Musicfetch
Linux desktop app that downloads songs and albums with yt-dlp and tags them.
Updated · AppBreakup editorial · Linux
Is Musicfetch free?
Yes, free and open source
Switch from Musicfetch to
All 3
OnionMedia XOpen source
MusicBrainz PicardOpen source
NuclearOpen source
- Verified facts
- 5 of 5
- Alternatives ranked
- 3
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Musicfetch
Musicfetch is a small graphical app for building a local music library from online videos. You search for an album, playlist or single track, and it uses yt-dlp in the background to download the audio. Before saving, it walks you through filling in metadata: album details once for the whole release, then titles and track numbers per song, plus an album cover taken from a URL or a local file. Files are written into your music folder following a path template you set, so they arrive already organised for players and media servers. Extra yt-dlp arguments, such as cookies, can be added in the settings when the video site blocks downloads. It is a free, open-source Rust app built with the libcosmic toolkit from the COSMIC desktop, distributed for Linux through Flathub and a Nix flake. It has no Windows or macOS builds, and because it depends on yt-dlp it can break whenever the video site changes. Downloading copyrighted music may break the source site's terms in many countries.
Best for: Linux users who keep a local music library and want downloads tagged with covers and track data.
Pros and cons
What works
- Guided tagging step adds album, track and cover metadata before saving
- Path templates file songs straight into an organised music folder
- Free and open source, with a simple graphical front end to yt-dlp
Why people leave
- Linux only, with no Windows or macOS builds
- Depends on yt-dlp, so downloads can fail when the video site changes
- Pulls audio from video sites, so quality is lower than lossless sources
Musicfetch vs OnionMedia X, MusicBrainz Picard and Nuclear
From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.
| Attribute | Musicfetch | OnionMedia X | MusicBrainz Picard | Nuclear |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Open source | Open source | Open source | Open source |
| Verified price | — | — | — | — |
| Free plan | Free app | Free app | Free app | Free app |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux | Windows, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Top Musicfetch alternatives
See all 3- 1OnionMedia X57.5
Free, open-source downloader and converter for audio and video, with a Windows GUI rather than Linux only.
- 2MusicBrainz Picard51.2
Pairs with any downloader to tag files properly against the MusicBrainz database.
- 3Nuclear49.0
Plays music from free online sources in a desktop app, if you mainly want to listen rather than keep files.
Why people left Musicfetch
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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Musicfetch: common questions
What is Musicfetch?
Musicfetch: Linux desktop app that downloads songs and albums with yt-dlp and tags them. Best for linux users who keep a local music library and want downloads tagged with covers and track data. Available for Linux.
Is Musicfetch free?
Yes. Musicfetch is free, open-source software.
Is Musicfetch open source?
Yes.
What platforms does Musicfetch run on?
Musicfetch is available for Linux.
What are the best alternatives to Musicfetch?
The highest-ranked Musicfetch alternatives right now are OnionMedia X, MusicBrainz Picard and Nuclear. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.
Musicfetch vs OnionMedia X: what's the difference?
Both Musicfetch and OnionMedia X are free and open source. Only OnionMedia X runs on Windows.