Y2K Player Get it free

Themes · iPhone & iPad

Pick an era.
The whole app changes.

Not an accent colour. The library, the player, the sliders, the playheads and the tab bar all move together.

Get it free See what a theme touches

A set of themes is free. There is a three-day window to try the others.

  • Every eraY2K, Aero, vapor, kawaii, arcade
  • Every screennot just the player
  • Instantno restart, no download
The Y2K Player home screen in the Coquette theme: cream and blush pink, soft outlined controls, a pale pink tab bar and shelves of album art.

A theme here is the whole app, not a tint

Most apps that offer themes offer a highlight colour and a dark mode. This one repaints every surface: the ground, the glass over it, the seams between panels, the corner radius, the sliders, the playhead, the tab bar and the type.

That is the difference worth understanding before you look at the pictures below. Two themes can share a hue and still feel nothing alike, because one has 30-pixel corners and wet glass and the other has hard edges and monospaced type. Frutiger Aero and Y2K chrome are both blue. They are not the same app.

It also means the change is not skin deep in the boring sense: switch to Halftone and the cards stop being glass and start being paper; switch to Arcade and the controls stop being rounded at all. The player does not merely change colour, it changes material.

Frutiger Aero

The look of everything between roughly 2004 and 2012: wet glass, aqua and green, bubbles, a lot of light and gloss on every edge. Breeze is the flagship of that family here — glossy aqua-and-green glass with rounded pills — and Aqua, Fathom and Meadow sit around it at different depths of water. If the phrase means anything to you at all, start with Breeze.

Y2K chrome

The earlier end: brushed steel, silver-blue, hard specular highlights and a slightly industrial confidence. Stargaze is the calm version — navy with a starfield — and Chrome, Platinum and Dial-Up take it further toward the metal.

Vaporwave

Purple dusk, magenta grid floors, hot pink on everything that can be pressed. Vaporwave is the one named after it; Galaxy, Neon and After Hours are its neighbours if you want the palette without the grid.

Kawaii and soft

The light end of the catalogue, which mostly does not exist in music players at all. Coquette is cream and blush with ribbon-soft edges; Kawaii, Bubblegum, Petal and Cotton Candy go progressively sweeter. These are also the themes that make the strongest case for the feature, because a player that looks like this is not otherwise available.

Changing the look

One tap, and nothing has to restart.

  1. Open the theme pickerIt is in Settings, at the top. Every theme is listed as a live preview of the actual app rather than a colour chip, so you are choosing a screen you have already seen.
  2. Tap oneThe change happens immediately and covers everything at once — the library, the player, the waveform, the sliders, the tab bar. No restart and nothing to download.
  3. Try the ones you have not boughtAnything in the Pro set opens a three-day window the first time you use it, and the app says so at the moment it starts rather than after it runs out.
  4. Let the visualizer follow, or notMatch theme in the visualizer picker recolours the scene to the theme you just chose. Switch it off if you would rather each scene kept its own palette.
  5. Leave itThe theme is remembered, and it rides your own iCloud so a new phone opens in the look you were already using.

These are the same app, photographed the same way, wearing different themes. There are many more inside.

  • The Y2K Player home screen in the Breeze theme: glossy aqua-and-green glass, a rounded Shuffle all songs pill and shelves of album art.
    Breeze

    Frutiger Aero. Wet glass, aqua, a lot of light.

  • The home screen in the Stargaze theme: a deep navy field with a faint starfield and cool silver-blue controls.
    Stargaze

    Navy, a starfield, silver-blue controls.

  • The library screen in the Vaporwave theme: purple dusk, a magenta grid floor and a hot-pink Shuffle pill.
    Vaporwave

    Purple dusk over a magenta grid floor.

  • The home screen in the Coquette theme: cream and blush pink, soft outlined controls and a pale pink tab bar.
    Coquette

    Cream, blush, ribbon-soft edges.

  • The home screen in the Arcade theme: black ground, hard primary colours and blocky cabinet-style controls.
    Arcade

    Cabinet colours on black. Blocky on purpose.

  • The home screen in the Diode theme: a dark field with monospaced type and a single electric blue accent.
    Diode

    Monospace and one accent. A terminal that plays music.

  • The home screen in the Galaxy theme: deep violet with a nebula wash behind the shelves.
    Galaxy

    Violet with a nebula behind the shelves.

  • The home screen in the Rosarium theme: warm rose and gold with ornate rounded controls.
    Rosarium

    Rose and gold, and rather more ornament.

  • The home screen in the Aqua theme: glossy blue pill controls with a candy shine.
    Aqua

    Glossy blue pills with a candy shine.

  • The home screen in the Cipher theme: near-black with green monospaced type.
    Cipher

    Near-black, green type, nothing rounded.

  • The home screen in the Fathom theme: deep teal-black with pale cyan seams.
    Fathom

    Deep water. Teal-black with pale cyan seams.

  • The home screen in the Halftone theme: cream paper with printed dot texture and heavy black type.
    Halftone

    Printed dots on cream. Ink, not glass.

  • The home screen in the Wave theme: soft gradients in coral and blue with rounded cards.
    Wave

    Coral and blue gradients, everything rounded.

  • The library screen in the Mint theme: a pale green-white field with light controls.
    Mint

    Pale green-white. One of the free ones.

How far a theme actually reaches

The picture above is the home screen. Here is the same theme two screens deeper, which is where most themed apps stop and this one does not.

The Y2K Player playback screen in the Stargaze theme: a navy field with a faint starfield, cool silver-blue tempo and pitch sliders, and a matching playhead under the artwork.

The player, wearing the same theme

The tempo and pitch sliders, their fill, their knobs and their readouts are all part of the theme. So is the playhead, the artwork frame, the button row and the sheet that slides up over it.

This is the screen you actually spend time on, which is why it is the one worth judging a theme by. A theme that only paints the home screen is a wallpaper.

The library too, down to the shelves

Shelves, rows, section headers, the search field and the tab bar along the bottom all carry the theme. Nothing on the way to a song is left in a default grey.

Whether you notice this consciously is beside the point — you notice an app that is themed in two places out of six, and what you notice is that it feels unfinished.

The library screen in the Vaporwave theme: purple dusk, a magenta grid floor, shelves for All Songs, Favorites, Recently Played and Most Played, and a hot-pink Shuffle pill.

You see the theme before you choose it

The picker does not show swatches. Every entry is a live miniature of the real app in that theme, drawn with the same code that draws the app, so what you tap is what you get. That matters more than it sounds: a name and a colour dot tell you nothing about whether a theme has hard edges or soft ones, glass or paper, and those are the parts you live with.

Anything in the Pro set opens a three-day window the first time you use it. The app says so when the window starts rather than when it ends, which is the only version of that mechanic that is not a trap. The window covers themes and visualizers; the effect rack is Pro from the start and is not in it.

The icon on your home screen changes too

There is a small family of alternate app icons, and a few of them are free. It is a detail, but it is the detail that decides whether the app looks like it belongs on your home screen next to everything else you picked.

What a theme does not do is change your wallpaper, your other apps or anything outside Y2K Player. The scope is the app.

Before you install anything

  • A set of themes is free — one dark, one light — and they never expire. The rest are part of Pro, with a three-day window to try them.
  • The effect rack is not in that window. Reverb, EQ and the rest are Pro from the start. Tempo and pitch are free on every track.
  • Pro is one payment. It opens every theme, including the ones added later, and it does not renew.
  • A theme is a look, not a feature gate. Nothing the player can do depends on which theme you are wearing.
  • Themes are original work. They are built in the spirit of an era — they are not copies of anybody’s product, and no company’s marks appear in them.

Questions about the themes

What people ask before they trust an app with their library.

How many themes are there?

Over fifty, and the number has only ever gone up. New ones arrive with updates and Pro includes them without a second payment.

Does a theme change the whole app or just one screen?

The whole app. The library, the player, the waveform screen, the sliders, the playhead, the sheets and the tab bar all change together, and the corner radius and the material change with them — not only the colours.

Are any themes free?

Yes, and permanently: one dark and one light, either of which is a complete look rather than a stripped-down preview. The rest are part of Pro.

Can I try a Pro theme before buying?

Yes. Using one opens a three-day window, and the app tells you at the moment it starts rather than after it ends. The window covers themes and visualizers. The effect rack is not in it.

Is there a Frutiger Aero theme?

Several. Breeze is the flagship — wet aqua-and-green glass with rounded pills — with Aqua, Fathom and Meadow around it. They are original designs in the spirit of that era rather than recreations of any particular product.

Is there a vaporwave theme?

Yes, plus its neighbours: Galaxy, Neon and After Hours if you want the palette without the grid floor.

Do themes need a connection?

No. They ship inside the app, so switching one works in airplane mode and there is nothing to download when you pick one.

Does the visualizer follow the theme?

If you want it to. Match theme in the visualizer picker recolours the scene to whatever theme the app is wearing; switch it off and each scene keeps its own palette.

Can I change the app icon as well?

Yes, from a small family of alternates, and a few of those are free.

Will my theme follow me to a new phone?

Yes. The theme you chose rides your own iCloud, so a new device opens in the look you were already using. Your audio files do not sync — those live on each device.

Do I keep the themes I bought if I stop paying?

There is nothing to stop paying. Pro is a one-time purchase, so it does not renew and nothing switches off later.

Can I make my own theme?

Not today. The catalogue is hand-built, which is why the themes reach every screen instead of tinting one.

Wear the one you would have picked in 2005.

The player is free and so are two of the looks. Nothing needs an account, and nothing here expires.

Get it free What Pro adds

Free to download and keep. Pro is a one-time purchase — buy it once and it never renews.