Review of Kew: A Console Music Player for Linux

The terminal allows users to perform many non-standard tasks, including playing music. One tool for this is Kew, a compact audio player written in C. It takes up less than 1 MB, consumes minimal RAM, and supports playlist management.

Installation

Kew is available for popular Linux distributions such as Arch Linux, Debian, and Gentoo. Installation is done using standard commands:

For Debian and Ubuntu:

sudo apt install kew

For Arch Linux (via AUR):

sudo yay -S kew

For openSUSE:

sudo zypper install kew

Main Features

Kew allows users to search for and play tracks by name, creating playlists based on directory contents. Usage examples:

Search and play a track:

kew bruce

Play an album directory:

kew dir <album_name>

Launch a playlist:

kew kew.m3u

Shuffle an album or playlist:

kew shuffle <name>

Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

For convenient control, Kew supports hotkeys:
→ F2 — Current playlist
→ F3 — Library
→ F4 — Tracks
→ F5 — Search
→ F6 — Help

Other useful commands:
→ space / p — Pause
→ + / = — Adjust volume
→ s — Shuffle tracks
→ r — Repeat current track
→ Esc — Exit

Conclusion

Kew is one of many terminal-based audio players, alongside Cmus, MOC, Musikcube, and others. Due to its small size and minimal resource consumption, it can be a convenient tool for users who prefer working in the command line.