What are the best command-line music players ?

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7

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109

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Nov 21, 2021

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Updated

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7 Options Considered

Best command-line music players	Price	Last Updated
-- CMus	-	Sep 4, 2021
-- musikcube	0	Nov 17, 2021
-- MOC - Music On Console	-	Aug 22, 2021
-- ncmpc	-	Aug 29, 2021
-- mp3blaster	-	Jul 27, 2021

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TUIjam

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score 30 · Answer 1

CMus

Top Pro

Good library structure

A lot of music players may act more like playlist viewers rather than a music library. cmus sorts by Artist > Year > Album. See More

Top Con

Can't handle high bitrate audio on MacOS

Playback is inconsistent and noisy. See More

CommunicativeRehua's Experience

Good! See More

Top Pro

Customizable keybindings for a personal experience

You can add keybindings for just about anything - including seeking (forward/backwards 1 minute, for example) which isn't supported by all music players. See More

DecentGelos's Experience

simplistic. fantastic. See More

Top Pro

Does not use a lot of memory

Cmus only uses about 15 MB. This is a very small and light media player, which is ideal for people with low end hardware. See More

Top Pro

CLI only

CLI makes Cmus clean, fast and minimalist. See More

Top Pro

Works very well with tags from MusicBrainz database

cmus will factor in additional data from the MusicBrainz database while sorting. For example sort orders for arist or album, and the original release date for an album (in the case of a re-release). See More

Top Pro

Open source extensions and scripts

On GitHub you can find the official WIKI where there are a dozen extensions and scripts from color themes to a lyrics viewer and the ability to play YouTube songs. See More

Top Pro

Plugins for last.fm available

Top Pro

Fast

A lot of music players will be slow when starting if they have huge libraries, but CMus starts fast no matter the library size. See More

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score 31 · Answer 2

musikcube

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score 9 · Answer 3

MOC - Music On Console

Top Pro

Works as a daemon

MOC can be run (and later controlled) totally in the background. See More

Top Con

No D-Bus Support

Won't work with media keys or D-Bus reliant remote, such as KDE Connect See More

Top Pro

Common sense controls

Default keybindings are either commonly used (like space for pause) or mnemonic (a - to add directory to the playlist, C - to clear, ? - for help, etc). Requires almost no learning curve. See More

Top Con

In dumb terminals like emacs eshell it looks wrong

Top Pro

Simple

Easy to use. Works right out of the box. See More

Top Con

No media library support

Only option available is file system view navigation. Default starting directory can be set in configuration file as well as a number of quick access locations. See More

Top Pro

Can be controlled from any open terminal

Top Pro

Lightweight

MOC uses a very little resources. See More

Top Pro

Playlists

MOC handles playlists and it can play custom playlists ad-hoc. Also, after it has finished, it can resume playing the original playlist. See More

Top Pro

Works in console only

There's no need for X server when using MOC. See More

Top Pro

Mp3 and other private formats supports throw a plugin

Top Pro

Perfect integration with alsa system and pulseaudio

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score 8 · Answer 4

ncmpc

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score 5 · Answer 5

mp3blaster

Top Pro

Awesome sound quality!

Absolutely beats the quality from SMPlayer with mpv in the background. See More

Top Pro

Robust playlist support

mp3blaster has great playlist support, especially when compared to other terminal music players as many don't have playlist support at all. See More

Top Pro

Shrotcut keys shown at the top of the app

mp3blaster, by default shows the shortcut keys at the top of the player, making it easy to see how to control the app. See More

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score 4 · Answer 6

Tizonia

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7 Options Considered

My Recommendation for CMus

My Recommendation for CMus

Good library structure

Can't handle high bitrate audio on MacOS

Customizable keybindings for a personal experience

Does not use a lot of memory

CLI only

Works very well with tags from MusicBrainz database

Open source extensions and scripts

Plugins for last.fm available

Fast

My Recommendation for musikcube

My Recommendation for musikcube

My Recommendation for MOC - Music On Console

My Recommendation for MOC - Music On Console

Works as a daemon

No D-Bus Support

Common sense controls

In dumb terminals like emacs eshell it looks wrong

Simple

No media library support

Can be controlled from any open terminal

Lightweight

Playlists

Works in console only

Mp3 and other private formats supports throw a plugin

Perfect integration with alsa system and pulseaudio

My Recommendation for ncmpc

My Recommendation for ncmpc

My Recommendation for mp3blaster

My Recommendation for mp3blaster

Awesome sound quality!

Robust playlist support

Shrotcut keys shown at the top of the app

My Recommendation for Tizonia

My Recommendation for Tizonia

My Recommendation for TUIjam

My Recommendation for TUIjam

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