Music tabs, Search and Library¶
Milkbeat has no "metadata provider" setting any more. Instead, every music catalog you can use appears in the sidebar as its own tab, and Search and Library offer one chip per provider. Whatever you open from a tab, chip or page stays on the provider it came from.
A tab per music service¶
| Tab | When it appears |
|---|---|
| YouTube | As soon as the YouTube plugin is installed and enabled, also signed out. A retired YouTube Music or YouTube Video plugin still gets the tab while YouTube is not installed |
| Spotify, Beatport, SoundCloud | Once the plugin is installed, enabled and signed in |
| Local library | Once at least one music folder is linked |
| Music | Only while none of the above exists; it offers to add a plugin or a music folder |
Each tab is marked with the service's logo and named after the service, so the YouTube tab and its Search and Library chips read YouTube whichever YouTube plugin provides them. It shows that provider's own feed, laid out with Milkbeat's TV components; the provider decides which shelves appear. A tab keeps its scroll position and filters while you visit another, and Milkbeat starts on the music tab you used last. A page opened from a tab keeps that tab highlighted; pressing the highlighted tab returns to its first page. Search and Library keep a page you opened while you visit another tab, while the music tabs always return to their own feed. Signing out of a provider or disabling its plugin removes its tab. Your audio providers handle playback independently of the tab you browse.
The YouTube plugin shows YouTube Music Home: mood chips such as Workout, Energize and Relax, Quick picks, albums, mixes, playlists, artist portraits and music-video cards follow the YouTube Music feed. A signed-in account gets personalized shelves such as Listen again; anonymous browsing works too. While you are not signed in, a line above the mood chips offers Sign in and, in the stable GitHub build, Download MicroG-RE-TV (Sign in). A retired YouTube Music or YouTube Video plugin shows a line saying YouTube replaces it, with Add YouTube (Retired plugins).
Spotify supplies its Home shelves (Jump back in, top mixes, radios, recommendations), artists, albums and playlists. It has no audio of its own: playback comes from your audio providers.
Genre chips, For You recommendations, the Beatport Top 100, charts and releases. Artist and label pages use the same catalog layout. Full-length audio from Beatport needs a streaming subscription.
SoundCloud Home offers Discover shelves for the signed-in account and a separate Stream activity feed, with mixes, stations, playlists, albums and artist portraits. Its library includes playlists, albums, Artists (the accounts you follow), Liked Songs and history.
Local library¶
The Local library tab is built from the tags in your music folders. It opens with your genres as chips, then Recently added, Artists, Releases, Playlists, Labels and Years. Picking a genre chip filters every shelf below it. The index is rescanned when your sources change and when Milkbeat starts with an index more than six hours old; Rescan library under Settings → Music folders scans on demand.
Artist, release, label, year and genre pages list their tracks with tagged BPM where present. Selecting a track plays that track and then its radio; Play and Shuffle queue the whole page.
Search¶
Search shows a chip for each music tab that can search, including Local library. There is no separate video search: the YouTube chip's Videos filter finds music videos. It starts on the chip of the music tab you used last. Only the chip on screen searches, so switching chips searches that provider for the same text.
Each provider brings its own filter chips and suggestions, and a chip only ever shows its own provider's suggestions:
YouTube offers YouTube Music's Songs, Videos, Albums, Artists, Featured and Community playlists; Beatport offers Tracks, Releases, Artists, Labels, Charts and Playlists. Local library searches song titles, artists, albums and artist names in your folders; while you type it suggests only matching recent searches, with no provider suggestions. Opening a result uses the page for its type, on the provider of its chip.
Library¶
Library starts with a chip for each signed-in provider that has a library. Picking one shows that account's own sections, such as its playlists, saved releases, followed artists and listening history. Provider lists load page by page; an unavailable provider does not hide the others, and a failed page can be retried.
The fixed sections follow the provider chips:
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Folders | Your configured local and network sources, to browse folder by folder |
| History | Music and video activity recorded by the app |
| Watch later | Videos saved for later |
| Playlists | App playlists and playlists from every enabled, signed-in provider, including Liked songs |
Liked videos are not shown in this TV library. Private YouTube copies that earlier Milkbeat versions made of Spotify playlists stay in your YouTube account and appear under Playlists like any other YouTube playlist.
Albums, playlists and artists¶
Pages are laid out like YouTube Music on the web, with the same components for every provider.
- Albums and playlists keep the cover, details, Play and Shuffle on the left, with the tracks beside them. From Play or Shuffle, Right jumps to the first track.
- Artists open on their name, audience, description and portrait, with Play, Shuffle, Mix and Subscribe, followed by Top songs, Albums, Singles & EPs, Videos and more.
