nu11signal

A cyberpunk car radio for Apple Music, in your terminal.

Your library playlists sit on a pseudo FM dial beside a now-playing panel, a volume readout, and data rain that plays the music. Search the Apple Music catalog, edit playlists, and love songs without leaving the terminal.

brew install --cask wahh-22/tap/nu11signal
View on GitHubLatest release
  • Latest nu11signal release
  • macOS 14+
  • Apple Music subscription
  • MIT

Signal acquired

The radio, in 80×24

Playlists on the dial at the left, NOW PLAYING with bracketed transport controls and data rain at the right. These are renders of the real UI.

nu11signal in the NIGHT CITY theme: the PLAYLISTS dial on the left, NOW PLAYING with transport buttons and data rain on the rightnu11signal in the BLUE theme: the PLAYLISTS dial on the left, NOW PLAYING with transport buttons and data rain on the rightnu11signal in the MATRIX theme: the PLAYLISTS dial on the left, NOW PLAYING with transport buttons and data rain on the right
The main screen in the NIGHT CITYBLUEMATRIX theme, one of three: NIGHT CITY, BLUE and MATRIX. Switch the site theme above to see the others.
  • SEARCH with live suggestions, matching artists and songs
    SEARCH — Live suggestions, recent searches, artists, albums, songs and playlists.
  • The expanded player with the data rain under the transport controls
    Expanded player — f expands NOW PLAYING to the full width, rain and all.
  • A glitch burst tearing rows and flashing NO SIGNAL over the UI
    Signal effects — Torn rows, corrupted cells, static bars, and now and then NO SIGNAL.
  • The KEYS overlay listing every binding by group
    KEYS — ? opens every binding in one panel.
  • The SETTINGS panel offering the NIGHT CITY, BLUE and MATRIX themes
    SETTINGS — s opens the themes: NIGHT CITY, BLUE or MATRIX; the choice is saved.
  • The boot splash: the null emblem over BOOTING NU11SIGNAL
    Boot splash — The app boots and shuts down over the null emblem.

Features

Everything on the dial

  • Apple Music, natively

    Plays through MusicKit in a tiny signed, windowless Swift helper: no browser, no Electron, no Music app window, near 0% CPU at idle.

  • Library, playlists, search

    Your playlists on a pseudo FM dial. Search the catalog with live suggestions and recent terms; open artists, albums, songs and playlists.

  • Favorites and playlist editing

    Love a song with l, add it to a playlist with a, or create a new playlist on the spot, from any song row or the song playing.

  • Data rain that plays the music

    Hex digits and half-width katakana fall under NOW PLAYING, driven by the real spectrum on macOS 15+: loud bands rain harder, bass hits send a wave, silence is dry.

  • Signal glitches and intros

    Every so often the signal drops: torn rows, corrupted cells, static and NO SIGNAL. New content scrambles in. x toggles it; --calm starts without.

  • Bracket HUD, keys or mouse

    Bracketed buttons for transport, loop, volume and expand. Every control answers to the keyboard and a click; the wheel scrolls the lists.

  • Three themes

    NIGHT CITY (neon red, cyan and yellow), BLUE (electric blue and violet) or MATRIX (the greens of falling code). The whole UI recolors at once and the choice is saved.

  • KEYS overlay

    Press ? for every binding in one panel, grouped by view. Quitting always asks first.

  • Its own volume

    VOL is independent of the system volume, through a Core Audio process tap (macOS 14.2+), falling back to the system volume (SYS) when it cannot.

  • Boot and shutdown splash

    The app boots and shuts down over the null emblem, with a signal line that scrambles in.

  • Designed in Kode Mono

    The Homebrew cask installs Kode Mono, the font the UI is designed with. Any monospaced font works.

  • Signed and notarized

    A signed, notarized build for Apple Silicon and Intel, one Homebrew command away. Open source under MIT.

Requirements

Before you tune in

  • macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel.
  • An Apple Music subscription. The first launch asks for Apple Music access.
  • A terminal of 80×24 or larger. Set its font to Kode Mono (installed by the cask) for the intended look.
  • Optional: independent app volume needs macOS 14.2+; the live spectrum behind the rain needs macOS 15+.

macOS only. Not affiliated with Apple.

Install

# signed, notarized build via Homebrew
brew install --cask wahh-22/tap/nu11signal
nu11signal

No subscription handy?

Build from source and try the UI against a simulated player:

make demo

Release archives for a manual install are on GitHub Releases. See the documentation for building, usage and troubleshooting.

Cheatsheet

Keys

The everyday bindings. In the app, ? opens KEYS with every one; the usage guide has the full tables per view.

Playback

space
Play / pause
n / p
Next / previous track
, / .
Seek −10 s / +10 s
k / j
Volume up / down by 5%
o
Loop: OFF, ALL, ONE

Library

l
Love the song, or unlove it
a
Add the song to a playlist
enter
Open or play the selection
↑ / ↓
Move the cursor
→
Focus the player

Navigate

/
Open SEARCH
tab
Between playlists and search
esc
Back one view
f
Expand the player, or restore it

App

?
KEYS: every binding
s
SETTINGS: themes
x
Signal effects off / on
q
Quit, after asking

Keep it on air

Support the signal

nu11signal is free and open source.Donation links are coming soon. Until then, a star on GitHub or a bug report helps the signal just as much.

Buy me a coffee · coming soon GitHub Sponsors · coming soon