Hockipy — Live Event Music Player

What it does

Everything a live operator needs. Nothing else.

Hockipy is not a general-purpose media player. It solves one job well: running a carefully prepared playlist in front of a crowd, with instant access to specials and millisecond-accurate start points.

📋

Dual queue system

A scrollable playlist on the left plays songs in sequence. The specials grid on the right plays anything instantly, on demand, outside the queue.

⏱

Per-song start time

Trim the intro off any track. Set a start offset down to the millisecond so the drop, the chorus, or the crowd moment hits exactly when the moment does.

🔊

Per-song volume

Each track carries its own volume factor (50–125 %). Normalise a quiet recording or tame a loud one without touching your mixer.

📊

Live VU meter

A real-time amplitude bar beneath the now-playing display shows the energy of the current track, with a peak-hold indicator.

🖱

Drag to build & reorder

Drop audio files straight onto the window to add them. Drag playlist rows up and down to re-sequence the queue, or drag two specials onto each other to swap their positions in the grid.

🎨

Highlight & remove

Right-click any song, in the playlist or specials, to tag it with a highlight color for quick visual recall — or remove it from the session entirely.

💾

Save & auto-save

Your playlist, start times, and volume settings are saved automatically. Use Save to update the current file in place, or Save As to export a portable spec file for another machine.

🎵

Common formats

Plays MP3, OGG, WAV, and FLAC. Album art is read from ID3 tags and shown in the now-playing display.

🎨

Dark-native UI

Designed for dimly lit venues. A dark navy interface with a cyan accent scale keeps every control readable without washing out the room.

How it works

A quick tour of the interface

Playlist + Specials

The window is split into two independent panels. The left panel is your main playlist — songs play top-to-bottom, dimming as each one is used. The right panel holds your specials: goal music, jingles, or any track you need to fire instantly without disturbing the queue.

Bright title — unplayed, queued next
Dimmed title — already played this session
Specials grid — plays immediately on click, never marks as used

Hockipy with a full playlist and specials grid

Empty state & first drop

On first launch both panels show a drop target. Drag any supported audio file from your file manager onto the left panel to start a playlist, or onto the right panel to add a special. The app reads the title, artist, length, and album art from the file's tags automatically.

Left panel — drop to add to the playlist queue
Right panel — drop to add to specials
Also available under File → Add file to playlist / specials

Loading a saved playlist

Playlists are saved as portable .hpy spec files. Use File → Load Spec to open one. If songs are already loaded you can choose to merge the incoming list with the existing one, or replace it entirely.

Add to existing — appends to the current session
Replace existing — clears everything and loads fresh
Use File → Save As... to export your current setup, or Save to update the file you loaded

Song settings

Click the ⚙ cog icon on the now-playing display to open the song settings. Here you set the exact millisecond the track starts from and adjust its individual volume. A test-play button lets you hear the result before committing.

Slider — drag or use the keyboard to move the start point
Volume −5 % / +5 % — range 50–125 %
Space — test-play from the current position
Enter — apply and close
Scroll wheel over cog — adjust volume without opening settings

Get Hockipy

Download, unzip, play.

No installer. No admin rights. Unzip the folder and run the executable — everything is bundled.

🐧

Linux

x86-64 · tested on Ubuntu 22.04+

1Download the archive from the latest release page: hockipy-linux.zip
2Unzip to a folder of your choice:
unzip hockipy-linux.zip
3Make the binary executable if needed:
chmod +x hockipy-linux/hockipy
4Run it:
./hockipy-linux/hockipy

Dependency: the VU meter and OGG cover art require ffmpeg. Install it with your package manager: sudo apt install ffmpeg. All other dependencies are bundled.

Download for Linux

🪟

Windows

x86-64 · Windows 10 / 11

1Download the archive from the latest release page: hockipy-windows.zip
2Right-click the zip → Extract All… and choose a destination folder
3Open the extracted folder and double-click hockipy.exe

SmartScreen warning? Windows may show an "unknown publisher" warning the first time. Click More info → Run anyway. ffmpeg.exe is bundled — no extra installs required.

Download for Windows

Help & Reference

Complete feature documentation

Playlist

Adding songs

Drag audio files from your file manager and drop them onto the left panel. Alternatively use File → Add file to playlist. Supported formats: .mp3 .ogg .wav .flac.

Playing a song

Click any song in the list. Playback begins immediately from its configured start time. The current song is shown in the now-playing display at the bottom right.

Reordering

Drag any playlist row up or down to change its position. A cyan line shows where it will land. Order is saved automatically.

Played / unplayed state

Songs dim after being played. Use File → Reset play status to mark every song in both the playlist and specials as unplayed again.

Highlighting & removing

Right-click a playlist row to tag it with a highlight color from the palette (or pick a custom one), clear an existing tag, or remove the song from the playlist entirely.

Clearing the list

File → Clear all removes every song from both the playlist and specials, and stops playback.

Specials

What are specials?

The right-hand grid holds songs that play instantly on click without being part of the main sequence. Use them for goal music, entrance themes, jingles, or any moment-triggered audio.

Adding specials

Drop audio files onto the right panel, or use File → Add file to specials. Specials are stored separately from the playlist and never marked as used.

Playing a special

Click any card in the specials grid. Playback starts immediately from the song's configured start time, interrupting whatever is currently playing.

Reordering the grid

Drag a special's handle onto another card to swap their positions in the grid. Unlike the playlist, this is a straight swap rather than an insert.

Highlighting & removing

Right-click a special for the same highlight-color and remove options available on playlist songs — handy for color-coding goal music or entrance themes at a glance.

Settings for specials

Specials support the same per-song start time and volume settings as playlist songs. Click the special to play it, then use the cog in the now-playing display to adjust.

Playback Controls

Play from 00:00

The leftmost button plays the current track from the very beginning, ignoring any configured start offset.

Play from start time

Plays from the configured start time (the trim point). This is also how songs play when clicked in the list.

Pause / Continue

Pauses with a short fade-out and resumes from the exact position. The button label changes to reflect the current state.

Now-Playing Display

Album art

Cover art is read from the audio file's embedded tags each time a song loads. It is never stored in the playlist file.

Time readouts

The right column shows three values: total song length, configured start offset, and current playback position. All in mm:ss.mmm format.

Volume indicator

Shows the current song's volume factor as a percentage. Scroll the mouse wheel over the ⚙ cog icon to adjust it without opening settings.

VU meter

A bar of 40 segments below the song info shows the amplitude of the playing track. Colour runs from dark navy (quiet) through cyan to a red peak-hold indicator at the loudest point reached.

Progress bar

The thin bar at the very bottom tracks playback position from left (start) to right (end) using the same cyan colour scale as the VU meter.

Song Settings Dialog

Opening settings

Click the ⚙ cog icon in the now-playing display while a song is active. The song pauses automatically.

Setting a start time

Drag the slider or use the keyboard shortcuts below to position the start point. Press Space to test-play from the current slider position. Press Enter or click Apply to save.

Slider keyboard shortcuts

← / →Move ±1 ms Ctrl ← / →Move ±100 ms Shift ← / →Move ±1 s SpaceTest-play from current position EnterApply changes and close EscCancel without saving

Slider scroll wheel

Scroll over the slider: plain scroll = ±1 ms per notch, Ctrl+scroll = ±100 ms per notch, Shift+scroll = ±1 s per notch.

Per-song volume

Use the −5 % and +5 % buttons to adjust the volume factor. Range is 50–125 %. Changes take effect immediately during test playback. Default is 100 %.

File Menu

Load Spec

Opens a .hpy JSON playlist file. You are asked whether to merge with the current session or replace it entirely.

Save

Writes the current playlist, specials, start times, and volume settings back to whichever file is currently loaded (or the auto-save file if none has been opened yet).

Save As...

Exports the current session to a new .hpy file. Album art is not stored in the file — it is re-read from the audio files on load. Becomes the active file for subsequent Save actions.

Auto-save

Hockipy saves your playlist automatically to ~/.hpy (Linux/macOS) or %USERPROFILE%\.hpy (Windows) after every change. This file is loaded on the next launch.

Reset play status

Marks every song in both the playlist and specials as unplayed again, so they brighten back up and are eligible for Next.

Clear all

Removes every song from the session and stops playback. The auto-save file is updated immediately.

Open Source

GNU General Public License v3

⚖️

Free to use, free to share, free to modify.

Hockipy is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3. This means you are free to run, study, modify, and redistribute the software — provided that any distributed version carries the same license and makes the source available.

The GPL-3 license was chosen because Hockipy links PyQt6, which Riverbank Computing distributes under GPL-3-only. Any application that links PyQt6 under the free license must itself be GPL-3 compatible.

Source code is available at github.com/svenakela/hockipy. Issues and pull requests are welcome.

☕

Hockipy is free. Caffeine isn't.

If Hockipy has saved you from an awkward silence or a missed goal celebration, consider buying the developer a coffee. It takes five seconds and means a lot.

Buy me a coffee

Music that hits on cue.