All your music. One Space.
ByTune is a free, open-source music player for Windows that puts the YouTube Music catalog and your own files in one library. Synced lyrics, real desktop controls, and no ads in the way.
Streaming lives in one app.Your files live in another.Your lyrics live in a browser tab.One player should hold all of it.
ByTune treats the YouTube Music catalog and your local folders as one library with one queue. No importing rituals, no second player for the FLAC collection.
The player is also open source. No ads between songs, no listening caps, and nothing pushed on you while you listen. Just a Windows player that belongs to you.
GPL-3.0, the whole player. Read the code, export your data, build on it. No lock-in.
Nothing between your songs. No interruptions, no skip caps, no listening limits.
The YouTube Music catalog and your local files in one library and one queue.
Keyboard shortcuts, media keys, a miniplayer. Made for Windows first.
Everything listening needs.
Nothing it doesn’t.
ByTune is a player first. It finds music when you ask for it, plays it well, and keeps the noise down.
Your music, together
Stream from YouTube Music and play your own files in the same list. MP3, FLAC, WAV and more. One shuffle, one queue, one set of playlists.
Lyrics in sync
Word timing when a provider has it, line timing when it doesn't. Click a line to jump the player, and nudge the offset per track.
Crossfade and automix
Equal-power crossfades up to 12 seconds. Automix lands the fade on a beat. Skip silence trims the dead air before it plays.
The whole player,
one screen at a time.
Real ByTune surfaces, rebuilt faithfully from the app's own design system. Dark glass, monochrome chrome, and color that comes from the music.
Transitions that sound natural.
ByTune spends its care where you actually hear it: between songs, in the quiet parts, at the edges of a track.
Crossfade overlaps the end of one track with the start of the next, so the music never stops. Equal-power curves keep loudness constant through the seam: no dip, no bump.
Automix
Estimates the next track's tempo and lands the fade on a beat boundary.
Skip silence
Scans the head and tail of a track at −42 dB and seeks past the dead air.
Speed, pitch intact
0.5 to 2 times playback with the pitch left alone. Good for podcasts and practice.
Quality tiers
Low, medium and high. Streams play at up to 256 kbps AAC, the best bitrate YouTube Music serves; local files keep their own.
Built for the desktop, not squeezed onto it.
Media keys and the system media overlay work out of the box. The frameless window, custom caption buttons and snap layouts all behave like software that was born on Windows.
Plus N for Now Playing, Shift+←/→ for previous and next, M to mute and F11 for fullscreen. Every playlist is one right-click away.
Your library outlives reinstalls.
Your listening stays yours. Sign in if you want it to follow you between PCs; stay a guest and everything still works.
Sync that follows you
Create a username or sign in with Google and your library, settings, recent searches and listening signals travel between your PCs. Downloads and local file paths never leave the machine.
Local-first, by design
Your library lives in readable JSON on disk, not in a proprietary vault. Export the whole thing to one backup file, or restore it on a new PC. No account needed, and your library survives reinstalls. Local files play offline; streaming needs a connection.
Replay, honestly counted
Monthly listening stats without inflated numbers. A play is a play, and an empty month says so. Your year in music, ready when December is.
Where ByTune actually differs.
Many people find ByTune while searching for a free Spotify alternative for Windows. That is a fair way to describe it: free, no ads, no subscription. Here are the differences that matter, stated precisely.
| Aspect | ByTune | Typical streaming apps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature, forever | Monthly subscription for the full experience |
| Ads | None, in any mode | Ads on free tiers |
| Source code | Public on GitHub, GPL-3.0 | Closed source |
| Your local files | First-class, one library with streaming | Rarely supported, or a separate mode |
| Your data | Readable JSON on disk, one-file backup export | Bound to the account |
| Desktop feel | Media keys, miniplayer, shortcuts, fullscreen lyrics | Varies by app |
Where ByTune doesn’t compete (yet): there is no macOS build yet; it’s planned. Downloads save .m4a files, but playing your saved files back inside ByTune isn’t built. Streaming needs an internet connection. And the installer isn’t code-signed yet, so SmartScreen asks for confirmation on first run.
Take ByTune home.
ByTune is available for Windows today, and macOS is on the way. Free, open source, about a minute to install.
The installer isn’t code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may ask for confirmation on first run. Choose More info, then Run anyway. ByTune is GPL-3.0 free software and is not affiliated with YouTube or Google.
Download the installer
One file, roughly the size of a couple of albums. No wrapper, no bundleware.
Run it and pick a folder
A guided per-user installer. Your library data survives reinstalls, and uninstalls too.
Sign in, or don't
Continue as a guest and start playing immediately. Add an account later if you want your library to follow you.
ByTune 1.0.2 · October 2026
Fair questions.
Short answers, no hedging.
What is ByTune?
A desktop music player for Windows that combines the YouTube Music catalog with your own files in one library, one queue and one lyrics view.
Is ByTune free?
Yes. Free to download and use, open source under GPL-3.0. No ads and no features locked behind a paywall or an account.
Is ByTune open source?
Yes, the whole player. The source is published on GitHub under GPL-3.0, and the installer is built from that same code. You can read it, audit it and build on it. View the source on GitHub
Which platforms are supported?
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. The installer is about 112 MB, installs per user and needs no admin rights or special hardware. A macOS build is planned, but there is nothing to download yet.
Can I play my own files?
Yes. Import up to 200 folders and ByTune plays MP3, M4A/AAC, FLAC, WAV, OGG and Opus, with tags and cover art. A non-music filter keeps voice notes and recordings out of your library if you want.
Where does the streamed music come from?
ByTune streams from YouTube Music's public catalog. No login, no Premium, no ads, but streaming does need an internet connection. Local files play offline. More on YouTube Music on desktop
Do lyrics always sync perfectly?
ByTune races more than a dozen lyric sources per track, including LRCLIB and Musixmatch, and uses the best timing it can find: word-by-word when available, line-by-line otherwise. You can nudge the offset per song, and the app always shows you which source it used.
Do I need an account?
No. As a guest, the full player works: streaming, local files, lyrics and downloads. Create an account only if you want your library, settings, recent searches and listening signals to follow you between PCs. Local file paths, downloads and secrets always stay on your device, and you can export everything to a single backup file at any time.
How do I install it?
Download ByTune-Setup.exe, run it, and choose an install folder. Because the installer isn't code-signed yet, SmartScreen may ask for confirmation. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Your library data survives reinstalls and uninstalling.