Launch to a window with text
438ms
The ring fills in exactly that long.
Nuvo, in numbers and in features.
What we measured on a packaged build, and how Nuvo lines up against the players people move from.
Measured
PreliminaryMemory at idle, engine included
390MB
Same machine, same day, idle. 2026-10-31
CPU
idle
playing
0.2%/2.9%
One core, whole process tree.
AppImage
133MB
One file. Make it executable and run it.
- Launch: from the launch call to the first frame with text.
- Memory: PSS of the whole process tree, 30 s after Home, engine included.
- CPU: percent of one core across the whole process tree.
Against the others.
Yes only where we could check. Not confirmed means we found no source, not that the app lacks it.
| Feature | Nuvo | Liner | Riff | Spotify | YT Music | Apple | Strawberry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy and ownership | |||||||
| No account needed | Yes | No | Yes | No | Partly | No | Yes |
| Library kept on your machine | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Library encrypted on disk | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Not confirmed |
| Audio cache encrypted | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Recovery phrase | Yes | No | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| No telemetry | Yes | Partly | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Open source | Yes | Partly | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Proxy setting | Yes | No | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Playback | |||||||
| Gapless playback | Yes | No | No | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Crossfade | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Loudness normalization | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Equalizer | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | Yes |
| Speed and pitch | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Reverb | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Sleep timer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| A-B loop | Yes | No | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Offline listening | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | Partly | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Lyrics | |||||||
| Synced lyrics | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Word-by-word highlight | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Karaoke view | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Paste and sync your own lyrics | Yes | No | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Local .lrc files | Yes | No | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Translation on your machine | Yes | No | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Discovery | |||||||
| Mixes on Home | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Ranking runs on your machine | Yes | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| "Not interested" controls | Yes | No | Partly | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Library and files | |||||||
| Your own music files | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | Partly | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Duplicate finder for playlists | Yes | No | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Save tracks as files | Yes | Partly | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Export playlists | Yes | No | Partly | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Imports and links | |||||||
| Playlist links from other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| CSV, JSON or M3U playlists | Yes | No | Partly | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Share links | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Look and desktop | |||||||
| Theme presets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Colour editor | Yes | No | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Custom CSS | Yes | No | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Custom fonts | Yes | No | Partly | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Wallpaper | Yes | Partly | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| The Notch | Yes | No | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| System tray | Yes | No | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Rebindable shortcuts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Media keys and MPRIS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Runs on Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Windows and macOS | Partly | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | Not confirmed | Yes |
- Yes
- Partly
- No
- Not confirmed
Notes, sources
Checked 2026-11-07. If a cell is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
- "Not confirmed" means we found no source we could cite. It does not mean the app lacks the feature.
- Riff and Liner cells come from reading their repositories and shipped apps on 2026-10-26: Riff 43.0.0 and Liner 0.2.10. They may have changed since.
- Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music and Strawberry cells come from the sources below, several of them press articles, not vendor documentation.
- Nuvo: the Windows and macOS builds exist and are untested.
- Liner: source-available under its own non-commercial licence, opt-in telemetry, offline from its play cache, local files and equalizer only on its unreleased main branch when we read it, Windows and Linux only.
- Riff: JSON playlist files only, three font choices, "Not interested" in one mix only.
- Spotify: downloads need Premium. Spotify community posts report no equalizer and no local files in the Linux app. It has speed control, and we found no source for pitch.
- YouTube Music: downloads need Premium, you can upload your own files, and Android reaches the system equalizer. On Linux we found unofficial apps only.
Riff, Liner, Strawberry, Spotify community, Linux, Spotify features, SlashGear, YouTube Music sleep timer, SlashGear, Apple Music crossfade, Macworld