This very afternoon, in fact nothing, we have published an article on Hate, an application from where we can listen to radios (its web version) of any style, language or country. It is a very complete app to listen to the radio, but when listening to these types of stations we will always listen to what others want to play. That is something that does not happen with Olivia, a player from which we can also listen to YouTube music by creating our own playlists.
Regarding the number of radio stations, Olivia has a larger catalog than Hate, but Hate offers an easier search. Which one is better in this sense will depend on whether we prefer simplicity, and Hate even shows the station's logo, or if we want to have more stations at hand. In what Olivia does win by a lot is in her integration with YouTube, from where we can play any song in the same app. In addition, you can download them for offline playback, but only download their cache and they can only be heard on Olivia.
Olivia also shows us the lyrics of the songs
The first time we start it, it will ask us for permission to install your online search engine. This is a 1.4MB engine which is a modification of youtube-dl, so it is recommended to install it. Once we enter its interface, it shows us the settings window. In this window we can choose the color, the transparency of the mini mode, if we want the mini player to always be on top, if we want it to download the cache while we listen to a song or the theme. The mini floating and always visible mode is as in the following image:
Regarding the interface, we can choose a color, like the red you see above, or make it change the color depending on the face of the song that we are listening to. This is already up to the consumer's taste. I'm testing it and I think I prefer to color it by hand.
Everything that we are reproducing is saved in the application. In this way we will have a kind of music library in which artists, albums and songs will appear, something like we see in other multimedia programs such as Rhythmbox or Clementine. Of course, the quality of the audio will depend on the original video, although it seems that Olivia has a good ear and usually chooses content that does not sound too bad. This is probably the case because you search for the music on the official channels of the artists or record companies.
Still in the testing phase
What I don't like about Olivia is that, while I've been testing it, I've been looking for an option that will make the lists play non-stop. It is in beta and, probably because of that, at the end of a song it keeps showing the pause button, which means that it is playing, but it does not go to the next song. It is something quite annoying that "cuts your mind", but we have to bear in mind that this is software in the testing phase. Better not pay attention to what I just said that it does not go from song automatically, since just when I was writing it it has gone to the next one on my list. I imagine that the problem will only be specific and because it is in the testing phase.
In the project page we can find the problems that we can experience in Olivia. Reading above, what strikes me is that have asked to add an equalizer, something that seems essential to me in music programs and that many of them do not include. Without an equalizer, we rely on software like PulseEffects to configure the audio output the way we like it.
Olivia is available as snap package, so installing it is as simple as opening a terminal and typing the following command (which makes it clear that it is in the testing phase):
sudo snap install olivia-test
Have you tried Olivia? What do you think of this online services player?