Spotify vs MusicBee

Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.

The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.

Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks

Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.

Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.

A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.

A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.

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.