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Shellbeats just a pure C music streaming from terminal

Shellbeats just a pure C music streaming from terminal

by lalospace·Apr 9, 2026·1 point·0 comments

AI Analysis

●●SolidCozyNiche Gem

126KB C binary for YouTube music when yt-dlp already exists.

Strengths
  • 126KB binary with ncurses TUI and zero browser dependencies
  • SuriSync integration enables playlist sync across machines via surikata.app
  • Dual editions: terminal for Linux/macOS, Dear ImGui GUI for Windows
Weaknesses
  • Terminal music players are crowded (cmus, mpd, various yt-dlp wrappers)
  • YouTube streaming without ads raises potential ToS concerns
Category
Target Audience

Terminal users and keyboard-driven workflow enthusiasts

Similar To

cmus · yt-dlp · spotify-tui

Post Description

I built this because i was tired of needing a browser open just to listen to music while working

i spend most of the day in a terminal or tiling wm and every music app felt like too much stuff on screen

so i made a music player in C that stays out of the way.

you can search youtube stream tracks download mp3s manage playlists and keep everything inside the shell

there is also ShellBeatsNG for the lazy people who want the same idea with a terminal style gui on windows and macos so same vibe but less typing

another thing that became more useful than i expected is sync you can sync playlists and music stuff across multiple pcs with surisync and it plugs into the surikata.app community so playlists can move between machines and also be shared around there

was not trying to make some giant platform just wanted something fast small keyboard friendly and not annoying

repo https://github.com/lalo-space/shellbeats

site https://shellbeats.com/

would love feedback from people who live in the terminal and also from the ones who secretly want buttons lol

On GitHub you can find more tech details!

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