Musical instruments

mplay – command-line music player inspired by cplay

mplay is a command-line music player inspired by cplay, but with a richer terminal interface and a strong emphasis on customization.

The project is built around mpv via python-mpv, supports playlist-based playback from the terminal, and is designed for users who want to browse music collections, audition files quickly, and work with a wide range of audio formats including tracker modules and MIDI.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

  • Terminal-based music player with file list and playlist views for navigating directories and queueing tracks.
  • Includes 8 built-in themes, color overrides, and support for fully custom themes defined in the configuration file.
  • Offers multiple screensavers and visual effects, including modes such as eink, matrix, khaos, plankton, tetragon, rave, and pixels.
  • Can display metadata and use configurable custom views, with support for ffprobe and music-tag for richer audio information.
  • Supports editing tags such as title, artist, album, genre, and year, and can also display album art.
  • Can open the selected audio file directly in external tools such as Audacity, MilkyTracker, and LMMS when available.
  • Provides net radio support and can record compatible streams with streamripper.
  • Includes master and sync modes for running multiple copies of the player in coordinated terminals.

Website: github.com/unpythonic-coder/mplay
Support:
Developer: unpythonic-coder
License: MIT License

mplay in action

mplay is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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Read our verdict in the software roundup.


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