There’s a huge raft of free and open source music software available on the Linux platform which is both mature and sophisticated. Linux has many music tools which offer enhanced functionality and integration with internet music services. With most desktop environments having several audio players, together with cross-platform applications, integrated media players, there is a plethora of music players to choose from.
Like many types of software, the selection of a favorite music player is, to some extent, dependent on personal preferences. Nevertheless, we are confident that the applications featured in this article represent the most appealing music players.
All music libraries are different, and the right open source music player can make a world of difference – especially if you’ve a large collection.
If you’re still using a general purpose media player, you’re missing out on a wealth of features that can make organizing, expanding and enjoying your music a walk in the park.
Here’s our recommendations. We’ve confined this article to music players sporting a graphical user interface. We cover console based music players in this article.
In our view, Tauon Music Box is the finest open source graphical music player available for Linux. It’s probably the most underrated program in the whole gamut of open source software.
All of the programs featured in this article are open source.
Let’s explore the 26 music players. For each program we’ve written a detailed review or compiled a dedicated page. Either way, you’ll get a full description with an in-depth analysis of each program’s features, screenshot of the software in action, together with links to relevant resources.
| Music Players | |
|---|---|
| Tauon Music Box | Python-based music player that's an absolute gem |
| Cantata | Feature-rich client for Music Player Daemon |
| Strawberry | Music player and collection organizer originally forked from Clementine |
| Rhythmbox | Integrated music management application, originally inspired by iTunes |
| Audacious | XMMS-like skinnable player |
| Sayonara Player | Small, clear and fast music player written in C++ |
| Amarok | KDE audio player offering a wealth of features, yet intuitive to use |
| Exaile | Music player aiming to be similar to KDE's Amarok, but for GTK+ |
| DeaDBeeF | Basic and simple player with a small footprint. |
| Clementine | Modern music player and library organiser. Inspired by Amarok |
| Lollypop | Modern music player for GNOME |
| Yarock | Qt music player with browsing based on cover art |
| Musique | Small but sophisticated graphical music player |
| Quod Libet | GTK+-based music management program |
| gmusicbrowser | Music jukebox for large collections |
| GogglesMM | Polished music collection manager and player |
| Aqualung | Advanced, gapless Gtk2-based audio player |
| qoob | A foobar-like music player |
| GNOME Music | Simple music player |
| Pragha | Distinguished and resplendent open source music player |
| Deepin Music | Visually attractive and simple music player |
| Musicalypse | Music player and server built with Web technologies |
| Melody | Music player designed for elementary OS |
| Elisa | Simple music player developed by the KDE community |
| QMPlay2 | Video and audio player which can play most formats and codecs |
| Tomahawk | Qt-based music player |
A few of the music players are not in active development including the wonderful Cantata.
There are many other good music players that didn’t quite meet our stringent requirements. Examples of music players that narrowly missed out (in no particular order) are JuK, Museeks, Nulloy, Banshee, and Qmmp.
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |
I’m surprised you missed ‘Silverjuke’.
Explain why it warrants inclusion? The software has basically seen no development in 4 years.
Update: We have reviewed Silverjuke here. It doesn’t warrant inclusion.
You did not mention VLC.
On the other hand, you mentioned Amarok but Amarok is no longer available nor supported for KDE5. Amarok has not been ported to Qt5 nor to Plasma5.
Correct, we didn’t mention VLC and lots of other good music players. There’s so many that we limit the number. BTW, VLC features prominently in other articles, but it didn’t quite meet the necessary standard from an audio player perspective. It has some big failings as a music player such as the absence of gapless playback.
Amarok is still being developed and a port to Qt5 and Plasma5 is still on the cards.
There are also fun things to try. I love it.