On the hunt for a desktop YouTube music player that works on Ubuntu (or another Linux distribution)?

Check out Kaku, which OMG! Ubuntu! reader PyGeek03 tipped us to via our mail bag.

He writes: “…someone has created a new and fully-functional app for playing music from Youtube: Kaku. In fact, this app even has its own Numix icon!

Beside features available with Atraci, there’s a list of Top Ranking tracks on the Home page, and a feature called Online DJ, which enable you to share what you’re listening with other people (I haven’t check this feature out yet). You can also choose whether to backup your data to Local or Dropbox in Settings.

While the video is playing, you can view it in Fullscreen mode (which is more like Focused mode, because I can only switch to other running apps using Alt + Tab, but not Plank), TV mode (which enlarge the video to fill the whole window), cast to other device, or open the video in your default browser.”

Kaku Features

YouTube is possibly the single biggest online music repository that’s available for free. It makes the perfect backend for a desktop music streaming player.

Kaku is exactly that: a desktop YouTube music player for Windows, macOS and — hurrah — Linux. It uses Node.js.

You can use it to search for and listen to music and create playlists from YouTube, but also Vimeo and SoundCloud.

The simple, straightforward layout is easy to get to grips with, though it lacks any customisation options, e.g., you can’t disable the sidebar, extend the width of columns, etc. Desktop integration is also lacking, so you won’t see track change notifications or find player controls in whatever MPRIS applet you typically use.

But the app has a number of strengths. The ability to see the top rankings from around the world lets you find and listen to popular songs without having to look them up, and the “Reduce Bandwidth” mode is highly recommended as it disables the distracting video playback to, instead, play only the audio track.

In short Kaku does what it needs to, and does it well enough to be worth a look.

Kaku Features:

Search for and listen to music

Supports YouTube, Vimeo & SoundCloud

Option to disable video playback

Supports Chromecast

“Focus Mode”

Create and share playlists

Download videos

Download Kaku YouTube Desktop Music Player

Want to check it out for yourself? You can find Linux binaries for 32-bit and 64-bit distributions on the project’s GitHub page:

Download Latest Kaku Release from GitHub

