LinuxProductivity

What are the best Linux music players that can be used as iPod managers?

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Here’s the Deal

5 Options Considered

Best Linux music players that can be used as iPod managers	Price	License	Development
-- Clementine	-	Open Source / GNU General Public License	Active
-- Banshee	-	-	-
-- Rhythmbox	-	-	-
-- Mopidy	-	-	-
-- Amarok	-	-	-

Clementine

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Top Pro

Interface similar to Amarok 1.4

Interface similar to Amarok 1.4 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

Specs

License:Open Source / GNU General Public License

Development:Active

Top Pro

Remote App for Android

Has a very good remote app for Android. See More

Top Pro

MusicBrainz smart tagging

You can fix your music library very easily. See More

Top Pro

Smart playlists

Clementine gathers the users listening data to use for smart playlists. 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

Top Pro

Built in format conversion

Users can format any of their music files to a different format with Clementines built in format conversion tool. See More

Banshee

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Top Pro

Extensions

Banshee contains a way to add extensions to the application in order to customize and add to its feature list. See More

Top Con

Has problems with large libraries

Banshee has problems managing large libraries. See More

Top Pro

Full featured media library management

Banshee is not just a music player but a full featured media player. Users can store and manage their videos, music and podcasts all in one application. See More

Top Pro

Not only for iPods

Users can sync their phones and other music devices with this app and the library it contains. See More

Top Pro

Metadata editor

Banshee has a built in metadata editor that can edit files in bulk. See More

Rhythmbox

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Top Pro

Podcast management

Rhythmbox features built in podcast management. 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 is easier to just sort for Album Artists. It's a rather simple feature, yet Rhythmbox has repeatedly shot down it's users for making that request. See More

Top Pro

Plugin support

Rhythmbox has support for plugins, which are essentially pieces of external code which can be loaded to add more functionality to the "vanilla" Rhythmbox. See More

Top Pro

Internet radio

Rhythmbox has built in support for users to add their own streaming audio / internet radio channels. See More

Mopidy

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Top Pro

Can be run as a background service

You can have it run in the background with no user interface if you like. See More

Top Con

Setup isn't as easy as many (most) other music players

However if you've been considering something like MPD already, then give this a try! See More

Top Pro

Supports Spotify, Soundcloud, and many more

Mopidy is modular, which means you can integrate many plugins into it, such as support for Spotify, Soundcloud, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, iTunes podcasts, and more! See More

Top Pro

Wire-compatible with MPD

A more featureful alternative to MPD. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with music organisation systems

Mopidy works with tools like beets which can be used to keep your music collection neat and tidy. This makes it very easy to search through your music, keep lyrics for all your tracks, and have high resolution artwork. See More

Top Pro

Can be run on cheap devices such as the Raspberry Pi

And can be controlled with an app on your phone or on one of many web frontends. See More

Amarok

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Top Con

UI is not the most intuitive

The first time Amarok is opened after a fresh install, it presents you with a lot of blank, grey space. Even though there's a lot of blank space, nothing seems to fit and since there are so many icons crammed in there it's not clear where to start. When the music library has been populated and the application window has been expanded things start to make more sense. The application uses a traditional three-panel interface, showing the music source; information that changes according to the song that's being played and a playlist view. See More

Top Pro

Smart playlists

Amarok offers you the ability to search through your playlist by the traditional keys (artist, album, year and track name) and by some more arcane options like beats per minute, sample rate and when the track was last played. See More

Top Pro

Easy iPod syncing

Syncing with the iPod is very easy, it can be done simply through a right-click menu on the iPod icon and once it's all synced and all the files are uploaded on the app and the cover artwork is also automatically downloaded for every album. See More

Top Pro

Original design

The design of Amarok does not resemble most other music players. It is definitely in its own class. See More

Mopidy

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