novareap 1.1

CLI-based audio downloader for Tidal, YT, and Apple Music.

NovaReap

Cloud to FLAC, made simple.

NovaReap is a terminal tool that downloads music from Tidal, resolves Spotify links, scrapes Apple Music, and falls back to YouTube audio — all while tagging every file with full metadata and cover art automatically.

Built because the existing tools were either too complex, poorly maintained, or just sketchy. If you've paid for a streaming subscription, you should have a clean way to keep what you've already paid for.

This app is highly work in progress and developed by a single 16yr old, have mercy with the feedback.. qwq

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What it does

• Direct hi-res downloads from Tidal — tracks, albums, playlists
• Spotify URL resolution with automatic YouTube fallback
• Apple Music link scraping
• Automatic metadata and cover art embedding (title, artist, album, track number, year, genre, cover)
• Accurate audio info tags — bit depth and sample rate are written correctly even when Tidal's API omits them
• Concurrent downloads with a live Rich progress UI
• Skips files you already have

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Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• FFmpeg on your PATH (used for audio conversion)

Python packages are installed automatically by the setup wizard.

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Installation

pip

pip install novareap
novareap setup

From source

1. Install system dependencies

# Windows
winget install Python.Python.3.13
winget install Gyan.FFmpeg

Restart your terminal after, then verify:

python --version
ffmpeg -version

2. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/Sanedish/novareap.git
cd novareap

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

pip install .

3. Run setup

python wizard.py      # recommended for first-time setup
# or
novareap setup        # if installed via pip

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First-time setup

Run the wizard once before doing anything else:

python wizard.py

The wizard will ask which setup mode you want:

Simple — recommended for most people. Picks the best quality automatically, skips optional Spotify config, and only asks two questions: where to save your music, and to log in to Tidal.

Advanced — full control. Choose quality tiers, enter Spotify API credentials for link resolution and smarter fallback matching, set parallel download workers, and toggle metadata embedding.

Your choice is saved — it also affects which options show up in --help.

If you try to run novareap download before completing setup, NovaReap will tell you to run the wizard first rather than crashing.

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Usage

novareap download <url>

Works with Tidal tracks, albums, and playlists; Spotify tracks, albums, and playlists; and Apple Music links. Does NOT work with videos like https://tidal.com/video/1234.

novareap download https://tidal.com/browse/track/123
novareap download https://tidal.com/browse/album/123
novareap download https://open.spotify.com/track/...
novareap download https://music.apple.com/...

# Multiple URLs at once
novareap download <url1> <url2> <url3>

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Commands

Command	Description
download	Download one or more URLs
auth	Log in to Tidal and save the session
deauth	Log out (removes the saved Tidal session)
setup	First-time setup wizard
configure	Edit your config interactively
doctor	Check dependencies and config — highlights anything missing
info	Show current config and dependency status
meta	Manually embed metadata into an existing audio file
about	Show developer info

Auth aliases — these all do the same thing as auth and deauth:

novareap login / signin / sign-in / log-in
novareap logout / signout / sign-out / log-out

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Download options

These apply to novareap download:

Option	Default	Description
-q, --quality	master	Tidal quality: low, high, lossless, master
-o, --output	~/Music/NovaReap	Output directory
-c, --concurrent	3	Parallel downloads (hidden in simple mode)
--no-skip	off	Re-download files that already exist (hidden in simple mode)
--no-metadata	off	Skip metadata tagging (hidden in simple mode)
--config	~/.config/novareap/config.json	Path to a custom config file

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Tidal quality tiers

Name	Format	Notes
low	96 kbps AAC	Lossy — smallest files
high	320 kbps AAC	Lossy — good for casual listening
lossless	FLAC 16-bit / 44.1 kHz	CD quality
master	FLAC 24-bit / Hi-Res	Up to 192 kHz — requires a Tidal HiFi Plus subscription

NovaReap walks down the quality ladder automatically — if your account can't serve the requested tier for a given track, it falls back gracefully rather than failing.

Lossless and Master quality require a PKCE login, which happens automatically when you run novareap auth.

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Spotify setup (optional)

Spotify is used for metadata resolution and better YouTube fallback matching — not audio downloading.

1. Create a free app at developer.spotify.com/dashboard
2. Copy your Client ID and Client Secret
3. Enter them when the wizard asks (advanced mode), or run novareap configure

In simple mode, Spotify is skipped. YouTube fallback still works without it — just with slightly less accurate search queries.

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Configuration

Default config location: ~/.config/novareap/config.json

{
  "download_dir": "~/Music/NovaReap",
  "tidal_quality": "master",
  "youtube_quality": "320",
  "concurrent_downloads": 3,
  "retry_attempts": 3,
  "retry_delay": 2.0,
  "skip_existing": true,
  "embed_metadata": true,
  "filename_template": "{artist} - {title}",
  "mode": "simple"
}

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Troubleshooting

novareap doctor

Symptom	Fix
python not recognised	Reinstall Python and enable "Add to PATH"
ffmpeg not found	Install FFmpeg, add to PATH, restart terminal
YouTube fallback fails	pip install --upgrade yt-dlp
Metadata not embedded	pip install mutagen
Spotify URLs not resolving	Add Spotify credentials via novareap configure
Tidal auth broken	Run novareap deauth then novareap auth to start fresh
Stuck on lossless but getting AAC	Check your Tidal subscription tier — lossless requires HiFi Plus

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Legal & disclaimer

NovaReap is intended strictly for personal, offline access to music you are legally entitled to download.

Downloads go through official platform APIs and require valid login credentials. The tool does not circumvent DRM or spoof protected streams.

Do not distribute copyrighted content. You are solely responsible for complying with each platform's Terms of Service and your local laws.

Distributed under the MIT License — see LICENSE. Provided as-is, without warranty.