Juqed for Mac – the party jukebox for your own collection.
Juqed for Mac is the same democratic jukebox – but for your local MP3 library. A small, refined tool for everyone who curates their own music.
When is the Mac worth it?
An honest, clear recommendation.
You have a local collection
MP3, M4A, AAC – your files on the hard drive. Juqed for Mac plays them directly, with no streaming subscription at all.
Everyone's on the same Wi-Fi
Guests connect to the Mac over the local network and vote in the browser – no account, no app.
The Mac is there anyway
Living room, studio, regulars' table: when the Mac is hooked up to the speakers, it's the natural jukebox.
Requirements
What do you need for Juqed on the Mac?
Not much. A Mac, the app from the Mac App Store and a folder of music – on the internal drive or on an external one. A streaming subscription is not required. If you have one, you can connect Apple Music on top.
Your files
Juqed plays everything macOS can read natively: MP3, M4A (AAC and Apple Lossless), AAC, M4P, AIFF, WAV, FLAC, WMA and CAF. New files in the folder are picked up when the server restarts – already indexed ones are skipped.
One shared network
The Mac runs the server on your local Wi-Fi. Your guests have to be on that same network – but that is all. No app, no account, just a camera and a browser.
Apple Music, if you like
Switch the integration on once in the settings and your guests search your own collection and the Apple Music catalog side by side. You can disconnect it again at any time.
Setup
How does the setup work?
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Pick a music folder
On first launch you drag your folder onto the marked area or find it in Finder. Juqed remembers the source as long as the drive stays connected.
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Start the server
One click, and Juqed indexes the library. The sidebar then shows the status, the number of songs found and the QR code with the local address.
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Show the QR code
On the screen, on the TV or printed on the wall. Your guests scan it with the camera, give themselves a name and they are in.
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Let it run
Requests sort themselves by votes. When the queue empties, the Auto DJ tops it up – the music does not stop just because everyone is dancing rather than searching.
The long version with every setting – fair-use limits, blocklist, history, host sign-in via Touch ID – is in the guide for Juqed on the Mac.
Limits
Where are the limits?
A product page owes you the things the app cannot do, too. Four of them are worth knowing up front.
Everyone on the same Wi-Fi
The server runs on your Mac and is only reachable on the local network. For a garden with no network, or guests on mobile data, Juqed Go is the edition you want.
The Mac stays awake
It is the server and the player at once. If it goes to sleep, the room goes quiet – turn sleep off in System Settings beforehand.
No crossfade on streamed tracks
macOS does not hand Apple Music tracks over for mixing. Between two local files Juqed fades; between two streamed ones it cannot.
Nobody votes for themselves
That is not a gap, it is the design. Otherwise the winner is not the best request but the fastest thumb.
The decision
Which edition do you need?
Juqed exists three times over. The question is not which one is best, but where your music lives and who is on the network.
Juqed for Mac
Your music sits as files on the drive, everyone is in the house and on the same Wi-Fi. No subscription needed, nothing leaves the Mac.
Juqed Go
You are out and about, there is no shared network, and the music comes from Apple Music. It runs on an iPhone or iPad; guests join over the internet.
See Juqed Go →Juqed Web
You have no Mac at hand, or you work on Windows or Linux. It runs in the browser, with nothing to install and Apple Music as the source.
See Juqed Web →All three side by side, row by row: the comparison of the three editions. Which one suits which occasion is laid out in the use cases.