Brief: We’ll see some of the best music players for Linux you might not even have heard of.
Music players like — Rhythmbox, Amarok, Clementine etc are quite well-known and used by a significant part of Linux users. These are one of those essential applications for Linux that you must have.
But as I always say, there are always alternatives in the Linux world. And I can probably tell you about a few nice music players for Linux you might not have heard of before today.
Of course, they might not suit your needs or maybe you won’t like them. But regardless, it doesn’t hurt to know a few alternatives, does it?
7 lesser known but awesome music players for Linux
Okay, let’s start. Just to clarify, they are not listed in any particular way. You yourself will have to try them and find out what suits you.
I have provided installing instructions for Ubuntu but that doesn’t make it the list of best music players for Ubuntu. You can install these applications in other Linux distributions as well. You just have to find the right way.
1. Sayonara
Sayonara is a small yet fast music player for Linux. It has a unique and compact user interface. Sayonara supports external devices and dynamic playback. It has integrated metadata editor and mp3 converter. Sayonara supports cross-fading, speed and pitch control. It can show lyrics and album artworks as well.
Sayonara can stream and record music from online services, like – SoundCloud & Soma.fm. It supports scrobbling to Last.fm and you can also broadcast radio right from Sayonara.
Installing Sayonara on Ubuntu
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:lucioc/sayonara
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sayonara2. Lollypop
Lollypop is one of my favorite music player on Linux. Lollypop is modern and minimal with its slick design. It was designed to play well with GNOME desktop environment and has both light and dark theme variant.
Lollypop is lightweight and fun to use. Your music library can be sorted by Album, Artist or Genre names. Browsing and searching through the music collection is quite intuitive. Lollypop can fetch lyrics and artist bio from the web. It also fetches cover artworks automatically.
It can stream songs from online music services and charts, like – Spotify, Last.fm, iTunes etc. You can also add online radios stations on Lollypop. It supports scrobbling songs to Last.fm & Libre.fm too.
There is a visually appealing full-screen mode interface available. You can turn on Party mode and sit back and enjoy songs chosen by Lollypop. You can also sync songs with Android or other MTP devices.
Installing Lollypop on Ubuntu
Lollypop is available for Ubuntu via PPA. You will have to add the PPA repository and then you can install it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnumdk/lollypop
sudo apt update
sudo apt install lollypopMu Music Player. Looks Good, Works Not So Good”]
3. Yarock
Yarock is one of the most lightweight music players on Linux. It was covered a while back on the Lightweight Alternative Applications for Ubuntu article. Yarock has a modern and elegant interface and provides various advanced features.
Yarock contains smart playlist generator, ratings & play counts, gapless playback. Where Yarock is different from the others is that it supports multiple back-ends for playing audio. And you can also add multiple music collections.
It has a minimal mode with a tiny interface. It also has support for desktop notification and command-line interface.
Yarock can streaming radio services, like – TuneIn, SHOUTcast, Dirble etc. It supports music scrobbling to Last.fm. It can also fetch various information like artist bio, lyrics from the web.
Installing Yarock on Ubuntu
For installing Yarock on Ubuntu, enter the following commands in your terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install yarock4. Harmony
Harmony is a cross-platform music player built with Electron. Though it is neither open source nor free, but it is free-to-evaluate for an unlimited period of time and a nice option to look at.
Harmony doesn’t have too many options to configure. It comes with a sleek user interface — with both light and dark theme. It’s responsive and has system tray integration. It also supports native scrobbling to Last.fm.
It’s not only limited to local music collection. You can add online music services — like Google Music, SoundCloud, Spotify etc. — to Harmony.
Installing Harmony on Ubuntu
For installing Harmony, you can download and install from the DEB file available on its website.
5. Musique
Musique is a lightweight music player, with an iTunes-like interface design. It is designed to be simple and left all the complex and advanced features outside. It can auto-correct misspellings & cases and fetch album artworks from the web automatically. You can also view information about the currently playing tracks, albums and artist.
Musique supports scrobbling your songs to Last.fm.
Installing Musique on Ubuntu
For installing Musique, you will have to download the DEB package from the official site and install it.
6. VVAVE Music Player
Previously known as “Babe“, Vvave Media Player is its successor hosted by the KDE Community, tailored for KDE desktops (Plasma) while it is tightly integrated with KDE Connect, MPRIS Controls, KRunner, and also supports native notifications.
You get to manage your music in an organized manner (with drag and drop support inside it). So, you won’t have an issue setting up your playlists after marking your favorite songs. It also supports plasma mobile – if you have one. VVave also integrates the youtube-dl functionality so that you can stream/download your favorite music from YouTube. In addition to all this, it also tries to fetch some semantic information of a song like lyrics, label info, and other details.
Install Vvave on Linux
You can find the AppImage in the download section of its official web page. There will be a stable release and an Alpha release to choose from.
Download it and use the AppImage file to launch it. You can refer to our guide on – How to use AppImage, if you are not sure about it.
7. Museeks
Museeks is a simple music player that resembles the UI of an iTunes player on Windows/Mac. It supports multiple music file-formats including .m3u as well. If it matters, you get a dark mode as well – which is an added bonus for great user experience.
There isn’t a whole bunch of options inside it – only to keep the system awake while using Museeks and a couple more interface options.
Installing Museeks on Linux
You have the option to download the .deb/.rpm/AppImage file from its official site. So, that would be the best way to go for – unless you find it on your software center or package installer.
Is there any other uncommon music players for Linux we might have missed? Let us know about those in the comment section!
What about ‘Exaile’ ? Can’t install it in Ubuntu though. Have it on Manjaro.
I feel it amplifies sound output enormously. (My feeling, of course)
I get my Debian Exaile pkg here :
https://repo.sparkylinux.org/pool/main/e/exaile/
It will probably install in Ubuntu too.
I like Exaile’s large radio station selection, & that I can add more of my favorites.
I use Audacious primarily with DeaDBeef as an alternative. As I listen to classical music, it is important to have a music player which does not introduce gaps between files. Both of these are “gapless” players. Unfortunately VLC, which is otherwise excellent, does introduce gaps which makes it somewhat less desirable for playing classical music.
Don’t forget DeaDBeaF, it’s really a good option, I’m changing from VLC to it. I’m even considering do some code for the project in the next hacktoberfest. I really enjoy it.
Why you forgot about Dead Beaf player?