A Native macOS Client for YouTube Music, Equalizer Included
You probably have a browser tab pinned to YouTube Music right now. It works, sure, but it doesn't feel like a Mac app—no media keys, no Now Playing widget, no native menus. Kaset is a native macOS client for YouTube Music and YouTube, built with Swift and SwiftUI, that tries to close that gap.
What It Does
Kaset is a native macOS frontend for YouTube Music and YouTube. It gives you an Apple Music-style interface with a sidebar, a player bar, and a toggle to switch between the two sources. Playback of DRM-protected YouTube Music content runs through your existing Premium subscription, so you're not circumventing anything—you're just getting a better window around it.
The app covers more ground than just pressing play. You get library access (playlists, liked songs, subscribed podcasts), an Explore section for new releases, charts, and moods, plus search and listening history. On the YouTube side, there's browsing for recommendations, search, subscriptions, Shorts, Watch Later, history, comments, and video playback with native controls, captions, quality selection, and picture in picture. Under the hood it's Swift and SwiftUI, with WebKit handling the actual playback output—which is what makes the equalizer and extension support possible.
Why It's Cool
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The equalizer is the headline. A system-wide 6-band parametric EQ with Spotify-style presets, applied to WebKit playback output. If you've ever wanted to fix the low end on your headphones without a separate audio routing app, this is the feature that earns the install.
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Smart Shuffle goes past random. Instead of just shuffling your queue, it blends suggested tracks in based on what you're currently playing, with configurable cadence and how many tracks get queued ahead. It's a small idea, but it's the kind of thing that makes a queue feel less like a lottery.
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Real macOS integration, not a wrapper. Now Playing in Control Center, media key support, Dock menu controls, Force Touch haptic feedback on player controls, the native share sheet, and a full set of keyboard shortcuts. These are the details that separate a native app from a website in a window.
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Extensions via WebKit. You can load WebKit Web Extensions, including uBlock Origin Lite and SponsorBlock. That's a smart way to get ad blocking and sponsor skipping without building either feature yourself.
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Automation hooks everywhere. A URL scheme (
kaset://play?v=VIDEO_ID), Shortcuts and Siri actions, Spotlight integration for your library, and AppleScript support for Raycast, Alfred, and scripts. If you like wiring your tools together, there's a lot to wire. -
Lyrics and on-device AI. Plain and synced lyrics with line-by-line highlighting, plus AI-powered explanations and mood analysis on macOS 26 and later—running on-device through Apple Intelligence. Natural language commands and playlist refinement land in the same bucket.
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It's localized into 18 languages, which is more than most indie Mac apps bother with.
How to Try It
Kaset is distributed through the repository, so start there:
- Head to the repository and check the releases or build instructions for the current version.
- Since it's a Swift/SwiftUI app, building from source means opening the project in Xcode—the README's requirements section (truncated in this excerpt) is the place to confirm your macOS version and toolchain.
- Sign in with your YouTube Premium account to unlock full YouTube Music playback.
- Open Settings to configure the equalizer presets, Smart Shuffle cadence, and language.
- Try the URL scheme if you want to launch specific tracks from scripts or other apps:
kaset://play?v=VIDEO_ID.
Deeper documentation lives in the repo for the YouTube features, keyboard shortcuts, extensions, URL scheme, Shortcuts, and AppleScript.
Final Thoughts
Kaset is for the Mac user who lives in YouTube Music but wants it to behave like a first-class application—media keys, Control Center, an equalizer, and scriptable controls. It's not trying to replace the service, just to give it a proper home on macOS. If you've been tolerating a browser tab out of habit, this is a reasonable excuse to stop. Check the requirements before you dive in, and if something's missing, the repo is the place to say so.