Cartridge — Music Player

Alternative to DS Audio. Stream your Synology Audio Station library on iPhone, iPad & CarPlay — now over Tailscale too. AirPlay 2, DLNA casting, DSD, hi-res. Ad-free.

Cartridge is a beautiful, modern music player for your Synology NAS, and an alternative to DS Audio. Stream your music library over Wi-Fi, DDNS, QuickConnect, or Tailscale — from home or anywhere in the world — with the speed and polish of a native iPhone and iPad app.

Cartridge connects directly to your Synology DiskStation running Audio Station. There are no subscriptions, no ads, and no accounts to create. Your music stays on your NAS. Your listening history stays on your device.

*** KEY FEATURES ***

STREAM YOUR LIBRARY

• Browse and play your whole Synology collection. Home, Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Folders and Search.

BUILT FOR IPHONE AND IPAD

• Native layouts for both. On iPad, album, artist and playlist screens use the bigger screen properly, and work in Split View.

CARPLAY

• Drive with your own music. Dedicated CarPlay interface with Home, Playlists, Radio, and Library tabs — recently played, pinned favorites, top artists, smart playlists, and full album / artist drill-downs. Now Playing with heart, shuffle, repeat and jump-to-album or artist.

SIRI VOICE CONTROL

• Ask Siri to play your library by album, song, or artist. On iPhone, end the request with "on Cartridge" — for example, "Hey Siri, play Nevermind by Nirvana on Cartridge". In CarPlay, just say the album, song, or artist.

AIRPLAY 2

• Cast to HomePod, Apple TV, or any AirPlay receiver. Full lock-screen metadata handoff, Spatial Audio on AirPods and multichannel on Apple TV.

CAST TO DLNA / UPNP

• Send playback to any DLNA/UPnP renderer your NAS can see — an amplifier, receiver or speaker. The NAS streams it, so your device is just the remote.

STREAMING QUALITY

• Transcode on the fly to save data on slow or mobile connections — pick the bitrate, or send the original untouched.

DSD SUPPORT

• Play DSD64 stereo and multichannel files directly from your NAS with a custom software decoder.

AUDIOPHILE-GRADE PLAYBACK

• Native support for FLAC, ALAC, AAC, MP3, AIFF, and WAV — including high-resolution PCM up to 192 kHz.

FULL-SCREEN NOW PLAYING

• Album art with matching background colors that shift with each song, swipeable queue, and one-tap jump to artist or album.

ARTIST IMAGES FROM APPLE MUSIC

• Artist pages feature full-width photos from the Apple Music catalog, and album artwork is fetched from there when your NAS has none embedded.

SMART HOME SCREEN

• Recently played, recently added, liked songs, top artists and pinned favorites, on one scrollable page.

PLAYLISTS

• Create, edit and sync playlists stored on your NAS, or build local device-only playlists for offline use.

INTERNET RADIO

• Add and play Shoutcast, Icecast, and HLS streams alongside your NAS music.

GAPLESS PLAYBACK

• Seamless transitions between tracks — essential for live albums, classical works and DJ mixes.

OFFLINE DOWNLOADS

• Save songs, albums and playlists to your device for listening on the go. Wi-Fi-only by default to protect your data plan.

*** PRIVACY BY DESIGN ***

Cartridge has no developer backend and collects nothing about you. No analytics, no tracking, no ads. Your credentials are stored in the iOS Keychain, and your listening history lives only on your device.

Besides your NAS, Cartridge contacts only Apple Music — for artist photos and missing album artwork — and an internet radio directory when you browse stations.

*** REQUIREMENTS ***

• A Synology NAS running DSM 6 or DSM 7
• Audio Station installed on your NAS, with your music library indexed
• Network access from your iPhone or iPad to your NAS (Wi-Fi, LAN, DDNS, QuickConnect or Tailscale)

*** ABOUT ***

Cartridge is an independent, unofficial third-party app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Synology Inc. "Synology", "DiskStation", and "Audio Station" are trademarks of Synology Inc., referenced only to describe compatibility. Support: https://mbjprod-netizen.github.io/cartridge-app/support.html Privacy: https://mbjprod-netizen.github.io/cartridge-app/privacy.html