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Music & Audio
Linux
Command Line
Command Line Interface
What are the best command-line music players ?
8
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Considered
126
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Oct 25, 2022
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Updated
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8
Options
Considered
Best command-line music players
Price
Last Updated
84
CMus
-
Sep 25, 2022
--
MPV
-
Oct 25, 2022
--
musikcube
0
Sep 4, 2022
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MOC - Music On Console
-
Aug 22, 2021
--
ncmpc
-
Aug 29, 2021
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84
CMus
My Rec
ommendation
for
CMus
My Recommendation for
CMus
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11
Experiences
2
Pros
8
Cons
1
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Can't handle high bitrate audio on MacOS
Playback is inconsistent and noisy.
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CommunicativeRehua's Experience
Good!
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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.
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DecentGelos's Experience
simplistic. fantastic.
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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.
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Top
Pro
•••
CLI only
CLI makes Cmus clean, fast and minimalist.
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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).
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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.
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Top
Pro
•••
Plugins for last.fm available
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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.
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Recommend
34
5
--
MPV
My Rec
ommendation
for
MPV
My Recommendation for
MPV
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Recommend
1
--
musikcube
My Rec
ommendation
for
musikcube
My Recommendation for
musikcube
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0
Recommend
40
12
--
MOC - Music On Console
My Rec
ommendation
for
MOC - Music On Console
My Recommendation for
MOC - Music On Console
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All
12
Pros
9
Cons
3
Top
Pro
•••
Works as a daemon
MOC can be run (and later controlled) totally in the background.
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Top
Con
•••
No D-Bus Support
Won't work with media keys or D-Bus reliant remote, such as KDE Connect
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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.
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Top
Con
•••
In dumb terminals like emacs eshell it looks wrong
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Top
Pro
•••
Simple
Easy to use. Works right out of the box.
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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.
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Top
Pro
•••
Can be controlled from any open terminal
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Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight
MOC uses a very little resources.
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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.
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Top
Pro
•••
Works in console only
There's no need for X server when using MOC.
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Top
Pro
•••
Mp3 and other private formats supports throw a plugin
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Top
Pro
•••
Perfect integration with alsa system and pulseaudio
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Get it
here
Recommend
9
1
--
ncmpc
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ommendation
for
ncmpc
My Recommendation for
ncmpc
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Get it
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Recommend
8
3
--
mp3blaster
My Rec
ommendation
for
mp3blaster
My Recommendation for
mp3blaster
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3
Pros
3
Top
Pro
•••
Awesome sound quality!
Absolutely beats the quality from SMPlayer with mpv in the background.
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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.
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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.
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Recommend
5
--
TUIjam
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ommendation
for
TUIjam
My Recommendation for
TUIjam
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FREE
Recommend
4
--
Tizonia
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ommendation
for
Tizonia
My Recommendation for
Tizonia
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FREE
Recommend
4
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