Uzumaki
$ uzumaki

A native Apple Music desktop client for Linux and macOS.

GPU‑rendered and written in Rust. Your library, your playlists, synced lyrics and your own music files, in one fast window that works with your media keys and your terminal.

Coming soon Downloads aren't up yet.

Free · Linux and macOS · an Apple Music subscription for streaming, or play only your own files without one

Listen now

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Interactive preview of the real window, drawn in HTML. Covers and 30 s previews courtesy of Apple Music (iTunes Search API).

01 · native

A music app that feels like it belongs on your desktop

No browser tab. Uzumaki draws its own interface on the GPU and uses Apple's own web player, hidden in the background, for the actual playback.

Full-screen Now Playing: the controls on the left, synced lyrics on the right with the current line highlighted, over a blurred background.
Full-screen Now Playing with synced lyrics.
An album page with its song list, and a lyrics panel on the right following the current song.
Lyrics in a side panel, next to the album you're browsing.
The Local Files page: a sortable table of songs from your music folders with title, artist, album, year and time.
Local files, playable alongside Apple Music.
Settings, Appearance: a halftone swirl preview, theme choice, three app icon styles and a docked or floating player.
Appearance settings: backgrounds, theme, icon and player style.
02 · make it yours

Your picture, your theme, your keys

Behind the app you can have Uzumaki’s own swirl, a picture of your choice or the cover of whatever is playing, redrawn with an effect. The window next to this text is the real thing: it runs the app’s own effect code, right in your browser.

  • Source. The built-in swirl, your own picture (PNG or JPEG) or the playing song’s cover, or nothing at all.
  • Effect. None, Dither, ASCII, Halftone, Scanlines or Blur.
  • Strength. From faint to strong, never fully opaque, with a separate strength for song lists.
  • Fade. The picture can fade out towards the bottom, so long lists sit on the plain background.
  • Where. On every page, or only on card pages such as Home and Radio.

Now Playing has a background of its own: a gradient in the cover’s colour, the cover itself with its own effect under a dark scrim, or the same as the rest of the app.

Live preview

Dark, light, or your system

Pick Dark or Light, or let Uzumaki follow your computer’s appearance, which is the default. The backgrounds follow the theme: the same effects draw as light on black in Dark and as ink on near-white paper in Light.

Uzumaki in the dark theme: the album page for Narcotic - EP by Liquido over a halftone anime picture that fades out towards the bottom, with the floating player at the bottom.
The author’s setup: their own picture with Halftone in Dark and no effect in Light, fade on.

Your shortcuts

Every shortcut can be rebound in Settings › Keyboard: click one, then press the new keys. Esc cancels and Backspace removes it, and a combination another shortcut already has moves over to the one you’re setting.

The number keys 1–9 can use Ctrl or Alt, or be switched off, and open the main pages or your sidebar pins. The shortcuts tour can be played again from Settings.

  • Play or pauseSpace
  • Next songCtrl→
  • Shuffle on or offCtrlS
  • Show or hide the sidebarCtrlB
  • Lyrics in the right sidebarCtrlL
  • Up Next in the right sidebarCtrlU
  • Full-screen Now PlayingCtrlShiftF
  • Keyboard shortcutsCtrl/
  • Number keys: the main pages, or your sidebar pinsCtrl1to9

The defaults, as shown on Linux; on a Mac, Ctrl is Cmd.

03 · how it works

From download to playing in four steps

  1. 01

    Install

    Get the Linux AppImage or the macOS DMG. Neither is published yet, so the download buttons above are still switched off.

  2. 02

    Sign in, or go local

    Sign in with Apple Music on Apple's own sign-in page. Uzumaki never sees your password. No subscription? Choose local files only and pick your music folders instead.

  3. 03

    Play

    Open a song, an album or a playlist. Apple Music songs and your own files share one queue, with synced lyrics, media keys and a tray icon.

  4. 04

    Control it from the terminal

    Script it, bind it to keys, or type uzu for a full-screen player.

    $ uzu play "late night" $ uzu next
$ uzu

Built for the terminal too: uzu

uzu controls the running app the way mpc controls mpd. Use it in scripts and key bindings, or just type uzu for a full-screen terminal player with your queue, playlists, search, albums and lyrics. It even works over SSH.

$ uzu
Juniper Vale - Small Rooms
[playing] #1/9   1:23/4:37 (30%)
$ uzu playlists
$ uzu play "late night"
$ uzu search copper sky
$ uzu insert 1      # play next
$ uzu seek +10
$ uzu vol 60
$ uzu next
  • Five screens: Queue, Playlists, Search, Albums and Lyrics, with filtering and sorting.
  • Covers in the terminal: real images in kitty, Ghostty, WezTerm, iTerm2 or sixel terminals, coloured blocks elsewhere.
  • Runs without a window: uzu start runs the app in the background, and playlists and albums work from the disk cache.
04 · requirements

What you need

An Apple Music subscription, for streaming

Uzumaki is a different way to use the subscription you already have. You sign in once with your Apple Account, in Apple's own sign-in page. Your own music files play without one.

Apple's standard streaming quality

Songs stream at 256 kbps AAC, the quality Apple offers on the web. Lossless and Dolby Atmos aren't available this way. There's also a 64 kbps data saver.

Linux or macOS

On Linux, a GPU with Vulkan drivers, on Wayland or X11. On macOS it runs as a regular app, with media keys, a menu bar icon and notifications.

05 · faq

Questions

How does playback work?

Uzumaki runs Apple's own Apple Music web player in a hidden window and tells it what to play. The audio is played by that official player, inside a standard licensed browser engine. Uzumaki's own window shows everything else.

Can I download songs or keep them after my subscription ends?

No. Uzumaki streams Apple Music the same way music.apple.com does and never saves or converts the audio. Songs you own as files play from your own music folders.

Is it official?

No. Uzumaki is an independent project and is not made, affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.

Why not lossless?

Apple only offers 256 kbps AAC to its web player, and that is the player Uzumaki uses. Lossless and Spatial Audio need Apple's own apps.

Is my Apple password stored by Uzumaki?

No. You sign in on Apple's own page in a separate window, and the login stays in that player's profile on your computer, just like signing in to a browser. Settings → Account has a Sign out button that removes it.

Do lyrics work for every song?

Lyrics come from Apple Music, so they show when Apple has them. Many songs are timed word by word, others line by line, and some have plain lyrics only. Local files don't have lyrics yet.

Do media keys and desktop widgets work?

Yes. On Linux Uzumaki registers with MPRIS, so media keys, KDE and GNOME widgets and tools like playerctl see it, whether an Apple Music song or a local file is playing. On macOS it uses the system's Now Playing controls.

When can I download it?

Soon. The Linux AppImage and macOS DMG aren't published yet.