OpenDeezer

README

OpenDeezer

An open source reimplementation of Deezer. Log in with your Deezer ARL, browse your liked songs, playlists and search, and stream — the track is downloaded, Blowfish stripe-decrypted, decoded and played locally (MP3, or FLAC on HiFi). Your ARL never leaves your machine except in the requests it makes to Deezer.

One Go engine does the whole streaming path (login, decrypt, decode, playback); six native front-ends sit on top of it. By Cycl0o0.

Clients

Client	Stack	Builds
Terminal (TUI)	Go · Bubble Tea	linux · macOS · windows (amd64/arm64)
macOS	SwiftUI · Liquid Glass (macOS 26)	universal (Apple Silicon + Intel) gui/macos
Linux (unified)	auto-picks GTK4 or Qt6 by desktop	x86_64 · aarch64 gui/linux
GNOME	GTK4 · libadwaita	x86_64 · aarch64 gui/gnome
KDE	Qt6 Widgets · Breeze	x86_64 · aarch64 gui/kde
Windows	WinUI 3 · C++/WinRT · Fluent	x64 gui/windows

The unified Linux client is one opendeezer command that auto-selects the native toolkit for your desktop (Qt/Breeze on KDE-family, GTK4/libadwaita elsewhere) — LibreOffice-style. The standalone gui/gnome / gui/kde binaries are also available if you prefer one toolkit.

Prebuilt binaries for everything are on the Releases page.

Features

• Quality tiers — Normal (MP3 128), High (MP3 320), HiFi (FLAC lossless); HiFi auto-falls-back to MP3 when your account or the track isn't entitled.
• Liked songs, playlists, search; shuffle, repeat, seek, volume.
• OS media controls + now-playing — MPRIS on Linux (GNOME/KDE/TUI media keys
  • overlays), Now Playing + media keys on macOS, SMTC on Windows.
• Background playback / close-to-tray in the GUIs.
• Shows the actual output format that's playing (e.g. "FLAC · lossless").
• Album art (truecolor half-blocks in the TUI; native everywhere else).
• Settings persisted to ~/.config/opendeezer/; ARL stays local.

Install

Download a binary from Releases, or build the TUI:

make build          # -> ./opendeezer   (or: go build -o opendeezer ./cmd/opendeezer)
./opendeezer -save-arl <your-arl>   # writes ~/.config/opendeezer/arl.txt (0600)
./opendeezer

Or pass it inline: DEEZER_ARL=<your-arl> ./opendeezer. For the GUIs, see each gui/<platform>/README.md for build steps.

Your ARL is the arl cookie from an authenticated deezer.com browser session. Treat it like a password — it grants access to your account.

Requirements

• A Deezer Premium account (HiFi tier for FLAC).
• Building from source: Go 1.24+ and a working audio device.
• Linux: ALSA dev headers (libasound2-dev); plus the toolkit dev packages for the GUIs (GTK4/libadwaita/json-glib, and/or Qt6).
• macOS GUI: macOS 26 (Tahoe) + Xcode 26 for the Liquid Glass APIs.
• Windows GUI: Windows 10 1809+/11, Visual Studio 2022 + Windows App SDK, and MinGW-w64 (Go cgo builds the engine DLL).
• TUI album art needs a 256-color or truecolor terminal.

TUI controls

Key	Action		Key	Action
↑/↓	move		z	toggle shuffle
enter	open / play		r	cycle repeat (off→all→one)
esc / ⌫	back		+/-	volume
space	play / pause		←/→	seek ±10s
n / p	next / prev		h	quality (Normal→High→HiFi)
/	search		c	now-playing + art
s	stop		?	credits · q quit

How it works

ARL ─login (gw-light)→ browse (gw + public REST)
                     → resolve track → encrypted CDN URL (MP3 128/320 or FLAC)
                     → HTTP GET → Blowfish BF_CBC_STRIPE decrypt
                     → MP3 (go-mp3) / FLAC (mewkiz) decode → PCM out (oto)

• internal/deezer — login, browse, track→URL resolve, the stripe decryptor.
• internal/audio — decrypt + MP3/FLAC decode + seekable playback.
• internal/mpris — Linux MPRIS media controls.
• internal/ui — the Bubble Tea TUI.
• corelib — the engine exposed as a C ABI (-buildmode=c-archive for macOS/Linux, -buildmode=c-shared DLL for Windows) so the native GUIs link it.

Build from source

Clone the repo, then build whichever client you want — they all build the same Go engine (corelib) underneath. Each build.sh / build.ps1 compiles the engine first, then the native app.

Terminal (any OS) — Go 1.24+ (Linux also needs libasound2-dev):

go build -o opendeezer ./cmd/opendeezer      # or: make build

macOS app — macOS 26 (Tahoe) + Xcode 26, Go:

cd gui/macos && make app        # -> OpenDeezer.app (universal: Apple Silicon + Intel)

Linux — unified (auto-picks GTK/Qt) — libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev libjson-glib-dev qt6-base-dev libasound2-dev meson ninja-build cmake + gcc, Go:

cd gui/linux && ./build.sh && ./dist/opendeezer

Linux — single toolkit:

cd gui/gnome && ./build.sh && ./opendeezer-gnome     # GTK4 / libadwaita
cd gui/kde   && ./build.sh && ./opendeezer-kde       # Qt6 / Breeze

Windows app — Windows 10/11, Visual Studio 2022 + Windows App SDK, MinGW-w64 (Go cgo), Go:

cd gui\windows; .\build.ps1     # -> bin\x64\Release\OpenDeezer.exe

FAQ

What's an ARL? Your Deezer session token — the arl cookie from a logged-in deezer.com browser session. It authenticates you the same way the official app does. Treat it like a password; it only ever lives on your own machine.

Why does it need my Deezer login (ARL) instead of an API key? Deezer's public API doesn't allow full-track streaming. The only way to play your music is the same authenticated path the official client uses, which needs your session (the ARL).

Why Deezer Premium only? Streaming full, high-quality tracks (and FLAC) is a Premium entitlement. A free account can't stream full tracks the way OpenDeezer plays them. OpenDeezer only plays content your own account is already entitled to.

Why can't I download / save tracks? OpenDeezer is a player, not a ripper. It decrypts and decodes each track in memory to play it — it never writes tracks to disk. Saving decrypted files would be piracy; that's deliberately not what this does. Stream your own entitled music, like the official app.

Does my ARL get uploaded anywhere? No. Login, decrypt and decode all run on your machine; the only requests that leave are to Deezer itself. The in-browser config generator never uploads your token either.

Is this legal? Will my account get banned? Grey zone. It reaches Deezer the unofficial way and decrypts your own entitled content locally, which almost certainly breaks Deezer's terms for third-party apps. Personal/educational use, your own Premium account, your own risk. Not affiliated with Deezer.

Does it support HiFi / FLAC? Yes — if your account is HiFi-entitled. Pick HiFi in settings (or press h in the TUI); it streams lossless FLAC and falls back to MP3 when a track or account isn't entitled.

Why not just use the official app? Mostly because it's a reverse-engineering project and a learning exercise. You also get lightweight, local-first native clients (including a terminal one), no telemetry, on platforms the official app may not serve.

Is it open source? Yes, AGPL-3.0. Read it, build it, audit exactly what it does.

The fine print

Personal/educational use, your own Premium account, your own risk. It reaches Deezer the unofficial way and decrypts your own entitled content locally, which almost certainly breaks Deezer's terms for third-party apps. Not affiliated with Deezer. AGPL-3.0.