Summary
MellowPlayer offers all the web-based music streaming I currently use and a lot more besides. While there are other apps that offer a wider range, there’s more than enough here for me. The implementation is pretty good although not spectacular. Network proxy support is appreciated!
There’s some glaring bugs in the software, such as the listening history being continually populated by the same track, rearranging streaming services don’t stick, and switching services often doesn’t stop the playback of the previous stream.
Given the software simply embeds websites into the player, there’s lots of standard functionality you’d expect from a good music player that’s likely never to be added to MellowPlayer. Gapless playback is an obvious example.
I’m not keen on some of the defaults such as the application keeps running in the background when you close the application, which is annoying depending on what desktop environment you use.
Note that the AppImage doesn’t let you play all of the music streaming services (specifically Spotify, Mixcloud, SoundCloud, Anghami, Pocket Casts, and Wynk). This is because they require proprietary audio codecs which are not included with the AppImage. It’s best to use a package provided by your distribution, rather than the AppImage, so that you have access to all the services.
Website: colinduquesnoy.gitlab.io/MellowPlayer
Support: Documentation
Developer: Colin Duquesnoy and contributors
License: The project’s GitLab page says the GNU General Public License applies, whereas the software implies GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 or later.
MellowPlayer is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Other Features
Page 4 – Summary
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Music streaming services are nothing but a ripoff! Why should I pay a monthly fee to stream music when I can pay once for the tracks I really like, and keep playing them forever? Plus the streaming services “channels” are obviously programmed by people who don’t know what songs belong on what genre or category. I can’t stand it when country music or blues or jazz gets played on a rock channel! Besides that, with streaming services, if I don’t have an internet connection, no music!
The vast majority of services supported by MellowPlayer offer free accounts. Spotify / Deezer and others are excellent.
“Why should I pay a monthly fee to stream music when I can pay once for the tracks I really like…?”
Hey, maybe streaming is not for you, but I happen to like a LOT of songs, so paying a flat fee is much cheaper than having to buy all of those songs (and the new ones that keep coming out).
Think about it like monthly-flat-fee broadband internet access versus pay-for-the-hour dialup/isnd.
Cheers!