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4.7 star rating
0
Music & Audio
Linux
Multimedia
Media
Music Player
Digital Media
Music library management
What are the best media managers for Linux?
14
Options
Considered
123
User
Recs.
Feb 1, 2024
Last
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13
Options
Considered
Best media managers for Linux
Price
License
Release Date
--
Clementine
Free
GPL-3.0-or-later
2016-19-04
--
MPV
-
-
-
--
Sayonara
-
GPLv3
2011
--
VLC
Free
-
-
--
Audacious
Free
-
-
See Full List
--
Clementine
My Rec
ommendation
for
Clementine
My Recommendation for
Clementine
All
26
Experiences
2
Pros
12
Cons
11
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Slow development
Very little development work has been going on for a while as of mid-2017. Nobody is responding to bug reports.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Tag editing
Clementine features competent tag managing for all music files, be it album art or just simple text entries.
See More
TactfulChantico's Experience
This is one of the best Music player I have ever used. It's not eye candy but If you give a try you will love it. It's very reliable and stable software. It has almost all codecs format to play music, lots of settings, EQ, music converter, On-line Radio feature, etc.
See More
Specs
License:
GPL-3.0-or-later
Release Date:
2016-19-04
Development:
Open Source
Top
Con
•••
Doesn't allow gapless playback
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Decent library management
Clementine allows the user to move and organize audio files easily. Some examples include the following: It's easy to find a specific album song (find artist, select album, select song). It's easy to add songs to a playlist and queue the songs. It's easy to rename files from their metadata (artist, album, song number, etc). It's easy to add cover images. There are options to find duplicates, untagged songs, etc.
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Peter J. Mello's Experience
Don't get me wrong, my daily driver for audio file playback and management on Linux has been and will continue to be MusicBee under WINE. I don't see any application developed for Linux (open source or proprietary) even making an honest effort at competing at that level. However if you're asking "What opens if something xdg-open's an MP3 on your computer out of the blue?" then the answer is Clementine. Honestly the port to Qt5 was worth the wait and it feels like DeaDBeeF but with a proper modern GUI.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Goes crazy with CPU and RAM
Takes its toll on your system's CPU and RAM.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Creates playlists based on past music you listened to
Clementine gathers the user's listening data to use for smart playlists. Clementine uses your listening history to play music similar to the music you play most - which typically is music you will like but maybe haven't discovered yet.
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Top
Con
•••
Buggy
Clementine is probably the most fully featured music player for Linux, however it has its own issues. It crashes and experiences occasional memory leaks that can slow down your system.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Sensible UI
A fork of the 1.X line of Amarok, Clementine favours usability over design trends.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Sometimes messes up taskbar
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports a lot of online services
Clementine includes support for services such as Ampache, Google Play Music, Spotify, and many internet radio stations such as Jamendo and Icecast. It's also possible to search all available sources (local and online) at once, as well as mixed content playlists.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Slow to start in Gnome/Cinnamon
It takes about the same time to start as an IDE or Photoshop.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Built-in format conversion
Users can format any of their music files to a different format with Clementine's built-in format conversion tool.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Ugly ressource hog with no features and buggy without hotfix
And yet Nr. 1 recommended because of nerds being accustomed.
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Top
Pro
•••
Built-in equalizer for custom sound
There is a built-in equalizer with many presets from genre-specific rock, pop, and party, to experiences such as large hall and live. You can also tweak it yourself and name your own preset.
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Top
Con
•••
Ugly
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can display song lyrics
Fetches lyrics from several lyric providers.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Horrible user interface and confusing layout
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Intuitive and fast to set up
Clementine is easy to get up and running with lyrics, equalizer, online info, etc., within minutes after installation.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Too bloated by default with things like LastFM that can't be removed
When you install it, you get ton of internet radios and services plugins, that you can't remove, only turn off. There is also useless stuff like artist info that doesn't work and stuff.
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Top
Pro
•••
Looks good and is really responsive
Unlike some other players in this list, Clementine doesn't seem to go unresponsive in the Ubuntu 16.04 system and looks really good with options for Visualization too.
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Top
Con
•••
Not a lot of documentation
Clementine does not offer a lot of documentation, which can make discovering its features a bit difficult.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very good folder organization
Organizes your music folder based on the tags of your library.
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Top
Pro
•••
Remote app for Android
There is a very good remote app for Android. The app lets you do a lot: from the usual volume controls to checking the lyrics on your phone. You can even download the songs from Clementine onto your phone.
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Free
Recommend
34
1
--
MPV
My Rec
ommendation
for
MPV
My Recommendation for
MPV
All
3
Pros
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Extremely responsive
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, Android
Top
Pro
•••
Minimal interface
Click to open files and get Video with sound (and passthrough of codecs like DTS etc) for a perfect cinema experience. Works okay for many files. Default window is not much more than a title bar - and if you drag/resize the window it resizes the video and leaves no empty areas. There is no visible control or display unless you use mouse/keyboard over the window. This is the best player to use unless you're going for a media center (then use MPV based Plex Media Player to display and play the Plex Server library).
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Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
8
2
--
Sayonara
My Rec
ommendation
for
Sayonara
My Recommendation for
Sayonara
All
10
Experiences
2
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Looks really cool, and does have cover art
It is so flexible it respects your local theme, or can be set to a theme, very slick, independent dark mode. And yes, it does show your cover art!
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Top
Con
•••
Playlist driven play back
If you install Sayonara, hook it up with your music directory, and want to have it play by clicking a music file and let you surprise yourself with its shuffle... it won't. It will play that double clicked song, but then just plain stop untill you double click that next one. To have it just play through your collection, you first have to make a playlist, and only then let Sayonara play that (randomly). No deal breaker, but certainly an non-intuitive hassle preventing "click that in my library, play and don't bother me no more".
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Reginald Carlier's Experience
Nice user interface and easy to manage
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Specs
License:
GPLv3
Release Date:
2011
Development :
Open Source
Top
Pro
•••
Closes to panel while playing...
It closes to the icon (tray) on your panel, while it keeps playing. Clicking the icon you can open it again, or pause/ stop/ play it there. Great to get it out of your way when you're working with cool sounds in the background.
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Top
Con
•••
Dynamic playback
Sayonara works with a dynamic mode shuffle method, that quite often eliminates any surprises and comes with "the same" suggestions when your collection is smaller. It can be switched off though (bottom left switches, under your playlist) if you don't like it. All the options will require you to "look into it" though, since it is somewhat confusing...
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ExuberantAtaguchu's Experience
Fantastic
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Does conky...
If you are one of those who like to close your player to panel and see what it plays in your conky? Sayonara can do that over dbus, whether you like just artist and title, a progress bar, or even the cover art in your conky.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Many plugins standard
Has many plugins out of the box, e.g. internet "radio"streams, equaliser, sprectrum analyser, bookmarks, audio converter, broadcast, playlists, lyrics for the song you're playing, and more. It's the full music enjoyment experience. If you like minimalistic, Sayonara can do that too.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Sorts by the users options
Has everything you may need onboard.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
20
--
VLC
My Rec
ommendation
for
VLC
My Recommendation for
VLC
All
9
Experiences
1
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Tons of advanced settings
Besides basic configurations, video player has an extensive amount of adjustable settings.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Lacks libraries and advanced music player features
VLC is a media player first and foremost. There is no library management (aside from playlists), limited usage of tags, and no rating system. VLC is best at playing a file directly from a folder, but falls behind when it comes to helping you manage or find good songs in your music library.
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TactfulChantico's Experience
You can play alost everything about media. So you have Music player, Videos and others features out the box. Setup is really useful with many options and software is pretty stable.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, ChromeOS, AppleTV
Top
Pro
•••
Simple to setup and use
VLC is an incredibly robust application but very simple on the surface. It makes playing music simple, yet still manages to give the user all the tools he/she wants in a music player.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Doesn't require additional codecs
Everything VLC needs to play media files is contained within which means no outside codecs are needed. This makes it one of the most hassle-free music players as it can play virtually anything as soon as it's installed.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free, open source, and cross-platform
VLC is licensed under the CC-SA v3.0+ and available on Windows, OSX, and Linux with source code available here.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Doesn't manage your music library for you
You organize your music into folders any way you want. Want to play an album? Drag and drop. No tags, no confusion, no fluff. Easy.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can play every format video available (as of 2017)
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
7
--
Audacious
My Rec
ommendation
for
Audacious
My Recommendation for
Audacious
All
10
Experiences
1
Pros
6
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Audacious is an audio player - not a Media Manager
Media managers are a different animal - for audio files, you have organisers (Musicbrainz Picard is my choice here) and advanced players (like Banshee, Clementine, Deadbeef). For simply listening to music, Audacious is light, fast loading, handles playlists and works very well. For listening to music whilst also being able to delete and rate you're better off with something else - Banshee has my entire music collection in it's database for example.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight
Audacious uses only 18.5 MB of RAM. It has a Winamp visualization style that's very minimized and convenient.
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TactfulChantico's Experience
Just it works. And the main feature is that can be able to play DSD format.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, BSD
Top
Con
•••
No bit perfect output past 24bit
Audiophiles require this, and while most users might not notice a difference, audiophiles will appreciate the improved audio quality.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
The easiest player for multiple types of files - dts, aac multichannel, etc
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Tons of plugins
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Streamlined player not weighed down by unnecessary options
Audacious is a classic music player at heart that has not felt the need to weigh itself down with an assortment of unnecessary options. Advanced functionality can be attained through plugins available from within the program.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Folder oriented player, but able to play any music container and highly configurable
Lets you play, delete and even change metadata of your music files.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
The easiest player for multiple types of files
It plays dts, aac multichannel, etc.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
7
2
--
Strawberry Music Player
My Rec
ommendation
for
Strawberry Music Player
My Recommendation for
Strawberry Music Player
All
10
Pros
5
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Advanced audio output and device configuration for bit-perfect playback on Linux
See More
Top
Con
•••
No smart playlists
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Top
Pro
•••
Alive Clementine fork
See More
Top
Con
•••
No song ratings
Important for creating individual smart playlists.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
See More
Top
Con
•••
No Visualisations
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Scrobbler with support for Last.fm, Libre.fm and ListenBrainz
See More
Top
Con
•••
No last.fm song details
my scrobbles, if I loved the track or not, MOST IMPORTANT: track tags
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Moodbar-Support
See More
Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
8
--
gmusicbrowser
My Rec
ommendation
for
gmusicbrowser
My Recommendation for
gmusicbrowser
All
2
Pros
2
Top
Pro
•••
Large assortment of layouts
You can pretty much emulate your favorite media player layout inside of gmusicbrowser as it has a large assortment of pre-made layouts as well as an insurmountable amount of options for custom layouts.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Great with large libraries
This program uses a tagging system to help you find the music you're looking for, and can even help find duplicates. It will also automatically sync with a folder, meaning you don't have to manually initiate a scan.
See More
Hide
Free
Recommend
4
--
Amarok
My Rec
ommendation
for
Amarok
My Recommendation for
Amarok
All
3
Pros
3
Top
Pro
•••
Original design
The design of Amarok does not resemble most other music players. It's definitely in a class of its own.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Currently updated
Currently updated, as seen on amarok.kde.org and invent.kde.org/multimedia/amarok/-/commits/master
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Loaded with features
Amarok contains the following features: Built-in equilizer Built-in lookup of songs and artists (Amarok will display Wikipedia articles or lyrics of songs that it can find.) Ability to add online playlists or streams, which is great for online radios such as soma or di.fm. Supported by Cinnamon Desktop media widget. Built-in iPod and iPhone support. Built-in MTP and USB support. Built-in music services for Ampache, gpodder.net, Jamendo, Last.fm, Magnatune, Amazine Music, MP3tunes, and podcasts. Amarok can configure, add, and import scripts.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
2
--
JRiver Media center
My Rec
ommendation
for
JRiver Media center
My Recommendation for
JRiver Media center
All
3
Experiences
1
Pros
1
Cons
1
Top
Con
•••
Not free
Most other music players are free and open source while this one is not and costs $49.98.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Advance Library Management
Includes lots of settings that you require for managing your music library. Album cover art, etc.
See More
TactfulChantico's Experience
Full of settings.
See More
Hide
See All
$49.94
Recommend
5
--
Cantata
My Rec
ommendation
for
Cantata
My Recommendation for
Cantata
All
4
Pros
4
Top
Pro
•••
Excellent at tagging/renaming files
Cantata can guess tags from what's already in your music directories and it can rename files so to match tag info (if that's what you want).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Full-featured
Not only can it help manage a music collection but Cantata also features easily configurable dynamic playlists and support for a variety of audio-streaming sites and digital devices. Furthermore, it supports last.fm scrobbling out of the box (not common with mpd front-ends).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Excellent for large libraries
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Good lyrics support
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
5
--
Rhythmbox
My Rec
ommendation
for
Rhythmbox
My Recommendation for
Rhythmbox
All
4
Experiences
1
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Good organization
Music can be browsed by the usual artist and album, but Rhythmbox also allows for genres which aren't supported by all music players.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No album artist field
Most other modern music players come with an Album Artist Field when sorting music. Collaboration is very common these days and often a song would feature multiple artists, but sometimes it's easier to just sort for Album Artists. It's a rather simple feature, yet Rhythmbox has repeatedly shot down its users for making that request.
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ConsiderateHaldi's Experience
The menu options are not complete and never was fixed to this day
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Top
Pro
•••
Plugins add only the features you want
Rhythmbox has built-in support for first and third party plugins. Instead of adding a bunch of features not everyone will use, you can download just the plugins that you want.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
3
1
--
Totems
My Rec
ommendation
for
Totems
My Recommendation for
Totems
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
3
1
--
Elisa
My Rec
ommendation
for
Elisa
My Recommendation for
Elisa
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
3
Don't see your favorite option? Add it.
--
Banshee
My Rec
ommendation
for
Banshee
My Recommendation for
Banshee
Get it
here
Recommend
5
2
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