Top 8 Music Player for Ubuntu and Linux Mint

What’s music to you? Ask this question to people & answers will different. Some would say that its how they enjoy life, some would say it helps them sleep better after a hard day’s work & for some it just make them feel good about them & their surroundings. It can be said without doubt that everybody loves music in one form or another & Linux lovers are no different.

This post is for those Linux lovers who enjoys music & are looking for a music player for their UBUNTU & Linux Mint systems. Though there are many music players available for Linux lovers but we have prepared a list of ‘Top 8 music players for Ubuntu and Linux Mint

1) RhythmBox

rhythmbox-ubuntu-linuxmint-music-player

RhythmBox is the default music player for many Linux distributions including Ubuntu. It is nice music player with support for most of the audio formats. It is designed using Gstreamer media framework, basically for GNOME desktop but works well on other desktop environments as well.

It can import music automatically from MUSIC folder & also supports music import from other sources as well like Ipod, Audio CDs etc. If you like listening to Podcasts, Rhytmbox supports those too. You can listen to Podcasts either from itunes, Miroguide.com or can provide your URLs too. One can also integrate with online music services like SoundCloud.

Overall it’s a nice, simple designed music player which provides a lot of features & support for additional plugins. Though its available by default on Ubuntu systems (12.04 & up), if needed it can be installed by running following command from terminal,

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$sudo apt-get install rhythmbox

2) VLC player

VLC-Music-player-LinuxMint-Ubuntu

VLC player is not only a music player but also supports video playback. Its one the most powerful media player on the planet & provides support for almost all the audio & video formats. It is not only available for Linux but also for Windows & MAC systems as well.

Though its interface might seem a little out-dated & dull but its features surely made up for that, moreover you can always use themes to make VLC look more beautiful.. It supports settings for various sound effects/filters & you can also install additional plugins to make this powerful media player more powerful. To install VLC on your system, run

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get install vlc

3) CMUS

cmus-command-linux-music-player-ubuntu

This music player will appeal to every Linux user who loves CLI(Command Line Interface). CMUS is a music player that is based on command line interface & is undoubtedly the best CLI music player out there. & since it uses CLI, it is very light in memory use (around 4-6 mb in our case) & makes a good choice for Low-end systems.

It is pretty simple to use & you can control it via commands entered through keyboard. It supports all the audio formats you can throw at it & also boasts a series of good features like play queue, gapless music, playlists filter & also supports music streaming. Install CMUS using the command

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get install cmus

4) Banshee

Banshee-Media-Player-Ubuntu-LinuxMint

Banshee is an open source cross platform music player that can run on Linux, Windows & MAC operating systems. Its also based on Gstreamer multimedia platform & can play various media formats, including but not limited to Ogg Vorbis, FLAC.

It can import & play audio files from CD/DVDs, Android devices, IPods etc & also supports online music streaming, as well as support for listening podcasts. You can further customize & enhance its functionality by using various plugins available .

Even though its last update came in 2014 but still it’s one of the best music player around. Install Banshee by running the following command in your terminal,

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get install banshee

5) Clementine

Clementine-Music-Player-Ubuntu-LinuxMint

Clementine is another music player that is light on memory & apart from usual features any music player supports, it also has support for online streaming & you can also play music files from Google drive, One drive etc.

It also has series of advanced options built-in &you can find options ranging from built-in conversion tools to visualizers to support for remote control (android app). Install it on your system by running,

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$sudo apt-get install clementine

6) DeaDBeef

DeaDBeeF-Music-Player-Ubuntu-Linux

DeaDBeef is another powerful music player that does not require any major dependencies for GNOME or KDR like Gstreamer to run on Ubuntu/Linux Mint systems. It supports all the features provided by majority of the music players like support for popular audio formats, podcast streaming, plugins support etc. along with some additional features like live design mode, basic metadata editing & CLI playback. Run the following commands from terminal to install deadbeef muysic player.

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ wget http://excellmedia.dl.sourceforge.net/project/deadbeef/debian/deadbeef-static_0.7.2-2_amd64.deb
linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ dpkg -i deadbeef-static_0.7.2-2_amd64.deb

7) Tomahawk

Tomahawk-Music-Player-Ubuntu-LinuxMint

Tomahawk as music player for modern generation, it provides strong support for online streaming of music . Tomahawk uses plugins for streaming support, so if you are not into music streaming you can just disable the plugin & listen to music from system directories.Its UI(User Interface) is modern yet simple & easy to navigate.

Install tomahawk on your Ubuntu & Mint systems by running the following commands,

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tomahawk/ppa
linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get update
linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get install tomahawk

8) Audacious

Audacious-Music-Player-Ubuntu-LinuxMint

Audacious is one the most light weight & very simple music player available for Ubuntu. It does not support any of the features like online streaming or podcast streaming but can play any music files stored on your system storage. Although it support some plugins to enable some extra features like equalizer, lyrics fetching etc.

Audacious is basically for those music lovers who listens to music, the traditional way. To install audacious on your system, run

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get install audacious

Apart from above list we can also use Lollypop music player on Ubuntu and Linux Mint.Refer the below commands to install lollypop

linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnumdk/lollypop
linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt-get update
linuxtechi@linuxarena:~$ sudo apt install lollypop

All these music players are good options for Ubuntu & Linux Mint but a choice among these is purely based on personal preferences. If you think that we missed out on your favourite music player, please do leave comments in the comments section below.

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9 thoughts on “Top 8 Music Player for Ubuntu and Linux Mint”

  1. I use VLC for video, Clementine for audio, and for audiobooks I use SMPlayer because it has an automatic bookmarking feature, so if I’m listening to a 20 hour audiobook and close the player it starts right back where I was when I run the program again.

    Reply
  2. Banshee is long time dead, Quod Libet ‘https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/’ is better example. Developlement is live, product is modern and more over it doesn’t have any problems with handing thousands of music files.

    Reply
    • Actually, I use Audacious for DJ work. I’ve tried “real” DJ software and much of features are pointless unless you play at raves. I volunteer at a nursing home (where there are 30 year olds, up to my age group of 60). Audacious allows quick access to my 19,000 + music collection. It allows me to use my laptop’s main screen to run the player and queue songs while I use the CRT port display the album cover and the visualization animation as a second display device for the residents to see on a 70-inch flat screen TV facing them. The tunes cross mix properly and seamlessly between songs.

      Clementine does a nice job too but takes more CPU horsepower to run and still doesn’t offer the features Audacious does for my DJ volunteer work.

      Reply

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