this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
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New in this version:

  • New playback pipeline with improved performance and latency (built on miniaudio)

  • Real-time ASCII visualizations (via Chroma)

Free, open source, no tracking, completely offline

Demo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql5ZKeaX2MQ

More info: https://codeberg.org/ravachol/kew https://github.com/ravachol/kew

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[–] bipedalsheep@programming.dev 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah! Love kew! It is my go-to player for my local library.

[–] tangonov@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Its so funny that we call these things "offline music players" now. They used to just be music players. I'm excited to throw my 3000+ tracks at it

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Don't hesitate to let me know about your experience, perhaps through DM. I'm very interested in handling large music collections right.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Well, I'll give it one thing. It's easier to spell than my current terminal music player: ncmpcpp

[–] Olap@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)
[–] aketawi@quokk.au 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

inbefore you need to check a port and accidentally start blasting music

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Can't accidentality start blasting music if I never stop

[–] dwt@feddit.org 4 points 4 days ago

nc is reserved for netcat- can’t use that….

[–] JakoJakoJako13@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What do you mean? You don't just jam nctomnarstoiearste into the terminal? Am I the only one who does that?

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

we need sl for ncmpcppc

[–] texture@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

[–] texture@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

tip of the glass

Terminal visualizer? Exactly what I've been looking for

[–] clif@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Well this is awesome... pulling it now.

[–] orenj@leminal.space 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Oh hell yeah, thats the kind stuff I want

[–] varnia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Looks good. I am currently using rmpc/mpd but for my needs, it's overengineered. So I am looking for a simple local player that looks great with Mpris support. kew seems to fit that very well.

What is the advantage of using the NixOS flake? Nixpkg just got 4.0.0 merged.

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The explanation that was given to me: "the flake references this repo as a source. You don't need to manually bump versions - when users run nix flake update, they pull the latest commit automatically. So it's mostly self-maintaining since it tracks the repo directly."

You'll likely be fine with the official package.

[–] varnia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Is there a hidden resume playback switch I haven't found? When I restart my computer I would like kew to just resume playback like cmus does.

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No, there isn't. Maybe there should be.

You could make an issue for it if you want it!

[–] neighborhoodnerd21@mastodon.social 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

@ravachol @varnia true but i try to avoid things like that if i have nothing to contribute. so far they both will install and run just fine. basically my only issue would be that i dont want those projects to die. metathesiophobia, i had to look it up but basically this is what it is. the things i love being phased out. but you know the whole attachment is suffering stuff i know its irrational. a tree has to die so another one can sprout or something like that lol

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

metathesiophobia

Hey, things move too fast nowadays. I feel the same way. I'm still on manjaro because it works and I want to support those goofs lol. Just keep using cmus, it's a cool project. Or you can have both. kew let's you start music pretty easily, for instance:

kew moon # plays moonlight sonata if you have it

kew nirv # plays your collection of nirvana music (shuffled) if you have it

kew thriller # plays thriller album (in order)

So maybe it has different use cases than cmus I dunno.

[–] neighborhoodnerd21@mastodon.social 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

@ravachol hows manjaro with legacy nvidia? anything that has a specific command for moonlight sonata has to be good lol

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I think it handles the legacy ones ok. You mean the recent change where nvidia dropped support?

It's just an example command, you can type a partial song name and it matches to the first song or directory you have that contains that string and creates a playlist automatically.

[–] JakoJakoJako13@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

I tried it! I liked it. Been on my system for a while now. I probably wont switch from ncmpcpp, but it's a great alternative. I think being so used to ncmpcpp is keeping me from switching to anything different. Like I wish I could search just by hitting / then typing in what I. Then I realize learning a whole new system for a music player isn't something of a high priority after using one thing for 15 years. I love the track screen. That's something I wish ncmpcpp had.

[–] mcheva@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

How is it on raspbian? Would it run on a pi zero 2w? I'll try it when I get home tonight.

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I actually haven't tried it myself.

The visualizations wont work, but that is an external program (Chroma) that you have to install separately.

I have tested it on tty though and made sure there is a color mode that works with it and that it renders flicker free.

If you try it I'd love to hear impressions, in a dm.

[–] blackjam_alex@lemmy.world -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I tried it today and I didn't like it. The key configuration is very unintuitive.

Also... Isn't that visualization engine vibe coded?

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

What is unintuitive? Enter to enqueue music, Space for pause, Left and Right arrow to change the track. Backspace to clear the list. Escape or q to quit.

The thing that might throw you off might be alt+enter for enqueue + immediate play, which doesn't happen with enter if something is already playing. It's pretty easy to get used to though.

I'm not the developer of Chroma, you'd have to ask them. I think it looks cool though. You don't need it to run kew.

[–] blackjam_alex@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

First of all, I apologize. Now that I re-read my comment it sounds a bit rude. Sorry about that.

I was accustomed to the moc player configuration, you move like you're going through directories.

Best of luck with your project.

[–] ravachol@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

No problem, the design is a bit unorthodox but that's on purpose. Think different.