MusicBee vs Quod Libet

MusicBee can be skinned which can significantly change the appearance of a player.
To apply a skin, it must first be downloaded, moved to the appropriate folder, and after restarting MusicBee, it can be applied. A collection of skins can be found here. It's also possible to customize the layout by choosing which panels to display.

MusicBee can automatically identify songs based on their sound signature and use that information to pull metadata about the song (such as tags, artwork, and lyrics).

MusicBee offers a very straight-forward and easy-to-use interface.

Your media library is stored in a flat file rather than a traditional database, limiting its ability to manage truly massive collections of audio files, but offering far reduced processing overhead for small to medium-large collections.

A version of MusicBee can be used without having to be installed. It can be kept on an external device and run from that.

A collection of plugins can be found here. These plugins extend the uses of the app from iOS support, last.fm support, to streaming services support.

In addition to automatically pulling lyrics for songs, MusicBee can synchronise music playback with lyrics.

High-end audio cards can be easily used to their full potential without any additional software due to WASAPI and ASIO support.

MusicBee allows the user to subscribe to and auto-download podcasts.

MusicBee allows scrobbling with Last.fm.

Not only does it allow MiniLyrics to search for and add synchronized lyrics to your music files, but the MiniLyrics window can be docked in MusicBee over its own lyrics panel so you can edit them and see them displayed along with whatever you're playing.

Current file count exceeds 500,000+. Updates the library faster than other similar feature rich players whilst being fully capable of playback, id tag editing, even visualiser generation simultaneously, limited only by the power of your PC. If your experience is different you likely don't have a capable machine.

There are detailed instructions in the community forum describing how to create a suitable WINE prefix in which to install MusicBee with nearly all the features operating as they do in Windows. There is also support for Linux using CrossOver by CodeWeavers, who offer an automated installer to accomplish the same result on nearly all major Linux distributions as well as Google's ChromeOS.

Has media library support that can displays all available tags plus custom tags.

There is a plugin available that allows users to sync their iOS devices (including music ad podcasts).

It's possible to lock down access to settings while still having access to the player. This is great for parties, allowing guests to browse and play music without worrying if they will mess something up.

MusicBee tells you the time you are seeking to on mouseover on the seek bar.

Quod Libet gives the user the necessary tools to edit and organize their library from within the app. There is support for tags as well to help you quickly find the music to fit your mood. To help you sort through large libraries, you can use the filters which help filter by genera or other search perimeters.

Quod Libet offers many plugins including Last FM sync, lyrics support, and iOS sync.

Quod Libet has powerful search syntax options, which are very useful for creating smartlists or querying a big music collection.

Despite very good library management capability, Quod Libet is easy to use. The base music player doesn't have too many features, making it a breeze to use. However, if you want to go deeper you can install plugins. These plugins can sometimes add complexity, but it's up to you what you do or don't want.

Sonos, Squeezebox, ...

Quod Libet has multiple viewing modes, including Folder (File System) hierarchy view. The only other program to have a good folder view would be Sayonara.

There are a few controls that allow the user to change how the player looks.

Fully functional and takes up little space on the hard drive.