the same action there. In CarPlay an alert offers Play Another and Skip, and the Other Recordings button on Now Playing lists the show's other recordings. With no connection the banner says so and points you to your downloads.
How do I open the full-screen player?
Tap the mini player, or swipe up on it. The show fills the screen, and on iPad the track list sits right beside it.
How do I use the sleep timer?
Open the full-screen player and tap the sleep timer button. Pick a time, or choose End of This Show to stop when the show ends.
What do the shuffle modes do?
The shuffle button in the player cycles through Shuffle Off, Shuffle Favorite Artists, Shuffle Current Artist, Shuffle Offline Shows, Shuffle Popular Shows and Shuffle Popular Artists. When a show ends, the app picks the next one from that group. The two Popular modes work without favoriting anything first.
How do I change the visualizer look?
Touch and hold the visualizer button on the mini player to open its menu. Pick a look to run inside the mini player, or open one full-screen. Silk and Merkaba are the newest looks.
What is the Mandelbrot visualizer?
Mandelbrot is a visualizer look that zooms slowly into the Mandelbrot fractal. Bass sets how fast it dives, and the highs make the edges glow. Tap the full-screen visualizer to dive toward where you tapped. Swipe to change the look. It fades through its color palettes on its own, and you can pin one from the Mandelbrot palette section of the visualizer menu. With Reduce Motion on it holds still.
What does Auto mean in my queue?
With a Shuffle mode on, the app picks the next show for you when the queue runs out. Coming Up shows that pick, and an Auto label marks it. The label stays on the show after it moves into Up Next, so you can tell it from the shows you queued yourself.
How do I remove an Auto show from my queue?
Swipe the row left and tap Remove, or tap Edit and use the red minus. The app skips that show until you close the app and picks another one right away. If nothing else fits, Coming Up goes away. Clear Queue also clears the Coming Up pick, and your Shuffle mode stays as you set it.
Does the app work in CarPlay?
Yes. The Discover tab has Random Show, Popular Artists, and newly added and popular shows, and you can ask Siri to play things hands-free (see the Siri phrases above).
Offline & favorites
How do I listen offline?
Download a recording from its show page to save it for offline play. Your downloads live under More, then Offline Music and play without a connection. To keep shows from your favorite artists downloaded automatically, open More, then Offline Music and tap Offline Refresh. Choose how many recordings to keep per artist and which artists to follow, and it swaps in new shows as you finish the old ones.
How do I keep my downloads up to date automatically?
Turn on Offline Refresh. The app offers it after you download a few shows, when you favorite an artist and on Discover. You can also turn it on in More, then Offline Music. It keeps 1 show per artist to start and swaps it for a new one when you finish it. To refresh right now, press and hold the app icon and choose Refresh Offline Shows, or ask Siri.
Do my favorites sync across devices?
Yes. Favorites and listening history sync automatically through iCloud on every device signed in to the same Apple Account. There’s nothing to set up.
Can I bring in my archive.org favorites?
Yes. In the app, open More, then Internet Archive Account, sign in, and import or sync the favorites from your archive.org account.
Tape deck
How do I get the tape deck player?
A cassette button sits at the top of the full-screen player. Tap it to see the show as a tape in a deck, and tap Normal player on the deck to go back. The player remembers which one you picked.
How do I change how the tape deck looks?
Tap the paint palette on the deck to pick a style. The keys and the tape work the same in every style.
Can the tape deck’s cassette show the visualizer?
Yes. Tap the cassette and it turns over to show the visualizer. Tap again to see the cassette. On the back, tap the look's name to pick a different one. The label is under Label at the top. The deck remembers the side and the look.
What are Side A and Side B on the tape deck?
The deck splits a long show into sides, the way a real tape would be. Slide the side switch to jump to the start of another side. An encore gets its own side.
How do I rewind and fast forward the tape deck?
Tap REW or FF to jump 15 seconds. Hold one to wind the tape, which gets faster the longer you hold. Drag along the tape to scrub. The counter and the reels follow.
What are tape sounds on the tape deck?
While you wind, you hear the show itself sped up, like a real tape. Winding doesn’t count as listening, so it won’t be scrobbled or added to your listening history. The volume buttons still control how loud it is.
Whose handwriting is on the tape deck’s cassette label?
It’s a font. Every show gets its own tape colour, pen and tilt, and the same show always gets the same tape. Tap the cassette to read the full label.
Stats & scrobbling
Where are my listening stats?
In the app, go to More, then Listening History. Listening Stats has charts of when and what you listen to, built from your own listening history.
How do I change the time range in Listening Stats, or see the full lists?
Pick 30 Days, This Year or All Time at the top of Listening Stats. Tap See all on Top Artists, Top Venues, Top Shows or Top Songs to open the full list. It shows the range and its dates, and you can change the range there too. Each row has a bar and a percent for its share of your listening, and the first row is marked Most played. Lists start with ten rows. Tap Show 100 to see up to a hundred. On an iPad, a small line on each row shows how that listening was spread over time.
How do I scrobble what I play?
In the app, go to More, then Scrobbling, tap Connect next to Last.fm or Libre.fm, and sign in. Scrobbling turns on when you connect. The Enable Scrobbling switch at the top pauses it and starts it again.
What gets sent when I scrobble?
The artist, the track title, the show date, the track length and number, and when you played it. The app also tells the service what’s playing right now. A track counts once you’ve heard half of it or four minutes, whichever comes first, and tracks under 30 seconds don’t count. If you’re offline, plays wait on your device and go out later.
How do I disconnect Last.fm or Libre.fm?
In the app, go to More, then Scrobbling and tap Disconnect under the service. It asks you to confirm first. To pause scrobbling without signing out, turn off Enable Scrobbling.
How do I open my Last.fm or Libre.fm profile?
In the app, go to More, then Scrobbling. Under a connected account, tap View profile and your profile opens in your browser.
Shows & reviews
Where do the reviews on a recording come from?
From the Internet Archive. Open More Info on any recording to read what listeners have said about it. You can’t write a review in the app, but the See all reviews on archive.org link at the end of the list takes you to the full page.
How do I report or hide a review?
Touch and hold a review. Report emails us about it. Hide reviews from this person hides every review by that reviewer, on this device only. To bring them back, use the Hidden reviewers menu at the top of the reviews list.
What is the time shown under a show’s date?
It’s how long the whole show runs, added up from its tracks. It appears once the tracks have loaded. If a recording doesn’t give track lengths, nothing shows.
What does “Same night, same venue” mean?
On a recording’s More Info, we list the other bands we have from the same venue on the same date, so you can hop to their recording of that night. We match shows by date and venue, so it doesn’t mean they played together. At a festival it reads “Same festival, same day”. Tap the info button next to it for the short version.
How do I hide the “Same night, same venue” row?
Touch and hold a band in the row and choose Not right? Hide this. It hides the row for that show, on this device only. Tap Undo right after to bring it back.
Where else can I see bands that shared a stage?
On an artist’s page, below their concerts, Shared stages lists the bands they were on the same bill or same festival day with, most nights first. Tap a band to see the dates, then a date to open that recording. It’s based on date and venue, so it doesn’t mean they played together. Nothing shows if we have no matches.
Siri
Ask Siri to control the app hands-free. Siri answers to “Live Music Archive,” “Live Music,” or “LMA,” so use whichever you like in the phrases below.
Resume where you left off
- “Resume last show on Live Music Archive”
- “Continue listening on Live Music Archive”
- “Resume Live Music Archive”
Play a random show
- “Play a random show on Live Music Archive”
- “Play a show on Live Music Archive”
- “Random show on Live Music Archive”
- “Surprise me on Live Music Archive”
Shuffles your favorite artists, or a popular show if you haven’t favorited any yet.
Skip to the next show
- “Next show on Live Music Archive”
- “Skip this show on Live Music Archive”
- “Live Music Archive next show”
Play today in history
- “Today in history on Live Music Archive”
- “Play today in history on Live Music Archive”
- “On this day on Live Music Archive”
Plays a show recorded on today’s date in a past year.
Play a specific artist
- “Play a show by [artist] on Live Music Archive”
- “Play [artist] on Live Music Archive”
Works for artists you’ve favorited plus the most popular ones. Favorite a new act and Siri will pick it up, though it can take a little while to learn the name. For big-name artists, “Play a show by…” is the phrase to use. A plain “Play [artist]” can get claimed by Apple Music.
Play something you’ve downloaded
- “Play an offline show on Live Music Archive”
- “Play a downloaded show on Live Music Archive”
- “Play an offline show by [artist] on Live Music Archive”
Plays from your downloads and keeps shuffling them, so nothing streams. The artist version only knows artists you have shows downloaded for.
Privacy
What does Share Anonymous Usage Data send?
It’s off unless you turn it on. When it’s on, the app sends tallies of what happened, like starting a show, skipping a track, which tab you opened or which visualizer look you settled on. It never sends your name, your email, an account, a device identifier, what you searched for, or which shows, artists or venues you looked at. It goes to our own server, not to advertisers or anyone else. The Privacy page in More has the full list.
How do I turn usage data sharing on or off?
In the app, go to More, then Privacy, and turn Share Anonymous Usage Data on or off. After you’ve used the app for a few days and played a couple of shows, we ask once, and a no is fine. Turning it off stops the app counting anything and throws away whatever was waiting to be sent.
About the app
Where are the Tip Jar and Stickers?
In the app, both are in More. The Tip Jar is a way to say thanks, and it has a button to donate to the Internet Archive, which hosts all the recordings. Stickers opens our sticker shop.
How do I open archive.org pages in the app?
Turn on the Safari extension. Open Settings, then Apps, then Safari, then Extensions, and tap Live Music Archive. Turn on Allow Extension and set archive.org to Allow. After that, archive.org show pages in Safari have an Open in Live Music Archive button. In the app, More, then Safari Extension has the steps too.
Where can I see what’s new in the app?
In the app, go to More, then What’s New for the highlights of the latest version.
Where do I find the credits?
In the app, go to More, then About and tap Credits, or open More, then Thanks. The credits are at the top of the Thanks screen, with a thank-you to the Internet Archive and the tapers. The Version row in About has a little surprise too.
What are the app’s little surprises?
Small, rare touches that never change how music plays. For example, play a show on its own anniversary and the player glows warm and says how many years ago it was. Even opening the app is one: the mic turns into a sticker, and a tap skips it. With Reduce Motion on it's a quick fade instead. Most show up once and go away.
What is the Golden Hour visualizer look?
Golden Hour is a warm amber look for the visualizer. Long-press the visualizer button on the player and pick it from the menu, next to Silk and the other looks.
Still have a question?
Write to contact@livemusicarchive.app.