What is Spotube used for?

Spotube is a cross-platform, plugin-based open-source music streaming app for desktop and mobile that avoids telemetry and keeps playback control local. It is a good fit for lightweight cross-platform music listening and extending playback with custom plugins.

Is Spotube open source?

Yes. Spotube is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at team-spotube/spotube and is written mainly in Dart.

Yes. Spotube is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host Spotube?

Yes. Spotube can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Spotube an alternative to?

Spotube is an open-source alternative to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music. Other open-source alternatives to Spotify include Koel, Ampache and Navidrome.

Is Spotube actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Spotube was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v5.1.2, published on 5 June 2026. The project has 50k stars on GitHub.

Spotube: open-source alternative to Spotify, Apple Music

About Spotube

Spotube is an extensible, open-source music streaming app for desktop and mobile, written in Dart with Flutter. Rather than being tied to one service, it relies on plugins that supply music metadata, playlists and audio sources, so community-made or custom plugins can add support for different platforms. GitHub lists the license as 'Other'.

The README highlights freely downloadable tracks with tagged metadata, time-synced lyrics regardless of plugin support, a small installation size, low data usage and native performance. Playback control is done locally rather than on a server, and the project states it has no telemetry, diagnostics or user data collection.

Installers and packages cover Windows, macOS, Android, Linux through Flatpak, Debian, Arch, Fedora and openSUSE packages, and Homebrew, while iOS uses an IPA file that needs sideloading. New versions usually arrive every three to four months. It suits listeners who want a lightweight, privacy-minded music client they can extend with plugins.

Key features

Plugin-based music sources and metadata
Plugins built by the community
Downloadable tracks with tagged metadata
Time-synced lyrics for any plugin
No telemetry or user data collection
Desktop and mobile support

Good fit for

→Lightweight cross-platform music listening
→Extending playback with custom plugins

Built with: Dart; Flutter
Tags: music-player; music-streaming; flutter; dart; plugins; cross-platform; privacy; open-source

Spotube: questions and answers

What is Spotube used for?: Spotube is a cross-platform, plugin-based open-source music streaming app for desktop and mobile that avoids telemetry and keeps playback control local. It is a good fit for lightweight cross-platform music listening and extending playback with custom plugins.
Is Spotube open source?: Yes. Spotube is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at team-spotube/spotube and is written mainly in Dart.
Is Spotube free?: Yes. Spotube is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host Spotube?: Yes. Spotube can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Spotube an alternative to?: Spotube is an open-source alternative to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music. Other open-source alternatives to Spotify include Koel, Ampache and Navidrome.
Is Spotube actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Spotube was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v5.1.2, published on 5 June 2026. The project has 50k stars on GitHub.