Pianobar

Pianobar is a free/open-source, console-based client for the personalized online radio Pandora (only available in the USA).

Features

play and manage (create, add more music, delete, rename, ...) stations
rate songs and explain why they have been selected
upcoming songs/song history
customize keybindings and text output
remote control and eventcmd interface (send tracks to last.fm, for example)
proxy support for listeners outside the USA

Tip: Since Pianobar is a command line interface based program it can be placed in a different vterm than your desktop and be left to run.

Installation

Install the pianobar package.

Configuration

First, you need to create a configuration file for Pianobar. This should be located at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pianobar/config or ~/.config/pianobar/config

$ man pianobar

CONFIGURATION
       The  configuration file consists of simple key = value lines, each ter‐
       minated with a newline (\n) character. Note that keys  and  values  are
       both  case  sensitive, and there must be exactly one space on each side
       of the equals sign.

       act_* keys control pianobar's key-bindings.  Every  one-byte  character
       except for \x00 and the special value disabled are allowed here.

Here is an example configuration file. See pianobar(1) for more configuration options.

Troubleshooting

Sound Quality Issues

If you are experiencing sound/quality issues when running pianobar, and you are currently using ALSA as your sound driver, the following fixes may be useful.

Install alsa-oss. See the ALSA page for more information.
- Change the default libao driver from alsa to oss.
- Now run pianobar
Alternatively, you can use pulseaudio.

Note: Be sure to remove the dev=default option of the alsa driver or adjust it to specify a specific Pulse sink name or number.

Network Error

If you are receiving the "Network error: Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with given CA certificates", try adding the following line to your .config/pianobar/config file: