Goodvibes For Linux

There's no denying that music streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others have completely changed the way we listen to our favorite music.

It's quite amazing that radio is not yet "dead." In fact, radio still has an impressive audience, and online/Internet radio in particular is doing amazingly well.

That said, if you're looking for a good alternative to modern music streaming services, you can always try one of the many online radio stations, or even better, get yourself a nice desktop app that helps with that.

Goodvibes is one such application, an uber-lightweight internet radio player for Linux desktops.

Upon first launching Goodvibes, it becomes quite apparent that this is not an app designed to tick all the possible boxes. In fact, the app's GUI is quite stripped-down, without any extra or unnecessary features on display.

You get a sleek radio app that allows you to play various radio stations (be it from the provided list of radios or by adding your favorite audio streams yourself), and a few minor features (easily accessible from the Settings section).

The feature list includes multimedia key support (for actions such as Pause, Play, as well as Previous and Next), notification support (opt to have pop-ups when the songs change), a nice, self-explanatory "Prevent sleep while playing" option, an autoplay function, and MPRIS2 (which allows for integration with most modern desktop environments).

Last but not least, Goodvibes may also appeal to those who prefer using the Terminal since it comes with a command-line GUI/client.

I really appreciate a minimalist app done right. In fact, I prefer simple apps that do specific things well, so much so that I usually enjoy using two simple apps instead of a feature-packed software solution.

Goodvibes tickles my fancy, but I do have one small "gripe" with it - there's no way to search for radio stations within the GUI. Thankfully, there's a feature that allows me to add my favorite radio streams/URL myself, so it's not the biggest issue to have.

Despite its potential shortcomings, Goodvibes is a nice little radio app for Linux that's worth checking out if you prefer Internet radio stations, or you simply want to take a break from the typical approach provided by music streaming services.