Best Spotify Alternatives For Linux

Spotify is the most popular music streaming service. A Spotify free account grants access to a massive catalogue of songs, podcasts, and internet radio. But, if you’re a big fan of open-source software like me, you’ll want to check out these free and premium Spotify alternatives for Linux.

These Spotify alternatives not only give us access to a large collection of free music resources, but we can also use some of them to host our own streaming server.

Spotify does not enable you to host the software on your own server. Furthermore, the Spotify client for Linux is not developed by a dedicated team, so expect bugs and glitches with the official Spotify Linux client. In this case, you can look through the following list to see which music application you prefer for your Linux distribution.

Best Spotify Alternatives for Linux

It’s worth noting that I tested these applications on Ubuntu and Manjaro. As a result, I believe you’ll have a similar user experience as I did with Ubuntu or Arch derivatives. Also, if you have any suggestions for additions to the list, please leave them in the comments section. Let’s get started now, without further ado!

1. Subsonic

Subsonic is a free and open-source media server that lets you host your own streaming service. Send your music to your family and friends via the internet. Developers have created multiple applications for each device using the Subsonic API. Subsonic media server installation is extremely simple. Users can stream music from any device once it is set up.

After installing the media server, you can provide the server directory where media is stored. The software will periodically scan the directories for new media files and make them available to stream instantly. All media files can be accessed under Index.

Subsonic Settings

Subsonic settings have a lot of depth. On the media server, you can change almost anything. Set up Internet Radio, podcasts, video streaming, network settings, and a variety of other features. Simply enter the stream URL to activate Internet Radio. Podcasts can be set up in the same way.

Subsonic Premium is required for video streaming and costs $1/month, $96/8 years, and $99 for a lifetime plan. It’s very inexpensive. Users get video streaming, apps for all major platforms, a podcast receiver, a personal server address (name.subsonic.org), the ability to play media on compatible DLNA/UPnP devices, and more with Subsonic Premium.

Monitor Network

Media server monitoring enables administrators to keep an eye on media streams in real time. Understand which tracks are being played and how much bandwidth is being used.

You can start your own media streaming service with all of these advanced features. Stream media to family, friends, or yourself. There will be no more corporate tracking.

Install Subsonic

Subsonic is available in.deb for Debian or Ubuntu,.rpm for Red Hat or Fedora, and as a standalone package that can be installed on any Linux distribution. Subsonic is available in the Arch User Repository, aka AUR, if you are using Arch or Manjaro.

Download Subsonic package.

It is fairly simple to install using .deb and .rpm files. Simply double-click the file to install Subsonic. If you want to use a Standalone package, download and extract the package, then run subsonic.sh.

It’ll automatically set up and start the server at localhost:4040. Subsonic will guide you to setup your media directories.

2. Headset

Headset is a music player that allows you to listen to music from YouTube and Reddit. There is no doubt that these two resources contain nearly everything for listening. On the start screen, you can get popular tracks and music channels from YouTube thanks to a nice GUI.

You can make collections of your favourite music, get your liked music in one place, and stream music from popular music subreddits.

When you launch the app for the first time, it prompts you for your YouTube API key. Google Cloud Console is where you can obtain your API key. Search for YouTube API and then select YouTube Data V3 API. Simply enter the API key into the app and you’re done.

There is no need to get an API key from Reddit. It works seamlessly without any API key.

With free Headset account, users get all the features except Unlimited Skips, Party shuffle, All of Reddit, and Album mode. Headset premium costs only $3/month.

Install Headset

Headset packages are available in almost all formats. It is available as snap application, flatpak, .deb, .rpm, and in Arch User Repository.

3. Playary

Playary is more than a music player. It is a Music and Movie player. With thousands of music titles and podcasts, Playary also provides short movies library. At the time of writing the article, Playary has over 350,000 podcasts. Listen to the podcasts that interest you the most.

Discover the latest music, find series, short movies, Podcasts in different genres, and make your own library of favourite titles.

You can add your own podcast from RSS feed or manually provide podcast information.

Install Playary

Playary is available as a snap application, so you can install it on any Linux distribution.

4. Nuclear

Nuclear is another popular, open-source, and moder-looking Spotify alternative for Linux. Just like Headset, Nuclear finds music from almost all the free sources available on the Internet. The application can search music from YouTube, Soundcloud, Jamendo, Audius, iTunes, Bandcamp, and many more.

Nuclear can connect with and import favourites from last.fm. Connect it with your Mastodon instance, install plugins to add more media sources, customize how you want to play media, and download any song locally.

Nuclear is a great Spotify alternative for Linux. I used it for a few days and found no bugs and glitches. The Linux snap app works really good.

Install Nuclear

No matter what distribution you’re using, Nuclear is available for all. Just download the one that is easy for you.

5. Olivia

And the last one on the list is Olivia. Olivia is a free, open-source music application that can stream music (audio & Video) from Youtube. It is best if you want to discover new music. Olivia smart mode finds and play related songs automatically.

No need to pay a penny for streaming high quality music and saving it offline. It will save the song as you play saving the Internet bandwidth.

With all the basic features such as creating playlist and streaming 25k+ radio stations, users can also browse Youtube playlists, play from Soundcloud, and soon will be able to synchronize their favorite songs in the cloud.

The reason why Olivia is in the last of this list is because the Linux client is buggy. I was able to play a few songs but it crashed multiple times during the test.

Install Olivia

Olivia can be installed on any Linux distribution from snap store. Make sure your distribution has snap support installed. If you are using Arch or Manjaro, Olivia is also available in Arch User Repository.

Conclusion

So there you have it, my top 5 Spotify alternatives for Linux. All of the applications listed above have more features than Spotify. You can listen to high-quality music, download songs locally, listen to podcasts and radio. All of this is provided for free or at a very low cost. Subsonic is the cheapest option on the list, allowing you to host your own media server for free or for $1/month with additional features.

There are many more Spotify alternatives that I may have overlooked. Please let me know in the comments if you use any other music streaming services on your Linux.