Track a list of artists and get notified of their new music releases from MusicBrainz. Use it from the terminal, or launch a local web UI (built with silver-ui).
npm install -g silver-music-notifier
Requires Node 22+.
silver-music-notifier web # starts on http://localhost:3001 and opens a browser
silver-music-notifier web --port 8080 --no-open
The UI has three views:
Releases— a feed of every known release-group, newest first, with a** Refreshbutton and a "New" badge on releases discovered in the last refresh. Artists**— search MusicBrainz and add/remove the artists you follow.** Settings**— set the MusicBrainz contact (required), choose notification methods, and configure SMTP for email.
silver-music-notifier add "Radiohead" # search MusicBrainz, pick a match
silver-music-notifier add "Boards of Canada" -y # add the top match, no prompt
silver-music-notifier add "X" --mbid <mbid> # add an exact MBID
silver-music-notifier list # list tracked artists
silver-music-notifier remove "Radiohead" # stop tracking (by name or MBID)
silver-music-notifier refresh # fetch releases + notify on new ones
silver-music-notifier refresh --no-notify # fetch without sending email
silver-music-notifier releases --new --limit 20
silver-music-notifier dismiss <release-mbid> # hide a release's New badge
silver-music-notifier config get # show settings
silver-music-notifier config set notify.email true
silver-music-notifier clear-data # delete artists/releases, keep settings
MusicBrainz requires every API client to identify a contact (an email or URL) in
its User-Agent, and throttles or blocks requests without one. The first time you
run most CLI commands, the CLI prompts you for a contact and saves it.
Non-network setup commands such as config set
, clear-data
, and dismiss
can run before the contact is configured. You can also set it ahead of time:
silver-music-notifier config set musicbrainz.contact you@example.com
or in the web UI's Settings view after the app has launched. In a non-interactive context (no TTY), commands that require the contact error with this guidance instead of prompting.
When refresh
finds releases it has never seen before, it can notify you two ways:
In-page badges— "New" badges in the web UI (always available).** Email**— one HTML email per new release, sent once SMTP is configured and the email toggle is on. Configure it in the** Settings**view or viaconfig set smtp.host
,smtp.port
,smtp.secure
,smtp.user
,smtp.pass
,smtp.from
, andsmtp.to
.
Adding a new artist refreshes that artist immediately, but treats the existing catalog as your starting baseline: it does not send email for those releases or mark them with "New" badges.
refresh
is manual — run it from the CLI, the web button, or your own scheduler (cron, systemd timer, etc.).
To check for new releases on a schedule, first make sure the CLI has the required MusicBrainz contact and any notification settings configured:
silver-music-notifier config set musicbrainz.contact you@example.com
silver-music-notifier config set notify.email true # optional, if SMTP is configured
Then add a cron entry. This example refreshes every day at 9:00 AM:
0 9 * * * /usr/bin/env silver-music-notifier refresh >> "$HOME/.local/share/silver-music-notifier/cron.log" 2>&1
If cron cannot find the command, use the full path from
command -v silver-music-notifier
. To use a custom database location, set
SILVER_MUSIC_NOTIFIER_DATA_DIR
in the cron line:
0 9 * * *
SILVER_MUSIC_NOTIFIER_DATA_DIR="$HOME/.local/share/silver-music-notifier" /usr/bin/env silver-music-notifier refresh >> "$HOME/.local/share/silver-music-notifier/cron.log" 2>&1
State lives in a single SQLite file (data.db
) in your per-user data directory:
Linux:$XDG_DATA_HOME/silver-music-notifier
(usually~/.local/share/silver-music-notifier
)macOS:~/Library/Application Support/silver-music-notifier
Windows:%LOCALAPPDATA%\silver-music-notifier\Data
Override the location with the SILVER_MUSIC_NOTIFIER_DATA_DIR
environment variable.
Note:SMTP credentials (including the password) are stored in plaintext in that local SQLite file. This is a single-user local tool; treat the data directory accordingly.
Notification methods (in-page / email) and the MusicBrainz contact are
configured in the web UI's Settings view or via silver-music-notifier config set …
— not through environment variables.