[](https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster/releases/latest)
[](https://sourceforge.net/projects/music-caster/)
Music Caster is a modern music player with the ability to cast audio files, system audio, and URLs to Google Chromecasts, Google Home/Nest Minis, etc.
Display languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian\*, and Ukrainian\*
Unique users as of April 23rd 2023: 3,800
[Screenshots](https://elijahlopez.ca/music-caster/)
### Donate or Translate
- monero:84PR6SkYd5zaFLKDjAFrQfbaAg2c7SV3q3XDZ15QCpEZUggrN4YzY7n8m9XC3deXjo41yWHTm1LrsUpPTYGnRQbD9Cwp8En
- [PayPal](https://www.paypal.me/elibroftw)
- [Translate](https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster/issues/12#issuecomment-808658776) Music Caster to other languages
## Install
### [Windows Download Music.Caster.Setup.exe](https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster/releases/latest)
- **IMPORTANT INFORMATION:** The tray icon will be in the tray, so you will need to move it to your taskbar
- Command line installation: `winget install "Music Caster"`
- [VirusTotal scan](https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/40a1c61e5cb2c5eed714eb70bb84f138e9fd9742076ea665b4ac85fc8f372abf)
- If Music Caster is auto-removed, open "Virus & threat protection", then "protection history," and restore all files related to Music Caster
### Linux
Not maintained, but I did get it to work on Ubuntu once. Music Caster is not straight forward to package, so you can invoke a sudo-free [install script](linux_install.sh).
```bash
mkdir -p ~/bin && git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster.git ~/bin/music-caster
cd ~/bin/music-caster
./linux_install.sh # use sudo for non-interactive install in case a dependency needs to be installed
```
## Demo
## Limitations
- Chromecasts only support the AAC version of WMA files
- Emojis might not work well. There's always settings.json + WEB GUI though
- [Road Map](https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster/projects/1)
## Power User Features
- Global media hot-keys are supported
- Web GUI (QR code in Settings window)
- [Command Line Arguments](https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster/wiki/Command-Line-Arguments)
Here are Music Caster specific keyboard shortcuts aside from the global media hot-keys.
| **Shortcut** | **Window** | **Behaviour** |
|------------------------|------------|--------------------------------|
| Ctrl + Shift + Alt + M | Global | Activate Main Window |
| Ctrl + (Shift) + } | Main | Toggle mini-mode |
| Esc | Main | Close Window |
| Ctrl + Shift + Q | Main | Exit Program |
| Scroll | Main | Volume and Progress Bar |
| ⬆ / A | Main | Decrease Volume by 5% |
| ⬇ / D | Main | Increase Volume by 5% |
| # | Main | Set Volume to # * 10% |
| K | Main | Pause / Resume / Start Playing |
| Shift + N | Main | Next Track |
| Shift + P / Shift + B | Main | Previous Track |
| J | Main | Rewind 5 seconds |
| L | Main | Fast-forward 5 seconds |
| Ctrl + R | Main | Cycle Repeat |
| Ctrl + M | Main | Mute |
| Ctrl + 1 | Main | Go to Tab 1 (Queue) |
| Ctrl + 2 | Main | Go to Tab 2 (URL) |
| Ctrl + 3 | Main | Go to Tab 3 (Library) |
| Ctrl + 4 | Main | Go to Tab 4 (Playlists) |
| Ctrl + 5 | Main | Go to Tab 5 (Timer) |
| Ctrl + 6 | Main | Go to Tab 6 (Metadata) |
| Ctrl + 7 | Main | Go to Tab 7 (Settings) |
### Editing `settings.json`
- I do not recommend editing unless you know what you are doing
- Music Caster will detect changes within 10 seconds of editing `settings.json`
- Some settings values are hidden from the GUI for good reason
## Data Collection / Privacy Policy
Below is the reasonable data that is collected when errors are encountered. I'm sure other programs collect
way more than necessary.
```python
# in handle_exception,
payload = {'VERSION': VERSION, 'FATAL': restart_program, 'EXCEPTION TYPE': exc_type.__name__,
'LINE': exc_tb.tb_lineno, 'TRACEBACK': trace_back_msg, 'LOG': log_lines,
'MQ[0]': playing_uri, 'PLAYING_STATUS': str(playing_status), 'DEVICE': device,
'CWD': os.getcwd(), 'PORTABLE': not os.path.exists(UNINSTALLER),
'MAC': hashlib.md5(get_mac().encode()).hexdigest(), 'OS': platform.platform(), 'TIME': current_time}
```
In addition, I collect MD5 hashed MAC addresses and IP addresses in a Google Excel Sheet.
Only I have access to this data, I will NEVER give it to anyone else. Will stop collecting analytics once I stop caring about the number of users.
- Hashed MAC so that I know how many users without knowing the actual MAC addresses
- IP because I can map out the IPs to a visual map to see where my users are located
[Developer Guide](https://github.com/elibroftw/music-caster/wiki/Developer-Guide)
### Linux Build Guide
- Define correct PY variable (requires rebuilding the image)
- Obtain the mc-builder Image
- Option A: `docker pull elibroftw/mc-builder`
- Option B: `docker build . -t elibroftw/mc-builder`
- Remember to have Docker desktop/daemon running already
- Build source code using: `docker run --rm --volume .:/var/music-caster elibroftw/mc-builder`
### Virtualenv
```sh
python3.12 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate # Windows
source .venv/bin/activate # Non-Windows
```