Summary
ShellBeat runs in the Linux terminal, streaming audio via yt-dlp and mpv for low-RAM, video-free listening.
Search, queue, and add YouTube playlists on the fly to tap existing music libraries.
Background download thread and IPC let mpv stream without blocking the terminal UI.
You know, YouTube has allowed us music listeners to find more bands and tracks a lot more easily. However, it has also made some things less convenient. As someone who has fond memories of loading up music tracks into WinAmp and having the playlist play, going through YouTube takes up quite a bit of RAM with the browser, has lots of recommendations you may not be interested in, and comes with ads.
Well, someone out there seems to feel the same way, as they created a YouTube player that works within your Linux terminal. As you might imagine, it won’t play video; however, it is perfect for queueing up music and playing it in a minimal environment you can set and forget.
ShellBeat adds your favorite YouTube music playlist right into your terminal
No more pesky videos ruining your music
As spotted by Hackaday, this cool little project comes to us via lalo-space on GitHub. They had an issue where they didn’t like how resource-intensive running YouTube in a browser was, especially if you just want to listen to music. As such, they made ShellBeat, an application that lets you browse, play, and load playlists of your favorite music. Plus, you get the Linux flex of moving yet another daily task over to the terminal.
Here’s how you find music using ShellBeat:
You search for something
yt-dlp fetches results from YouTube
mpv streams the audio (or plays from disk if downloaded)
IPC socket handles communication between shellbeats and mpv
Background thread processes download queue without blocking UI
My favorite part about this feature is how you can load and add music to your YouTube playlists on the fly. I like to think everyone has a music playlist to fit every occasion (I know I do), so this is a great way to tap into your existing music libraries without having to rebuild your collection from the ground up. Nice work, lalo-space! Head over to the ShellBeats website or its GitHub page to give it a go.