Google Play Music Desktop Player For Linux

Google Play Music Player

If you are an Android user, there are high chances that you might be using Google’s streaming music service Google Play Music. While its competitor Spotify has native Linux client, Google has not bothered to develop a desktop application for Google Play Music, not just Linux but any platform for that matter.

Google Play Music can be accessed via the web browser on any device but using a desktop application is a superior experience, in my opinion. Desktop player gives you the option of using media keys, desktop notification etc. It’s really up to personal preference if you are okay with the web interface or if you like to have a desktop application.

While Google doesn’t care for the desktop application, we have open source application Nuvola that integrates several streaming services into one desktop player. But if you are not fond of Nuvola and you are only focused on Google Play Music, I have another great open source software for you.

Google Play Music Desktop Player

Google Play Music Desktop Player, as the name itself is evident, is a desktop player for Google Play Music. This open source application is available on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It provides a sleek interface that is similar to the original Google Play Music interface. But you don’t have to compromise with the default looks. You can change the theme with colors of your own choice.

Once you log in with your Google account, you can find all the music tracks in your account accessible here. Features like Instant Mix is also present in this unofficial desktop player. Some of the other main features are:

  • Media Keys support
  • Last.FM Scrobbling support
  • Desktop notifications
  • A minimalistic mini player
  • Customizable dark themes
  • Task bar media controls (Windows only)
  • HTML5 Audio Support
  • Built in audio equalizer
  • Background music playing, minimize to the task bar
  • Customizable hotkeys, if you don’t have media keys, choose your own shortcuts
  • Choose your audio output device from within the player
  • Interface for external applications such as Rainmeter

Some screenshots of Google Play Music Desktop Player to give you a glimpse of what it looks like:

Google Play desktop Player
The default look
Changing to the dark theme
Changing to the dark theme
Google Play Music Desktop Player Dark Theme
Dark themed version
Switching to mini Player
Switching to mini Player
Google Play Music Desktop Player Mini Player
Mini Player

No, you can’t play local music in Google Play Music Desktop Player. This application doesn’t intend to replace your local music player. You can check out some other Linux music players for that.

Get Google Play Music Desktop Player

If you are using Ubuntu or any other Ubuntu based Linux distribution such as Linux Mint or elementary OS, you can get the .deb files for installing Google Play Music Desktop Player from the link below:

For other Linux distributions, you can get the source code from the GitHub repository:

How do you find Google Play Music Desktop Player? What other alternative you use, if any, for Google Play Music or other streaming services?

About the author
Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash

Created It's FOSS 11 years ago to share my Linux adventures. Have a Master's degree in Engineering and years of IT industry experience. Huge fan of Agatha Christie detective mysteries 🕵️‍♂️

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