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Best Free Music Player and Organizer

Updated 20. May 2013 - 12:12 by cdissler

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Introduction
 

This article compares audio software that enrich the music experience or enhance everyday listening, and provide impressive music centric features. The best MP3 and audio player ought to quench our passion for music, such as by inspiring us to rip or download music, organize our music libraries, learn more about our favorite artists or music, or just listen to music.

The reviews evaluate products on sound enhancements, usability and unique features, support for common and useful audio formats (MP3, WAV, FLAC, WMA, and others), performance, security and privacy.

Thanks to our faithful followers, who have been pitching their favorite players and organizers, we have a set of carefully considered selections. We have 26 listed music players and counting!

Latest article update: Added more quick links at the top (8-27). Current product reviews in the discussion section are from a previous editor (they are his "I" statements).
Discussion
 

Light Music Players and Organizers

The following had to have light resource efficiency while impressing us with music centric features. They were the best candidates to be our primary music player and organizer, satisfying avid audiophiles for daily listening. They aren't the best for managing music files (ripping, converting, tagging), but they often have unique advantages over bulkier programs depending on your tastes and needs.

 

Jaangle

Jaangle is one of my least favorite players. This player is more of a playlist generator than a be-all player. If I know what I want to listen to, It isn't economical use Jaangle, however if I am just looking to listen to random music this is exactly the program to look to.
 
Jaangle has a small memory footprint, not the smallest but still negligeble.
 
Since the entire program is hugely dependent upon panes, I will refer to the panes throougout this review. Below is the pane list which is primarily used.
 
 
1. Pane A - Artist/Album/Genre list. This list can be sorted any of the three fields listed here.
2. Pane B - Single Album song list
3. Pane C - Track list
 
After installing, it took almost no time to import my music. I imported 15,000 songs in about 10 minutes, with the tags and album art. I didn't realize it until I imported my music into Jaangle, but my library contained about 300 m4a files. This isn't a huge problem I converted them to mp3 right away, but Jaangle wasn't able to read the tags from them though I don't believe any non-apple music player can play them.
 
That was where the ease of use ended. I didn't realize at first that you need to work off of the panes provided in order to play music. You move from panes A and choose your artist/album/genre, to pane B where you choose the song from a single album list, to panes C, which will play ONLY the selected track. If you want to play and entire album you cannot simply play the first song in pane B and expect it to play. No, no, no that would be too easy. You need to populate pane C with all the tracks you wish to play. If you run out of tracks in pane C Jaangle starts to randomize your music library. 
 
Most of my library consists of Jazz, with a very small percentage of obscure indie artists and some psych-folk. The random generation of music actually was pretty impressive, it played songs that I would be interested in hearing back to back. I cannot tell if this is by design or just coincedence. If the first song I chose was a soprano sax player from the 50's it did well to keep it inline with that style.
 
By default, Jaangle sets a cross fade between songs. If I skip a song there is a couple of seconds of fade from the previous song even though the next song is going at full force. This is hugely annoying and couldn't ever be useful for me. They couldn't have put the off button for this in a more inconspicuous place. A tiny button above the time bar at the bottom needs to be clicked for off.
 
Jaangle makes far to many assumptions as a music player and on my list of No's. There are several things that I like about Jaangle, but without the additional features that make up a music player/organizer it makes this program almost useless to me. The only easy thing about Jaangle is the download and installation. There appears to be a learning curve to this program that I haven't seen before. 
 

Foobar2000My first impression of Foobar2000 was that it was the workingman's media player. As it comes Foobar2000 is a basic player. Those with a bit of computer savvy can easily modify the way Foobar2000 looks with internal controls in the View menu. The interface is customizable as to what windows appear, how they look, background colors, etc. I especially liked the large cover art window, which is four times the size of the normal view of most media players. It brought me back to the days of being in a music store, during the heyday of 12-inch vinyl, and you were listening to some new music being played. If you liked it, all you had to do is look towards the register and above it would be an album cover with a "Now Playing" sign under it. That's enough with the nostalgia.

As stated previously, Foobar2000 is a basic player, very basic. The library is adequate and mildly configurable. Tagging is manual and limited. Play list editing is also manual. There is an eighteen band equalizer, but it can only be accessed through menu and cannot be viewed by default. As it comes, there are no ripping or converting capabilities.

While it's beyond the scope of this review, more advanced users may want to enhance the looks of the player or add more functionality. Foobar2000 does not use skins, but uses, what would be more aptly described as, themes. A simple search on the internet will turn up a multitude of themes and plug-ins, but be aware that these third party items are written specifically for particular versions of Foobar. Most of these items I've seen were written for older versions of the player currently available and may or not work in the current version.

The 7.80 MB footprint of Foobar2000 makes it useful as a portable (USB Drive) player. It can be setup as such upon installation. This could be the player of choice for those, like me, who use separate ripping, conversion, burning and tagging software. (Thirty-five years as a service technician dedication was a key word. It taught me that all-in-one's just don't cut it. As the old saying goes, "They're the Jack-of-all-trades, but the master of none."

 

AIMP 2

AIMP3 is a great little music player with a tiny size and a great punch. It has all the features that one looks for in their favorite player from small running size to association with any music file type. The new version appears to have several fixes that were not available in version 2. It can import and export standard .m3u playlists, has a new design, quicker tag scanning feature as well as a laundry list of other features. 
 
On initial open it began scanning all my folders and sorting through my almost 20,000 songs with their tags and ratings. This actually took longer than I expected but the result was normal. I did a second test with a smaller folder and it finished quickly. Sorting through the list when all the music is imported is extremely clunky and if this were something I intended to use, I wouldn't use it for more than playlists. 
 
From the utilities menu at the top you can access a couple of additional features. 
 
First, there is a tag editor which can edit the tags of selected album or folder. This feature only seems to be useful as a single album or artist tag editor since the sort features are limited. As nice as it is that this feature is available I choose to use an external program for tag editing like MP3Tag. 
 
The second feature is the audio library, which is a more navigable list than what is attached to the player, but is lacking the ease of  sort ability that I look for. I did find myself looking to this feature when I was sorting through more than just a playlist, but I wouldn't use this program for more than a playlist. 
 
Third, which I haven't experimented with yet, is an audio converter. I will update this review as I use this feature.
 
There is a lot of customization available in setting, which if you play around with them are quite useful. There are several appearance and sort options for the playlists. You can choose the file type associations and assign hot keys for several actions like play/pause, stop, pull up the audio library or preferences. The skins that are preloaded are not my favorite but a quick Google search returned several that I intend to play with.
 
The program while open and playing is the polar opposite of a ram-hog. It barely registers usage at all, which is very standard for small players but great over-all.
 
One problem I found while playing with the settings menu was a few second lag every time I opened the settings menu.
 
Unfortunately, when I choose my favorite music player for the computer, aesthetics are everything. If a player is clunky looking or even remotely difficult to navigate I find myself looking to other application for my music needs. AIMP3 has several great features but I just didn't find myself latching to it when I thought music. 

 

 

Full Music Managers

The following are the best for managing music files and creating complex music libraries or play lists. They don't have light resource efficiency (sometimes doubling the light players above on some resource measures), but on modern computers they could serve as primary music players.

 

MusicBeeMusicBee is a musical Swiss Army Knife and I can see why so many people like it. Where do we begin?

Let's start with music management. You can listen to your music and categorize your collection in an appropriate manner with help of the program's array of utilities to help edit and find tags. You have your music arranged by genre, artist and album in the three top panes while other small panes display the current play list, song details, artwork and lyrics and a search tool to quickly locate any specific artist or track. Another panel helps you access internet services such as Shoutcast, internet radio, podcasts and audio books. You can import music from your personal music folders as well as from your iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries and sync with iPods and other MP3 players

The player itself has an impressive range of controls such as a 10-band equalizer with presets, along with a preamp, digital signal processing plug-ins, an AutoDJ and a volume analyzer to normalize your collection so that you never have to touch the volume control again.

The package also includes a CD ripper with secure CD ripping with AccurateRip verification and a file converter. MusicBee supports the following formats: MP3, OGG, WMA, AIFF, ALAC, APE, BWF, CDA, FLAC, M3U, MP4, PLS, TTA, WAV, TAK, SPX.

With all this functionality, I am surprised that I didn't find a CD burner lurking inside. I guess you can only pack so much into 40.6 MB.

MusicBee does require a bit of extra software in order to function. You'll need Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 and the file converter requires the Lame encoder (Lame isn't a MP3 Encoder) to function.

 

MediaMonkeyMediaMonkey is on my "Nay" list, but I will review it because of its popularity.

Right from installation, my immediate impression of MediaMonkey is that it is not a monkey, at all, but a 1000 lb. gorilla. Just like another well-known media player that will remain nameless, it wants flex its muscles all over your computer and be your be all-do all media player. It instantaneously began searching my hard drives for media files, without my permission, while registering itself as the player of record making it necessary to go through my files and reset their associations so that all would be well once I uninstalled this beast. With all that off my chest, let's get on to the features as there are many.

First and most important MediaMonkey can organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a potent and insightful interface. It will rip and burn cd's. Its audio converter can convert MP3s, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats. It will download and show album art. For those who want to play DJ for your church group or social organization, there is a Party Mode which lock down your media files while still allowing requests. Last of all, but most important some, is MediaMonkey's ability to synchronize with iPods and other MP3 players. There are more features, but they are too numerous to mention here.

While I shouldn't concern myself with the following, but believe I must bring it up for reasons which will become immediately apparent. There is Gold Edition with additional features available for $19.99 and $39.95 for a "Lifetime license for all future updates." In the computer world there is no such thing as "Lifetime." Does anyone remember music software known as MusicMatch? It's still around, but totally commercial payware. At Version 1.0 it was a fairly good program for its time and I purchased a "Lifetime license" for $39.95 for full program. Two years into the "Lifetime license," I began to have difficulty upgrading the software. The good folks at MusicMatch were very accommodating and issued new registration codes. A year later the company was sold and my continuing references to the fact that, "I wasn't dead yet." Fell on deaf ears. Despite the good intentions of the people at MediaMonkey, they cannot realistically, offer a "Lifetime license."

I have no idea how they managed to fit all this functionality into 34.2 MB, but as far as I'm concerned MediaMonkey is just bit too over the top and is far more than I or the average music fan needs and far more than the novice can handle. If I were a professional DJ, then all bets would be off.

 
 

A Note on Sound Quality

Occasionally I see claims that a particular piece of software has superior sound quality, and I too would want the player with the best sound quality (regardless of its features or lack thereof). Sometimes I've played individual products and thought “gosh that sounds crystal clear and rich”, but then found that the volume was maxed on the player's initial settings (and that other players sounded the same at their max volume settings).

It's difficult to rule out wishful thinking and inexact comparisons until you try out many players on your sound system to judge for yourself. I've opened music players side by side, gone through their settings to ensure equivalence, and found that it's seemingly impossible to detect sound quality differences on the sound equipment that came with my computer (Foobar's FAQs and forum posters make this argument as well).

However, Gizmo noted in some of the first comments on this article that sound enhancement plug-ins, such as ASIO, have a noticeable improvement in sound quality on expensive equipment. Note that your sound card must support higher output settings, or the settings could degrade sound quality. And if you maximize the settings on your sound card, then music players will use significantly higher system resources.

 

Note 2: Lightest Players

Here is a list of music players with the best average of three measures: CPU use, I/O bytes, and RAM. The overall test list included MP3, FLAC, and WAV files (using Process Explorer and Vista Ultimate to measure).

  1. Cool Player
  2. Evil Player
  3. XMPlay
  4. Winyl
  5. VUPlayer
  6. Winamp Lite
  7. Trout
  8. Foobar
  9. AIMP
  10. Jaangle
  11. JetAudio
  12. Spider

The lightest player above was measured as an MP3 player (and is included because no other product did better as an MP3 player).

Some micro players (that are light on RAM memory) didn't make the top 10 (they often have high CPU or I/O bit activity).

By the way, mini player modes and tray icon modes (that shrink or hide the visual size of a player's interface) don't decrease the consumption of system resources, but some players have graphics that subside when the player loses focus (resource hungry visualizations were disabled for this comparison).
Micro Music Players
 

There are also basic and further stripped down music players that either didn't make the cut for the main review or don't fit the review criteria. They are listed in order of impressiveness (for sound enhancements, usability and unique features, support for music formats, state of development, performance and security).

  • Winamp Lite: I recommend the separate lite download (you have to scroll to the bottom of the download page) since the lite installer doesn't have the controversial OpenCandy, but it still has a pre-checked option to send off your usage stats. Privacy issues aside (just be sure to carefully inspect all the installation options), it plays an impressive number of audio formats for such a lightweight and resource efficient player, and mimics the wide array of options and feature richness of the full version. It lacks a library for organizing music (unless you already have the full version and use the 'Winamp classic' skin). Quick tip: save your eyes and use 'Double Size' from the options.

  • XMPlay: Has a wide range of sound enhancements (gapless output, 32 bit output, DSP and MOD settings), additional downloads (skins, visualizations, ASIO), and hidden capabilities (Internet streaming). It didn't support my primary music format (FLAC), but the site has many additional 'native input plug-ins' that expand XMPlay's compatibility. A minimal library sorts by various categories based on tag information (use control + A to select your folders and drag and drop them into the play list or queue or library).

    The negatives: a scattered interface (with many independent components) may not be to your taste, and the random play feature didn't work (random play only worked for me by manually right-clicking the play button each time, which I would only do to test whether it works). Developed by un4seen (known for the BASS audio library and MO3 audio format). Portable installation, very lite download.

  • Spider Player: Solid 'middle weight' music manager and player. It uses the trustworthy BASS engine, has many impressive enhancements (32 bit output, DSP effects support, 9-band equalizer and many presets, cross fading) and music managing tools (CD ripper, converter). One of the most interesting capabilities is an auto lyrics down loader, which displays lyrics in a pane next to your play list (you can manually save lyrics to tags), and an Internet radio player and recorder. If only it came with a library organizer it could have been a contender. And I couldn't pretend that a 'favorites editor' was good enough since I ran into error messages with it. The Pro version is now free and unlocks many extra features (mentioned above).

  • VUPlayer: Plays many audio formats and has a simple and user friendly interface (though some of the icons seem outdated). Comes with several sound enhancements (32 bit mixing, gapless playback, adjustable cross fade, 9-band graphic equalizer, and MOD/MIDI mixing) and other tools (converts files, grabs/rips CDs, retrieves freedb tags). In the forum some users report that it works in Windows 7. But it hasn't been updated since 2007 (it uses an old BASS library version) and has 1 moderately critical Secunia advisory (related to opening un-trusted play list files).

  • Winyl: Refreshingly simple and lite BASS player that is well worth watching for future improvements. For now it has a few basic enhancements (32 bit processing, equalizer) and tools (tag editing). More interesting is the care that went into its design. The library comes with long lists of radio stations and a few 'smartlists'. The smartlists automatically display your most played or highest rated songs, and you can create additional smartlists. The 6 skins that come with it are diverse and useful to fit your taste. To further please music fans, Winyl needs to work on additional sound enhancements and play options (I'd also like a random play option or perhaps better play list access).
Cuts: The Other Players
 

Here are music managers and players that are impressive enough for a quick mention, but not quite enough to get featured in the review:

  • Quintessential Media Player (qmp) had great potential, but testing was mired by equally great difficulty in finding a FLAC plug-in. Otherwise, it surprised me with a small download size, a thorough MusicID updater, and feature richness. Massively edits tags, renames files, and writes MusicID info to tags (or updates its library info from tags). It has flashy visualizations, three mode sizes, and automatic online radio lists.

  • JetAudio: Surprisingly lightweight and efficient for such a feature rich, flashy, and capable music/media player. It has many features to help build and manage your media library. Rip, Convert, Record, and Burn all in one program. Use countless auto play lists (the most I've seen, but some are based on tags you must create) in its library, view a simple lyrics windows, get radio stations (many languages), browse to music stores and fan sites from within the player, and choose between several unique skins. However, I found its separate media center/main window setup confusing (the media center does not reduce to a mini player and I kept accidentally exiting the whole program). Other negatives: limited tag editing, no 32 bit output capability in the free version, and 1 'less critical' Secunia advisory (and four past advisories in a previous version).

  • Songbird: An open source, refreshingly simple interface that highly integrates to Internet resources like a browser (integrating many Mozilla Firefox features). One advantage is the ability to expand and customize it through add-ons, but the underlying interface is still the most bulky and inefficient of all tested music players (nearly as heavy as Firefox and getting heavier all the time). But I keep going back to it, so maybe they have something for the future there. It's in constant development, with nightly Beta versions for testing. See its "Roadmap Wiki" for information on its ever growing list of new features.

  • Winamp Full has privacy concerns and now includes the controversial OpenCandy in its installer. Read its privacy policy to see if you agree with its automated data collection of non-personal information (some of which you can only opt out of by hiding or not using certain features). Privacy concerns and nags aside, the program is popular and professional with excellent support for many music file formats, good integration with Internet resources, and top-notch library and music organizing features (it's somewhat incorporated as the media library in The KMPlayer).

 

Some of these have fans, but didn't impress me in comparison to other players in the review. The quick negatives beside each aren't comprehensive comments; visit the respective sites for plenty of positives. Listed alphabetically.

  • 1by1. High I/O bit activity, limited support for music files.
  • Billy. High I/O bit activity (esp. for WAV files), limited support for music files.
  • Clementine. Stealthy association of files.
  • Cool Player. Unpatched Secunia advisories (related to using un-trusted play lists and skins).
  • Cool Player+. High memory use (near Media Monkey size).
  • Evil Player. Simplistic interface, problems running in a standard account.
  • iTunes. Ad-supported: promotes purchasing Internet products as an essential feature.
  • J. River Media Jukebox. Ad-supported: promotes purchasing Internet products as an essential feature.
  • Moo0 AudioPlayer. High CPU use, limited support for music files.
  • QuuxPlayer. Poor interface design/usability.
  • Trout. Problems with interface usability (slow loading of audio files, error messages).
  • Xion. Problems with interface (CPU spikes, crashes), Secunia warning (un-trusted play lists).
Related Products and Links
 

Download Music

Related Hot Finds and Articles

Additional Third-Party Tools

  • SharePod: Allows you to manage and sync with iPods ("Change, Backup, Share") to replace iTunes.
  • Free Music Zilla: Helps you record and download songs from members of online music-sharing communities.

Audio Editor and Music Creation

Play and Organize Media

Manage Media -- Rip, Tag, Convert, Burn, Record

Guides
Quick Selection Guide - Light Music Players and Organizers

Foobar2000
9
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Very customizable interface, many extra components at the download site, decent library capabilities, and includes all necessary tools for building a collection
Not very flashy design, no mini player, the other choices have better library features
http://www.foobar2000.org/
http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download
1.2.3
3.5 MB
Unrestricted freeware
There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows XP/server 2003/Vista/server 2008/7

Portable version available (the Foobar2000 installer gives an option between a standard and portable installation; just select the portable installation)

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), MP4/M4A/M4B, 8SVX, AAC, AIFF/AIF/AIFC/AFC, APE, AU, CDA, CUE, FLAC/FLA, MKA, MIDI, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), SND, Speex, OGG/OGA, WAV, WavPack/WV, WMA, and more with additional components

Play List Formats: opens/loads ASX, FPL, M3U, M3U8, PLS, WAX, WVX, but saves FPL, M3U, M3U8

Screenshots | Components | Wiki | Forum | Change Log

AIMP 3
7
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Visually stunning design, special focus on sound enhancement features, excellent mix of features and light design, comes with two other utilities (tag editor, online radio browser), decent library and history features
Security concerns, requires patience finding features, most support materials not in English
http://www.aimp.ru/index.php?do=lang&lng=en%22
http://www.filehippo.com/download_aimp/
3.20.1165
7.3 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Unrestricted freeware
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.
Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7/ 8

Portable version available (the AIMP installer gives an option between a standard and portable installation; just select the portable installation)

*Note: I don't recommend downloading from the main website because it links to a download site (Brothersoft) that receives yellow ratings from WOT and block status from certain Host file providers (hpHosts, MVPS). A previous version had an unpatched Secunia advisory (may still be present).

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), MP4, M4A, AAC, AC3, AIFF/AIF, APE, CDA, FLAC/FLA, MIDI (MIDI/MID/MI/KAR), Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OFR/OFS, OGG/OGA, Speex/SPX, Tracker Music (UMX, MOD, MO3, IT, S3M, MTM, XM), TTA, WAV, WavPack/WV, WMA

Play List Formats: opens/adds PLC, M3U, M3U8, ASX, PLS, CUE, XSPF, but saves PLS, PLC, M3U, M3U8

Screenshots | Skins | Forum | Change Log

Jaangle
4
 
Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Attractive and easily customizable interface with large album art, artist's photo, bio and easy access to lyrics
Doesn't display some some extended tag info, not yet fully 7 compatible.
http://www.jaangle.com/
http://www.jaangle.com/download
0.98i.977
2.3 MB
Unrestricted freeware
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.
Windows XP/2003/ Vista

Portable version available (files only version)

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), M4A, MP4, AC3, AIFF, APE, CDA, FLAC, MIDI/MID, Musepack (MPC), Tracker Music (UMX, MOD, MO3, IT, S3M, MTM, XM), OGG, WMA, and more based on directshow filters installed

Play List Formats: opens and saves M3U

Screenshots | Skins | Wiki | Forum | Change Log

Quick Selection Guide - Full Music Managers

MusicBee
9
 
Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
All-in-one music manager without the shady background connections, excellent tagging and music managing features, many sound enhancements
Some tag categories not updated. Not much else, but it's still a bit buggy - online help didn't always connect, memory use jumped extremely high (in very rare instances), experienced a few bug/error messages (without program crashes or data loss)
http://www.getmusicbee.com/
http://www.getmusicbee.com/download/
2.0
25.5 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Unrestricted freeware
There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8

Has a "run as portable application" option.

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), AC3, AIFF/AIF, APE, BWF, CDA, FLAC, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OFR/OFS, OGG/OGA, Speex/SPX, TAK, TTA, WavPack/WV, WAV, WMA (see the vendor 'Help' link if you need AAC)

Play List Formats: opens/saves M3U, ASX, PLS, CUE, WPL, XSPF

Screenshots | Addons | Help | Forum | Change Log

MediaMonkey
8
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
All-in-one music manager, excellent for organizing complex music collections, user friendly navigation
Heavy on system resources, simplistic mini-player
http://www.mediamonkey.com/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-CD-Rippers-Encoders/MediaMonkey.shtml
4.0.7.1511
14.3 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Free for private use only
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7, WINE (Linux)

Audio Formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, APE, APL, CDA, FLA, FLAC, M4A, M4B, M4P, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OGG, WAV, WMA

iPhone 5 / iOS 6 and iTunes Compatibility

Play List Formats: opens/adds M3U, ASX, PLS, XSPF; saves M3U

Screenshots | Addons | Help | Forum | Change Log

Editor

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor cdissler. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or questions they might have by clicking here.
Tags

best free music player and organizer, MP3 and audio software, MP3 player, media library, lite music player for windows, music manager, sound enhancements or effects, online radio browser

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Comments

by Linuxser (not verified) on 22. May 2011 - 19:15  (72505)

The problem with all replacements for WMP is none replace effectively WMP unless you do dozen tweaks.
There is no play folder with Media Player, there is no add to Media Player list.

Cos? Unless I'm missing something you have to launch the player all the time or set default "open with".
But you don't want MusicBee 60MB just for listening one song find casual when looking for something else.
Being Music bee my preferred I still prefer alone WMP 12 tiny window to listen single files.
AIMP does well for memory consumption when used to play. If you're on some folder from some hard disk and want to play one alone theme is very good. But going back to play all folder and have to launch another player or add folder.

Fact is play folder and add to Media Player list have no real (and easy) replacement.
by rudy (not verified) on 14. October 2011 - 12:32  (81401)

With foobar, you can right click on your folder and choose either play or enqueue ;). It's that simple.
by Rizar on 20. July 2011 - 15:27  (75917)

There's a number of options here:

(1) Drag and drop from explorer to any player's playlist pane.

(2) Use a player's library folder view to browse instead of explorer:

Jaangle: add files to library, in the library pane click left icon and select any of the 'collection' modes to browse through a folder view.

Foobar: in the library (after adding files) select view by 'folder structure'.

(3) AIMP now has a right click context menu to add a folder from explorer, and the comment below mentions that XMPlay has an option to integrate into explorer's right click context menu.

So windows is at it again and showing tyrannical preference for its own programs. The 'playall' button in explorer should allow association with any player. Sounds like a similar situation to previous lawsuits over Microsoft's tactics with Internet Explorer.
by bili_39 on 22. May 2011 - 20:12  (72508)

I'm using XMplay mostly for music listening, and it has no problem with context menus: file or folder, add to playlist or just open with.

So, if this player can, for sure others can too.
by boggs (not verified) on 12. May 2011 - 11:05  (71823)

On my Ubuntu Linux computer I only use 3 audio players (Rhythmbox, Audacious, and Clementine) but the most I use right now is Clementine. It's super great to use.
by Moggy (not verified) on 3. May 2011 - 19:08  (71362)

There are many others! For example Xion!
by Moggy (not verified) on 3. May 2011 - 19:06  (71361)

how rude you forgot WINAMP!
by Toe (not verified) on 25. April 2011 - 3:57  (70855)

It really should be noted that Quintessential Media Player (QMP) is abandonware. Basically, its developer, Paul Quinn, reached a point in life where he no longer had time to work on it. I was a moderator on QMP's forum, in fact. The forum itself has been removed from quinnware.com, but there's a copy of it running at http://209.10.41.121/forum/index.php (we're not sure if Paul is even aware that it's still there). A few of us who used to post on the forum have taken refuge at http://s1.zetaboards.com/qcf/index/

Personally, I moved on to MusicBee. It's not the most stable thing I've ever used, and it could use some interface tweaks, but feature-wise it does pretty much everything QMP did (other than video) and more.
by Keztag65 (not verified) on 20. May 2011 - 2:11  (72376)

Ditto for Jaangle (well, at least it seems that way since source was released last year). Music Bee is solid and is in active development; I've dumped Winamp and Jaangle and haven't looked back (though I really liked Jaangle's "auto continue").
by Randy73 (not verified) on 15. April 2011 - 15:20  (70252)

Hi,

Don't know if Jriver (Free version) was ever mentioned in these forums. It does a lot for being a free version. In addition , it was the only program I could find that could accept VST plugins natively ( I use BBE sound effects which I find essential to my listening experience).

Would love to try another player but I simply can't loose my BBE sound effect. Any comments or suggestions ??
by RAIDENSUB on 9. April 2011 - 12:00  (69830)

Hi. I found this players if anyone is interested to try. I have try the most off them but i am not an expert. I like Alsong Lyrics player and Mufin looks.

http://www.mufin.com/us/
http://www.joymultimedia.ho.ua/main.html
http://www.altools.com/ALTools/ALSong.aspx
http://www.bboxplayer.com/
http://zelzo.com/nix/damp/index.html

Anyone knows if is going to be Ttplayer English.

Sorry for my English.
by Solaris (not verified) on 8. April 2011 - 16:26  (69771)

I started using MusicBee and I am very well impressed with it. It takes a bit to load and sometimes a big footprint, that's true. But I decided to give it a try because of its absolutely GREAT Ipod management skills (in my experience, better than Idop plugin for Foobar and way better than MediaMonkey).
by Anonymousgh (not verified) on 7. April 2011 - 13:38  (69651)

Media Monkey contains OpenCandy; I believe they mention it in the EULA.
by Tayjus Winn (not verified) on 1. April 2011 - 16:01  (69313)

Installed QMP on Win7 64-bit. Crashed twice in the first 30 minutes. No longer installed.
by Geert on 1. April 2011 - 11:18  (69286)

As someone else alread pointed out: Spider Player is available in portable version.
So please, change that in the article accordingly.
by laurettags (not verified) on 3. March 2011 - 15:22  (67381)

Thanks a lot :) love your post, already installed jaangle ._. I used media monkey but only gave me headaches, I love Rhythmbox sadly that's only for linux. Anyhow thanks a lot :)
by Panzer (not verified) on 25. February 2011 - 9:39  (67064)

You forgot to make a link to Rhythmbox ...
by Panzer (not verified) on 25. February 2011 - 9:26  (67061)

http://www.cicsmemoryplayer.com/index.php?n=Main.HomePage#cPlay
by Anupam on 25. February 2011 - 9:30  (67062)

Its a kind request. If you are suggesting a new software, please provide a link to the software page, rather than the download page, so that people can first read about the software, and then decide if they want to download it or not. I have replaced the link which now points to the software details page.
by Panzer (not verified) on 25. February 2011 - 9:40  (67065)

Ok.
by Simple Simon on 23. February 2011 - 14:39  (66966)

Hi,

Your description of Spider Player incorrectly states "but this one does require installation".

On the download page, click on "Other versions" and you get download links for the official zipped portable version and a U3 version.

Best regards, Simon
by Halcyon (not verified) on 16. February 2011 - 19:25  (66556)

To The Reviewer,

For me, it is VLC for videos, foobar2000 for audio.

I tried out all the players listed here, and found Foobar2000 to be the best, followed closely by Winamp.
I am not sure about the organizer part, but I may prefer to use something else other than these two if I want to organize. Install Winamp with the classic skin, beats most players listed here in terms of usability and interface. For someone who is used to keyboard shortcuts, I find other players quite lacking (Winamp even has shortcuts for moving equalizer bars, I remember the number of times I hit the keys to get my settings back). Winamp still rocks, its just that one has to be careful to cut the bloat while installation.

But then , as per your definition below, Winamp may not make it

>>My view of freeware is simple. It should be free…no pop-ups…no petitioning…and no strings attached.

it has some toolbar and free subscriptions installation enabled by default during install, you need to remember to uncheck those options.
Has anyone tried Winamp Lite though ? I havent, I am just too used to current setup.
by Panzer (not verified) on 15. February 2011 - 8:44  (66457)

From Spider Player site (http://spider-player.com/):

Spider Player is no longer being developed. You can still download and use it, though. Please use the following license key to unlock all the PRO features: 27U3Z909I95-KK147A893S4K6Y1M0F-780363812. Spider Player PRO is completely free now, never mind the EULA.

For editor: It's Spider player, and not Spyder Player. And link is wrong: when you click on it, a VUPlayer site opens.
by CHAOS! (not verified) on 16. February 2011 - 16:28  (66547)

Sad news indeed !

I've used Spider Player for the last year or so , & have found it to sound better than nearly all other players on my setup (Razer Barracuda AC-1 sound card & Razer Mako speakers) . My opinion , Media Monkey comes closest in sound quality . I use players to listen to music , nothing more . Anyway , I will continue to use Spider Player until I can't any longer !
by Anupam on 15. February 2011 - 8:52  (66460)

Thanks for this information Panzer. And also thanks for pointing out the mistake. Will be corrected soon.

I have posted about this information, and Spider Player on the forum, here :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/multimedia/6438-spider-pl...
by MidnightCowboy on 15. February 2011 - 9:18  (66462)

Corrections made - thanks :)
by theholycow (not verified) on 13. February 2011 - 14:09  (66349)

Steamwhistle, you missed a good player/organizer that meets most of the mentioned criteria (free, no nag screens, not too many functions, etc). Reading through the comments I see it mentioned a couple times. I don't think it would be your favorite, BUT it may become a tool you won't want to give up. You mentioned that Clementine was a mess due to minor tag imperfections. I know the solution.

MusikCube is a player/organizer that is almost as good as mp3tag at most tagging duties, but has one distinct advantage: its interface for your library. Imperfections in tags become plainly visible and very easy to correct.

Let's say you listen to David Allan Coe. You might have tags saying David Allen Coe, David Alan Coe, David Allan Cole, etc. The Artist pane in MusikCube's interface will display them all in order. You then multi-select those lines in the Artist pane and the main pane shows all the files. Select all, right-click, Properties, tick the checkbox next to Artist, optionally change its guess, and click OK. The result is perfect. IT HASN'T WRITTEN THE TAGS YET so you don't have to worry that it will mangle your collection. Changes are made first to its own database. If you're satisfied, a couple clicks is all it takes for it to write the new tags (and filenames, if you want).

Tags beginning with spaces and special characters are sorted to the top of the list. Also, you do have to watch for names beginning with "The", so "The Rolling Stones" is not going to be right next to "Rolling Stones" until you type "rolling" into the filter - a very efficient way to help get the job done.

Other programs work similarly (I think MediaMonkey does, for example) but none is quite as nimble, powerful, and effective at this cleaning process as MusikCube.

I sometimes use MusikCube as a player, but the biggest thing I do with it is (in combination with mp3tag) clean up my tags. I have 270GB in 80,000 files, all with clean tags.

MusikCube's developer hasn't released an update in like 5 years or something but it's so great at what it does that it doesn't really matter. Its community has made some unofficial add-ons and such but they're not necessary.

Also, your tale of Songbird woe (luckily when I tried it, it didn't do that to me) has inspired me to do an updated backup of my collection!
by George.J on 15. February 2011 - 0:57  (66440)

I saw your comment on MusikCube and i decided to try it. While searching the Wikipedia for it, i noticed that MusikCube development was put down in favour of MusikCube2 . So i decided to try this one and it seemed to contain a VIRUS!! that Avast detected, luckily it aborted the connection. So my impressions on it is not so good. Havn't tried the original yet, but i prefer a player that's continously updated, like that of MusicBee that's updated Weekly according to user suggestions. It's forum help is unmatched ....

----G.J
by Steamwhistle on 14. January 2011 - 16:55  (64540)

An apology...

I want to apologize to everyone. After doing the reviews for this column, I'm afraid I became completely absorbed in rebuilding my music library after it was decimated by Songbird and I wrongly relied on the e-mail notification system on this site to advise me of new posts. I eventually got suspicious of why no new posts had been placed on the site. That's when I discovered that the column was now in the hands of the site editor.

Normally I would ask that I be reinstated as the editor of the Best Free Music Player and Organizer, but my situation has changed. I am a retired, handicapped amputee who was sitting in his parked car, warming it back up so I could go to the Walmart pharmacy to fill some new prescriptions given to me, earlier in the day, by my Pain Management Specialist when I was rammed in the rear by a twit on a cell phone who was behind the wheel of a 14-ton school bus, traveling about 20 to 30 mph. As this point, I consider myself lucky to be alive, given the fact that the school bus had to be towed from the wreck. I am also grateful that none of the kids that normally ride that bus were not on board.

I thank everyone for the opportunity to be of service to this site and I'll return to being one of it's most avid readers.

Signing off,

Bill (aka Steamwhistle)
by George.J on 15. February 2011 - 0:39  (66438)

Get well soooooon....:-)
----G.J