Playing music is one of the basic things that we do on our computers and mobile phones. To play audio or video files we require a media player to be installed on our system. I have already discussed some of the best media players that are primarily used for playing videos on a Linux system.
Now in this article, we will discuss some of the best music players that can be used for playing audio files on a Linux system.
Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is a free and open-source music player which comes default in distributions running on the GNOME desktop environment. It is highly scalable and can easily handle music libraries with a large number of songs.
The functionalities of the music player can be enhanced using plugins.
The key features of Rhythmbox are –
- Free and opensource
- Able to play different audio formats
- Supports streamed internet radio and podcasts
- You can burn CD/DVD from Rhythmbox playlists
- It can display the lyrics while playing a song
- DAAP sharing plugin allows you to share and play music on the local network
- It can be controlled remotely using Web remote control plugin
Strawberry music player
Strawberry is a free and open-source music player and music collection organizer for Linux, Windows, and macOS. Using this player you can play your favorite music or radios. It is the fork of another music player called Clementine.
Strawberry music player is written in C++ using Qt toolkit and Gstreamer.
The key features of Strawberry music player –
- Free and opensource
- Cross-platform
- Support multiple audio formats including MP3, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, MPC, etc.
- Supports internet radio such as Last.fm and podcast
- Smart and dynamic playlists
- You can edit tags on audio files
- Automatically retrieve tags from MusicBrainz
Download Strawberry music player
Clementine
Clementine is a modern feature-rich music player and music library organizer. It offers a fast and intuitive user interface and it is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
The Clementine is a port of Amarok version 1.4 to Qt 4 and Gstreamer frameworks. It supports different audio file formats including MP3, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, MPC, etc.
The key features of Clementine music player are –
- Free and opensource
- built-in tag editor, album cover, and queue manager
- Supports internet radio and podcasts
- Supports different audio file formats
- You can create a smart and dynamic playlist
- You can control the player remotely through Android devices
Download Clementine music player
Amarok
Amarok is a free and open-source music player which offers an easy-to-use interface and can manage a large number of audio files easily. This is cross-platform and available for installation on Linux, Windows, macOS, etc.
Amarok is part of KDE software and it offers various features.
The key features of Amarok are –
- Free and opensource
- Can detect duplicate files in a playlist
- It automatically downloads cover art
- Supports internet radio and podcasts
- It supports multiple backends like Xine, Helix, Gstreamer, etc
- Supports multiple different audio formats
Audacious music player
Audacious is a free, and open-source audio player which requires low system resources. You can run it on systems with old hardware. It is minimal has all the basic features such as creating a playlist, shuffling music, playing music from CDs, etc.
Audacious has a simple and intuitive user interface, you can easily create and manage custom playlists. The functionalities of the Audacious music player can be enhanced using plugins.
The key features of Audacious are –
- Free and opensource
- Requires fewer system resources
- Supports multiple audio file formats
- Plugin support
- It accepts connections from software such as Conky
Download Audacious music player
DeaDBeeF music player
DeaDBeeF is a modular cross-platform music player which can be installed on Linux, Windows, BSD, macOS, etc. It has a clean and intuitive user interface. It can play almost any audio format and allow the conversion of one audio file format to another.
DeaDBeeF is written in C++ and comes with a native GTK3 GUI.
The key features of DeaDBeeF –
- Compact and efficient
- Supports multiple audio formats
- Plugin architecture
- Gapless playback
- High-quality resampling
- Network playback of the podcast using SHOUTcast, Icecast, etc.
CMUS- Console Music Player
CMUS is a small and fast terminal-based music player for Unix-like operating systems. It has a text-based user interface that is built with ncurses. This music player is ideal for systems with older hardware or Linux distributions that don’t have a graphical user interface.
The key features of CMUS are –
- Small and fast
- Support various audio formats
- Gapless playback
- Customizable colors and dynamic keybindings
- Vi style search and command mode
- Remote controllable through the cmus-remote program
Exaile Music player
Exaile is a free and open-source music player which is developed using the GTK+ widget tool. It enables you to create your own playlist, stream online radio and podcasts.
It automatically fetches lyrics and album arts from the internet while playing a song. The functionality of Exaile can be enhanced using the available plugins.
The key features of the Exaile music player are –
- Free and opensource
- Easy to use interface
- Powerful music management
- Smart and dynamic playlist
- Advanced track tagging
- Automatic lyrics and album art
- Support streaming internet radio and podcast
- Extensible with plugins
MOC – Music On Console
Like CMUS, Music on Console is also a terminal-based audio player which is built with ncurses. It supports various audio formats, its terminal-based UI can be changed using themes that are defined in text files.
This music player is ideal for systems with older hardware or Linux distributions that don’t have a graphical user interface.
The key features of the MOC music player are –
- Small and fast
- Support various audio formats
- Gapless playback
- Customizable colors and dynamic keybindings
- Able to stream from the internet
Sayonara music player
Sayonara is a feature-rich, highly customizable, and fast music player which is written in C++ and supported by the Qt framework. It uses GStreamer as its audio backend and supports internet streaming and podcasts.
You can extend its feature by using additional plugins.
The key features of the Sayonara music player are –
- Easy to use user interface
- Supports various audio formats
- It has a media library with a fast search function
- Dynamic playback
- Supports internet streams and podcasts
Download Sayonara music player
Museeks
Museeks is a simple, easy-to-use, cross-platform music player which can be installed on Windows, Linux, or macOS. This is a resource-friendly music player best for those who do not want a player which is loaded with tons of features and occupies more space.
The key features of Museeks are –
- Clean and simple UI
- Cross-platform
- Supports various audio formats
- Allow creating custom playlists
- .m3u import/export
Conclusion
Ok, that’s all, for now, there are a lot more music players for Linux here we discussed only a few of them.
Now you can tell us which one is your favorite music player that you are using on your system.