Before you buy

Requirements and installation

Everything about what Pitchkit actually is, stated up front · Updated September 2026

This page exists so you know exactly what you are buying before you buy it. Pitchkit is not a Mac App Store app and it is not a notarised .app bundle. It is a self-contained application you launch from a folder. That is a deliberate trade-off, and it is explained below along with everything it means for you.

Requirements

What you download

A zip containing a Pitchkit folder. Inside it: the application, a setup guide, and a launcher called START_PITCHKIT.command. There is no installer and nothing is written outside that folder except the Python packages it installs on first run.

Installing, step by step

  1. Unzip and move the folder somewhere permanent — Desktop, Documents or Applications. Do not put it inside your music folder; it needs to sit separately.
  2. Double-click START_PITCHKIT.command. The first launch takes about a minute while it installs a few Python packages, then Pitchkit opens in your browser.
  3. If macOS blocks it, right-click START_PITCHKIT.command, choose Open, then Open again on the warning. One time only. This happens with any Mac software not distributed through the App Store.
  4. Point it at your music folder when it asks. It remembers.
  5. Let it index. Roughly an hour for a thousand songs, in the background. You can close the window and come back — it resumes where it stopped. Progress is on the Analyze page.
Worth knowing before you judge the results: matching only searches songs that have finished indexing. If you paste a brief five minutes after installing, most of your catalog is not ready yet. Pitchkit tells you how many songs are done — give it the first pass before deciding whether the matching is any good.

Why it opens in a browser

Pitchkit runs a small local server on your Mac and uses your browser as its window. Nothing is served over the internet and nothing is uploaded — the address is on your own machine and is not reachable from anywhere else. This is the same pattern a lot of local audio and data tools use, and it is what lets the app stay small, work identically on Apple Silicon and Intel, and be inspectable if you care to look.

The honest downside is that it does not feel like a native Mac app, because it is not one. If a native .app in your Dock is what you were expecting, this is the point to know that before buying.

Optional: lyric transcription

On the Analyze page you can turn on Whisper to transcribe your lyrics locally, which noticeably improves matching on lyric-driven and theme-driven briefs. The Base model is the right default. Larger models are more accurate but can take many hours on a Mac without a dedicated GPU — start one overnight if you want it. Everything runs on your machine; no audio is sent anywhere.

Optional: artist references

Out of the box, Pitchkit recognises roughly 200 artists for reference matching. Adding your own Anthropic or Gemini API key in Setup extends this to effectively any artist, by translating a name into concrete musical characteristics before matching. The only data that ever leaves your Mac in this mode is the artist name — never your audio, lyrics or catalog.

Updating

Pitchkit checks for a new version on launch and tells you when one is available. Updates are free and included in the one-time price.

If something goes wrong

Email musicpitchkit@gmail.com. If matching handled a brief badly, include the brief text — it genuinely helps. There is a 14-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked, if it turns out not to fit your workflow.

Frequently asked

Is Pitchkit a native Mac app?

Not in the strict sense. It is a self-contained application you launch by double-clicking a file in a folder, and its interface opens in your browser using a small server that runs locally on your Mac. It is not distributed through the Mac App Store and it is not a notarised .app bundle, which means the first launch requires a right-click and Open to clear Gatekeeper.

We say this plainly because expectations matter more than marketing here. Everything runs on your machine, nothing is uploaded, and it works identically on Apple Silicon and Intel. But if a native app icon sitting in your Dock is what you pictured, this is not that, and it is better to know before buying than after.

Do I need to install Python to run Pitchkit?

Python 3 needs to be present, yes. On recent versions of macOS the system prompts to install the developer tools that include it the first time it is needed, so for most people this is a single click. If it is not present, macOS says so and you can install Python from python.org in a couple of minutes, then double-click the launcher again.

After that, Pitchkit installs the handful of packages it needs on its own during first launch. You do not use Terminal, edit anything, or run commands.

Why does macOS warn me when I open it?

Because Pitchkit is not distributed through the Mac App Store. macOS shows this warning for essentially all independently distributed Mac software that has not gone through Apple's notarisation process. Right-click the launcher, choose Open, then Open again on the warning, and macOS remembers the decision permanently.

It is a one-time step and it is not a sign that anything is wrong, but it is also a reasonable thing to be cautious about in general — you should only clear that warning for software you actually meant to download.

How long does indexing take?

Roughly an hour for a thousand songs on a modern Mac, running in the background while you do other things. It resumes where it left off if you close the window or restart, so it does not need to be done in one sitting.

Optional lyric transcription is much slower and is a separate pass you switch on deliberately. The Base Whisper model is the practical choice; larger models can run many hours on a Mac without a dedicated GPU, which is why the guidance is to start one overnight if you want the extra accuracy.

Does Pitchkit modify or move my music files?

It reads them and never writes to them. Indexing analyses the audio and stores the results in its own small database inside the Pitchkit folder; your files are not tagged, renamed, converted or moved.

The one time Pitchkit writes anything is when you create a pitch folder, and then it copies the selected files into a new folder rather than moving the originals. Your catalog is left exactly as it was.

Can I run Pitchkit on Windows or on an iPad?

No. Pitchkit is macOS 11 or later only, and there is no Windows, Linux, iOS or web version, or a timeline for one. If you are on Windows, the hosted catalog platforms such as Disco and Songspace are web-based and work fine, and a consistently maintained spreadsheet remains the practical fallback for the matching problem.

We would rather turn away a sale than take money for something that will not run on your machine.

Pitchkit — $49, one time

Mac app. Indexes your catalog, matches any brief, builds the pitch folder. Runs entirely on your machine. 14-day money-back guarantee.

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Pitchkit — $49 one time, no subscription · 14-day money-back guarantee Get Pitchkit