What's new in Orpheus

Quieter when a channel is closed

• ImprovedWhen a server doesn't let Orpheus post in its music channel, Orpheus stops trying after the first refusal instead of on every song. The music plays as before, without the player card.
• Known issueSome songs take a few seconds to start. We're measuring where the delay comes from.

SoundCloud songs that start

• FixedSome SoundCloud songs never started. SoundCloud now offers many label releases only in a protected format that Orpheus can't play, so radio, autoplay and searches pick another copy instead.
• ImprovedA SoundCloud link to one of those songs plays the same song from somewhere else, and says so.
• Known issueSome songs take a few seconds to start. We're measuring where the delay comes from.

Steadier updates

• FixedSome servers stayed paused for longer after an update, because the audio restarted before Orpheus had finished bringing every server back. It now waits for that first.
• Known issueSome songs take a few seconds to start. We're measuring where the delay comes from.

Fewer interruptions when Orpheus updates

• NewWhen an update pauses the music, Orpheus now says so in your music channel, and removes the message once the music is back.
• FixedOrpheus sometimes left a voice call during an update. It now stays in the channel and carries on where it left off.
• ImprovedAfter an update, servers with people listening get their music back first.
• ImprovedShorter pauses between songs on radio stations.
• Known issueSome songs take a few seconds to start. We're measuring where the delay comes from.

A heads-up before updates, and a better start

• Fixed/247 now brings Orpheus into your voice channel. Before, it only changed the setting, so it looked like nothing had happened.
• NewWhen you add Orpheus to a server, it posts a short message on how to get started.
• NewBefore a planned update, servers with music playing get a heads-up an hour ahead. Upcoming maintenance also shows on the status page and in #status in the Orpheus Discord.
• NewOrpheus has its own Discord server, with a lofi station that plays around the clock, live status, and every update as it goes out.
• ImprovedAfter an update, music comes back sooner, and Orpheus no longer tries to rejoin a channel it isn't allowed into.
• FixedSome YouTube songs failed to play when Orpheus had to look them up a second time.
• FixedA rare fault where Orpheus kept leaving and rejoining a voice channel it couldn't play in.
• FixedApple Music links now get a clear answer instead of an error.
• Known issueApple Music links still aren't supported.

Smoother playback

• NewMusic now pauses when the last person leaves the voice channel, and starts again the moment someone comes back. With 24/7 on, Orpheus keeps its place in the queue.
• FixedA server could look like it was playing with no sound coming out. Orpheus now spots that and fixes it within seconds.
• FixedThe short gaps some servers heard this week.

A radio menu, and stations for moods, scenes, decades and country charts

• New/radio on its own opens a menu only you can see. Pick a kind of station, then a station, with Next and Previous for the longer lists.
• NewMore stations to pick from: moods like Focus and Late night, scenes like Phonk, Drill and Amapiano, every decade from the 60s to the 2020s, and Deezer's top 100 worldwide or for one of 24 countries.
• New"From what's playing" builds a station around the artist of the song on now.
• Improved/radio station: suggests stations as you type, so "dnb" finds Drum and bass. Anything else you type still works.
• ImprovedThe dashboard's Radio page lists every station by kind, with a box to search them all.
• ImprovedAutoplay carries on from the songs people asked for in the current sitting. A gap of more than two hours starts a new one, so this morning's songs don't steer tonight's autoplay.
• ChangedOrpheus's status in Discord points to /play and orpheusbot.app, and takes turns with how many servers it's in and how many songs it has played.
• FixedReplies say "1 track" where they used to say "1 track(s)".

Save and export playlists, and autoplay that follows the room

• NewA Save button on the player card and on the dashboard's player puts the song playing into one of your playlists, or into a new one you name there.
• New/playlist add saves the song playing to a playlist by name. A name you don't have yet makes a new playlist.
• New/playlist export and the Export menu on the dashboard's playlists download a playlist as CSV for transfer sites, as plain text or as M3U links.
• Fixed/filter off now turns off bass boost, treble and soft as well. Before, they stayed on and stacked under the next filter you picked.
• ChangedFilters switch off when the queue finishes, and after three hours on. /filter turns them back on.
• ChangedWhen the audio server is busy, Orpheus can refuse a new filter for a few minutes, and on a very busy server it turns off the filters that have been on longest. Volume is never limited.
• NewThe dashboard's player has a volume slider.
• ImprovedWhen the dashboard can't do what you pressed, it tells you why.
• ImprovedAutoplay carries on from the artists behind the last five songs people asked for instead of only the last one, keeps to their genres, and mixes artists so one doesn't take over.
• FixedThe dashboard stops asking you to sign in again when Discord is busy, or when two pages refresh your sign-in at once.
• FixedThe dashboard no longer shows the next song's cover or lyrics for a moment when a song changes.
• ImprovedStatistics list songs from "- Topic" and VEVO channels under the artist's name.
• ImprovedIn Discord's command picker, /dislike says it stops radio and autoplay picking a song, and /play lists the links it can play.
• NewA new orpheusbot.app with features, a comparison with other bots, full docs, every command, and this changelog.
• ImprovedA redesigned status page. It shows how many days it has on record, and waits for 30 of them before it gives an uptime figure.

See who queued what, and lyrics on the dashboard

• NewEvery track says where it came from. The player card and the dashboard show who added it, or which radio station or autoplay picked it.
• NewThe dashboard's player shows the cover, album and release year when Orpheus can match the song to a release, and a Lyrics tab that scrolls along with the song when the lyrics have timings.
• NewAnyone in the voice channel can skip and add songs from the dashboard, following the same DJ role rules as the buttons in Discord.
• New/liked remove takes a song off your liked list. Liking a song again moves it back to the top, and /liked play skips artists your server has blocked.
• FixedOrpheus saves likes and blocks under the artist's name instead of the channel that uploaded the song, so "Not this artist" blocks the artist you meant.
• NewWhen Orpheus leaves an empty channel it keeps the queue for a day, and the next /play in that server offers to bring it back. Turning 24/7 off keeps the queue too.
• ImprovedImports tell you when they stop short and why, and saving a playlist tells you why it left tracks out.
• Neworpheusbot.app/invite takes you straight to adding Orpheus to a server.

A new dashboard

• NewA rebuilt dashboard, with the player, queue, statistics and settings in one app.
• ImprovedWhen your sign-in runs out, the dashboard asks you to sign in again instead of showing an error.
• Improved/play does a better job of picking the result that matches what you typed, and radio and autoplay stay closer to the artist you started from.

A status page, and long imports

• Neworpheusbot.app/status tells you whether Orpheus is working right now, split into Discord commands, music playback and the dashboard, with a chart of the last 90 days.
• NewOrpheus can split a playlist too long for one import across several of your playlists.
• ImprovedTheme stations like phonk or summer are built from playlists that are about that theme.
• ImprovedAn artist's own YouTube channel counts as that artist when Orpheus checks a match.
• FixedA player that came back paused after a restart can be resumed again.
• FixedA listening session carries on across a restart.

Fewer songs that won't play

• ImprovedWhen a YouTube video won't load, Orpheus tries the same video another way before it looks for a different copy.
• ImprovedAfter a restart on our side, players come back and carry on where they were.
• FixedA YouTube playlist with some unavailable videos imports the rest instead of failing.
• ImprovedIf three songs in a row can't be played, Orpheus stops, says so and keeps your queue.

Choose where the player goes

• NewPick the text channel the player card is posted in with /channel or on the dashboard's Settings page.
• ImprovedOrpheus says why before it leaves an empty voice channel.
• ImprovedRadio understands a genre even when it's spelled a little differently.
• ChangedApple Music and Deezer came off the list of sources, because their links don't play. If you import an Apple Music playlist, Orpheus tells you it isn't supported.
• ImprovedImports say how many tracks they can bring in.

No more skip votes

• ChangedSkip votes are gone. Anyone in the voice channel can skip, and a DJ role limits that to the people you choose.
• NewEveryone can sign in to the dashboard. Servers you listen in are shown read-only next to the ones you manage.
• ChangedThe invite no longer asks for Manage Messages. Orpheus only ever deletes its own messages, which doesn't need it.
• ImprovedWhen something is wrong on our side, commands tell you straight away instead of failing quietly.
• ImprovedMore radio stations to choose from, and /play suggestions say so when they can't load.

The website and the dashboard

orpheusbot.app went up, with a dashboard where you sign in with Discord to see what's playing, manage the queue, start radio, look at your server's statistics and change its settings.

• NewThe player card has a Dashboard button that opens your server's page.
• NewPeople with Manage Server can change the server's settings.
• NewRadio stations can start from a theme like phonk, 2000s or summer.
• By this point Orpheus already had /play with YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud links, radio with likes and blocks, 24/7, lyrics, filters, saved playlists, /search and skipping sponsor segments in videos.