Koel

Welcome to Koel v8 (code named Tchaikovsky). This version brings a set of major changes, most notably:

Embeds

You can now embed songs, playlists, artists, albums… hosted by Koel. Embedding allows you to share your music with others without having to create an account for them, making it super useful for music creators.

For more information on embedding, refer to the documentation.

Custom themes

Koel Plus users can now create and use custom themes, which is simply a combination of a color pallette (foreground, background, and highlight colors), an optional background image, font family, and font size.

Check the documentation for more details.

White labeling

Koel Plus users (or, to be precise, admins) can now customize the branding elements of Koel i.e. name, logo, and cover image.

Command to fetch missing artist and album artworks

A new artisan command, koel:fetch-artwork has been added by popular demand. This command will attempt to fetch artist and album artworks from available sources (Spotify, Wikipedia, etc.). To “play nice” with these services, the fetching will be done at the rate of maximum 1 operation per second.

Better koel:init script

A composer koel:init command has been added, which triggers php artisan koel:init under the hood. The core difference between the two commands is that composer koel:init works at the Composer level and will install the dependencies beforehands, ensuring php artisan koel:init can run.

Laravel 12

Koel is now powered by Laravel 12. That’s it, that’t the memo.

As usual, a bunch of bug fixes and improvements have also been added under the hood.

Upgrade

1. Make a backup of your database
2. Depending on your installation method, either check out the tag by running git pull && git checkout v8.0.0 or downloading and extracting the release archive
3. If building from source, run composer koel:init as your webserver user
4. Enjoy!

Change List

• feat: support embeds by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2105
• feat(plus): simplify Dropbox auth route by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2108
• feat: revamp role and permission system by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2110
• feat(build): use Node 22 by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2111
• refactor: revamp context menus by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2112
• feat: use proper song lists for home screen by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2113
• feat(plus): support custom branding by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2117
• feat: add composer script for koel:init by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2119
• fix: allow empty playlist description by @Doppelkeks12 in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2118
• feat: keep track of song/transcode sizes by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2120
• fix: sidesheet background went missing by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2122
• Fix typos and linguistic errors in documentation by @survivant in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2121
• chore: add PR template and codeowner file to aid maintenance by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2124
• fix: make album/artist tabs scrollable on mobile by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2125
• feat: use v-bind instead of injection for modal context by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2126
• fix: stop playlist sidebar item events from bubbling by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2127
• fix: Wikipedia connector and ImageWriter got broken by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2130
• fix: only cache Wiki summary for 1 month by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2131
• feat: add a command to fetch artist/album artworks by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2132
• fix: “new albums” layout for small screens by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2133
• chore(docs): include CodeSpect logo in README by @mattb-it in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2135
• docs: white labeling by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2136
• fix: add cache invalidation after library prune by @Doppelkeks12 in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2114
• feat(plus): custom themes by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2138
• refactor: simplify all those image URLs and paths by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2141
• chore(build): upgrade to Laravel 12 by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2143
• chore(ui): add input border by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2145
• fix: a couple of minor mobile issues by @phanan in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2147

New Contributors

• @Doppelkeks12 made their first contribution in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2118
• @survivant made their first contribution in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2121
• @mattb-it made their first contribution in https://github.com/koel/koel/pull/2135

Full Changelog: https://github.com/koel/koel/compare/v7.15.1…v8.0.0