Playa Privacy Policy

Last updated September 30, 2026

Playa is published by Playsthetic LLC. It has no analytics, advertising or crash reporting, and it never uploads your files. This page describes what Playa keeps and everything it sends off your device. Our Privacy Policy covers the rest, including buying a license, how long we keep what reaches us, your rights, and how to contact us.

On your device

Your library database and cached artwork stay on your device, and tempo and key detection run on it.

In your folders

Playa keeps a hidden .playa folder inside each music folder, holding play counts, likes, tempo and key for the tracks you have played or analyzed. The main folder's copy also lists your playlists, the full paths of your music folders, and with the rekordbox option on, an export of your whole library. The folder travels with yours, so anyone you sync or share it with can read it. Tags and covers you edit are written into the audio files themselves, and Organize Files, when you turn it on, moves them into artist and album folders.

What leaves your device

Covers and album details

For an album with no cover, Playa sends the artist and album name to Wikidata, then downloads the cover it names from the Cover Art Archive, which the Internet Archive hosts. Opening an album looks up its description on Wikidata and Wikipedia the same way. Turn off "Update missing covers automatically" in Settings to stop both. Fetch Metadata searches Wikidata for the album, or for what you type, and shows the covers it finds, only when you choose it.

Received by the Wikimedia Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation and the Internet Archive.

Update checks

Copies downloaded from our website or installed with Homebrew check for a newer version by fetching a small file from s3.playsthetic.com. The request carries only what any web request carries, such as your IP address, and our server logs keep it for up to 7 days. Downloading an update is counted like any other download, as our Privacy Policy describes. A copy from the App Store leaves updates to the App Store instead.

Received by Playsthetic LLC.

License checks

When you enter a license key, Playa keeps it in your system keychain, which holds on to it even after you delete the application. It sends the key to api.playsthetic.com to confirm it is valid, then again at each launch. Besides the key, the request carries only what the application sends with any request, such as its version and your operating system version. We record the day the key was last checked. A copy from the App Store checks your purchase with Apple instead, and sends us nothing.

Received by Playsthetic LLC and Apple.

Deleting your data

What Playa keeps on your device or writes into your folders never reaches us, so you can delete it yourself at any time. A license key stays in your system keychain until you remove it with Keychain Access. To ask about anything that did reach us, see Your rights in our Privacy Policy.

Contact us

Questions about Playa and your privacy go to hey@playsthetic.com.