Nuclear: Desktop music player focused on streaming from free sources

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Project tone, nostalgia, and “hacker spirit”

  • Many compare Nuclear to earlier “web-native” music tools: Songbird, Grooveshark, Winamp/Soulseek, Hype Machine, Mozilla’s experimental XUL apps, etc.
  • The testimonials page, negative quotes and all, plus the README’s LLM-pizza joke and anime mascot, are read by some as classic irreverent hacker culture; others see it as immature or unprofessional.
  • Some argue the project likely doesn’t seek mass adoption, both for ideological reasons (FSF-ish, AGPL, anti-telemetry/CLA, no CoC) and to avoid getting blocked like similar tools (e.g., alt Spotify clients).

Ethics: artists, piracy, and platforms

  • Large subthread on whether Nuclear is “anti-artist”:
    • Critics say it strips away Bandcamp/YouTube purchase and merch surfaces, turning platforms designed to let artists get paid into free jukeboxes, and even showcases a “fuck everything about this” musician quote as a badge of honor.
    • They frame this as parasitic: benefiting existentially from artists’ uploads while obscuring ways to support them. Bandcamp support in particular is called “a really shitty thing to do.”
  • Defenders argue:
    • The app just plays streams from public sources; if artists don’t want that, they can restrict previews or not upload.
    • The real problem is label/streaming economics, not individual listeners or one client; many users both pirate and pay artists directly in other ways.
    • It’s comparable to adblocking and skipping YouTube ads; there’s debate over whether violating ToS is inherently unethical given adhesion contracts and “enshittification.”
  • Deeper philosophical tangents cover: tragedy-of-the-commons, “being an asshole” as strategy, whether IP is fundamentally flawed, and whether society should reduce or abolish copyright-based income.

Electron, performance, and UX

  • Electron use triggers the usual split:
    • Critics complain about ~300MB idle RAM, cumulative bloat from many Electron apps, poor adherence to platform conventions, cluttered/”mobile-y” UI, and bugs (JS errors, songs not playing, broken Spotify search).
    • Others counter that 300MB is negligible on modern machines and that resource purism is outdated; upcoming rewrite with Tauri is noted.
  • Several users say they prefer mature native players like Clementine/Wacup or simply using YouTube Music with browser extensions.

Functionality, reliability, and alternatives

  • Mixed real-world reports: some use Nuclear happily; others uninstall immediately after playback failures or confusing UI.
  • People ask about logging into paid YouTube Music (not supported) and desire a polished, open-source multi-service client.
  • Alternatives mentioned include FreeTube-like desktop YouTube clients, Spotube (now C&D’d), YouTube Music wrappers, Relisten, and royalty-free sources like Jamendo.