Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 9, 2026

Comparison of audio player software

The following comparison of audio players compares general and technical information for a number of software media player programs. For the purpose of this comparison, "audio players" are defined as any media player explicitly designed to play audio files, with limited or no support for video playback. Multi-media players designed for video playback, which can also play music, are included under comparison of video player software.

Last revised
Jun 9, 2026
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The following comparison of audio players compares general and technical information for a number of software media player programs. For the purpose of this comparison, "audio players" are defined as any media player explicitly designed to play audio files, with limited or no support for video playback. Multi-media players designed for video playback, which can also play music, are included under comparison of video player software.

General

Name Author First public release Latest stable version Cost Software license Framework used Written in
AIMP AIMP DevTeam August 8, 2006 Windows: 5.40, build 2716 (April 21, 2026 (2026-04-21)1) [±]

Android: 4.30, build 1725 (May 5, 2026 (2026-05-05)2) [±]

No cost Proprietary BASS audio library (decoder) Delphi
Amarok Mark Kretschmann June 1, 2003 3.3 (July 8, 2025 (2025-07-08)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later via Phonon: GStreamer, xine, MPlayer, VLC, DirectShow, QuickTime C++
aTunes Alex Aranda et al. January 1, 2006 3.1.2 (June 22, 2014 (2014-06-22)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Java
Audacious Audacious Development Team October 30, 2005 4.51 (September 7, 2025 (2025-09-07)3) [±] No cost BSD-2-Clause XMMS based C, C++

(GTK & Qt)4^

Banshee Aaron Bockover February 17, 2005 2.6.2 (February 18, 2014 (2014-02-18)5) [±] No cost MIT GStreamer C#
BTR Amp BTR Labs February 13, 2020 15.1 (March 21, 2023) $0.99/month, $9.99/year, $29.99 one-time Proprietary
BZR Player aargirakis April 12, 2008 2.0.82 (Aug 6, 2025) No cost GPL-3.0-or-later C++ (Qt)
Clementine Clementine Team February 22, 2010 1.3.1 (April 19, 2016 (2016-04-19)) [±] No cost GPL-3.0-or-later GStreamer C++ (Qt)
cmus Timo Hirvonen January 18, 2005 2.12.0 (October 26, 2024 (2024-10-26)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later C
Cog Vincent Spader May 1, 2006 0.07 (December 24, 2007 (2007-12-24)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-only Objective-C
DeaDBeeF Oleksiy Yakovenko August 2009 1.9.6 / November 7, 2023 No cost GPLv2, zlib C, C++, Objective-C, Assembly language
Exaile Adam Olsen May 24, 2006 No cost GPL-2.0-or-later GStreamer Python (GTK)
Ecoute Louka Desroziers & Julien Sagot September 2008 3.0.8 No cost (until version 4) Proprietary AV Foundation & QuickTime Objective-C
Flash MP3 Player Reality Software March 11, 2008 1.00 No cost Proprietary
foobar2000 Peter Pawlowski November 29, 2002 2.25.96 Edit this on Wikidata (29 May 2026) [±]


No cost Proprietary (core),
BSD (SDK) 		C++
Guayadeque Music Player Juan Rios, Tiago T Barrionuevo March 12, 2009 0.7.5 (January 1, 2026) No cost GPL-3.0-or-later GStreamer C++ (wxWidgets)
iTunes Apple Inc. January 9, 2001 No cost Proprietary QuickTime ?
JRiver Media Center JRiver, Inc. February 1, 1999 34.0.24 (Windows) (May 6, 2025 (2025-05-06)7) [±] $59.98 to $79.98 Proprietary JRiver code C++
JuK Scott Wheeler February 1, 2003 No cost GPL-2.0-or-later C++
MediaMonkey Standard Ventis Media Inc. August 25, 2003 5.0.4.2690 (November 23, 2022 (2022-11-23)) [±] No cost Proprietary Delphi, C
MediaMonkey Gold Ventis Media Inc. August 25, 2003 5.0.4.2690 (November 23, 2022 (2022-11-23)) [±] $24.95USD Proprietary Delphi, C
MediaMonkey Lifetime Ventis Media Inc. August 25, 2003 5.0.4.2690 (November 23, 2022 (2022-11-23)) [±] $49.95USD Proprietary
Groove Music Microsoft 2012 No cost Proprietary
Mpxplay Mpxplay January 1, 1998 3.248 Edit this on Wikidata (24 August 2025) [±] No cost Proprietary C
Music on Console Damian Pietras January 1, 2002 2.5.1 (April 24, 2016 (2016-04-24)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later C
Music Player Daemon Warren Dukes May 1, 2003 0.21.22 (April 2, 2020 (2020-04-02)9) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later C
MusicBee Steven Mayall December 4, 2008 3.6.9202 (March 17, 2025 (2025-03-17)) [±] No cost Proprietary BASS audio library Visual Basic .NET
musikCube Casey Langen January 1, 2005 3.0.510 Edit this on Wikidata (21 September 2025) [±] No cost BSD-3-Clause
Napster William Christopher Gorog October 1, 2003 4.6.3.4 (August 31, 2010 (2010-08-31)) [±] Subscription Proprietary
Quod Libet Quod Libet Team November 8, 2004 4.5.0 wikidata:Q1621193 (March 2022 (2022-03)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later GStreamer Python (GTK) PyGTK
Rdio Rdio Inc August 3, 2010 Microsoft Windows: 1.12.0.0 (2013) WP 8+ : 4.0.5.0 (28 October 2013 (2013-10-28))

iOS: 3.0.3 (27 September 2014 (2014-09-27))

Subscription Proprietary
Rhapsody RealNetworks January 1, 2003 14.0 (16 October 2006) [±] Subscription Proprietary
Rhythmbox Colin Walters April 1, 2004 3.4.8 (November 10, 2024 (2024-11-10)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later GStreamer C
Sayonara Player Michael Lugmair (until 2020 under the pseudonym Lucio Carreras) 2011 1.5.1-stable5 / 29 August 2019 No cost GPL-3.0-or-later GStreamer C++
Songbird POTI Inc. February 8, 2006 2.2.0, Build 2453 (February 4, 2013 (2013-02-04)) [±] No cost GPL GStreamer
Sonic Visualiser Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London May 10, 2007 3.1.1 (August 14, 2018) No cost GPL-2.0-or-later
Sonique Media Science November 1, 1998 1.96 (March 2002) No cost Proprietary
Spotify Spotify LTD October 7, 2008
Android9.1.44.2120 / May 11, 2026 (2026-05-11)11
Wear OS9.1.48.1656 / May 14, 2026 (2026-05-14)
iOSa9.1.48 / May 15, 2026 (2026-05-15)12
Windows1.2.90.443 / May 8, 2026 (2026-05-08)1314
macOS1.2.90.443 / May 2026 (2026-05)
Linux1.2.84.475 / April 7, 2026 (2026-04-07)15
 Subscription Proprietary
Style Jukebox Digital Geek LTD July 1, 2009 2.2.1 (October 8, 2016 (2016-10-08)) [±] No cost Proprietary C#
Video.js (used on Wikipedia as of 2024) Brightcove, Inc. 2010 No cost Apache JavaScript, HTML5
VLC Player 1996
Windows, Linux, & macOS3.0.2316 Edit this on Wikidata / 8 January 2026 (8 January 2026)
Android3.6.517 Edit this on Wikidata / 7 May 2025 (7 May 2025)
ChromeOS1.7.318 Edit this on Wikidata / 23 December 2015 (23 December 2015)
iOS, Apple TV3.7.019 Edit this on Wikidata / 8 January 2026 (8 January 2026)
Windows (UWP)3.1.2 / 20 July 2018 (2018-07-20)2021
Windows Phone3.1.2 / 20 July 2018 (2018-07-20)22
 No cost GPL-2.0-or-later C, C++, (with Qt), ...
Wax Jeffrey Barish July 19, 2024 1.0.4 (build 366) No cost MIT GStreamer Python (GTK 3.0)
Winamp Nullsoft April 21, 1997 5.9.2 Build 1004223 (April 26, 2023 (2023-04-26)) [±]


No cost Proprietary Wasabi C/C++
XMMS XMMS Team November 1, 1997 1.2.11 (November 16, 2007 (2007-11-16)) [±] No cost GPL-2.0-or-later original C
XMPlay Un4seen Developments 1998 4.1 (December 23, 2025) No cost Proprietary BASS audio library
Name Author First public release Stable version Cost Software license Framework used Written in


Operating system compatibility

This section lists the operating systems on which the player works. There may be multiple versions of a player for different operating systems.

Audio player Windows macOS Linux iOS Android BSD Unix Solaris Other Unix DOS
AIMP Yes No via Wine No Yes via Wine No No No
Amarok Yes beta Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
aTunes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No
Audacious Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
Audion No Yes No No No No No No No
Banshee alpha beta Yes No No Yes No No No
BTR Amp No No No Yes No No No No No
cmus No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
Cog No Yes No No No No No No No
Clementine Yes Yes Yes No remote controller only Yes Yes Yes No
DeaDBeeF Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Ecoute No Yes No Yes No No No No No
Exaile Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No
foobar2000 Yes beta
osnotes 1 		via Wine
osnotes 2 		Yes Yes via Wine
osnotes 2 		No No No
Guayadeque Music Player No Yes Yes No No No No No No
Groove Music Yes No No No No No No No No
iTunes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes remote controller only Yes No No No No
MediaMonkey Yes No No No Yes No No No No
MPXPLAY Yes No No No No No No No Yes
Music Player Daemon cygwin Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
MusicBee Yes No Partial
24 		No No No No No No
Musicmatch Jukebox Yes Yes No No No No No No No
musikCube Yes Yes Yes No remote control only
25 		Yes No No No
Quod Libet Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
Rdio Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No
Rhapsody Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Rhythmbox No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
Sayonara Player No No Yes No No Yes No No No
Songbird Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No
Sonique Yes No No No No No No No No
Spotify Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Style Jukebox Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
Wax No No Yes No No No No No No
Winamp Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No
XMMS No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
XMPlay Yes No No No No No No No No
Zinf Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
Audio player Windows macOS Linux iOS Android BSD Unix Solaris Other Unix DOS
  1. "foobar2000 for Mac". www.foobar2000.org.
  2. "WineHQ - foobar2000 1.0". appdb.winehq.org.

Features

Audio player Video playback Outbound streaming Skinnable Media database Gapless audio decoding Visualizer Remote controllable Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria)
AIMP No via Plugins Yes Yes Yes Yes via Plugins No
Amarok Partial
featurenotes 1 		Yes Partial
featurenotes 2 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Audacious No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Audion No No Yes No ? Yes ? No
BTR Amp No No No Yes Yes No No Yes
cmus No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
Cog No No No No Yes No Yes No
Clementine No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exaile No ? No Yes Yes No Yes
26 		Yes
foobar2000 No Partialb Yes
featurenotes 3 		Yes Yes Yes Partialb Yes
iTunes Yes Yes Partialb Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JRiver Media Center Yes via Plugins Yes Yes Yes Yes via Plugins Yes
JuK No No No Yes No No Yes
featurenotes 4 		?
MediaMonkey Yes Partialb Yes Yes Yes Yes Partialb Yes
MPXPLAY Yes (with MMC v2.00a) ? text-interface Yes Yes Yes Yes (also LCD ability) ?
Music Player Daemon No Yes Client dependent Yes Yes Client dependent Yes Client dependent
MusicBee No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox No No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ?
musikCube No No No Yes No Partialb ? Yes
Quod Libet No No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Rhapsody No No No Yes ? No ? ?
Rhythmbox No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sayonara Player No ? No (Dark Mode available) Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Sonique Partialb No Yes No No Yes ? No
Spotify Yes ? No No Yes No Yes (via app) No
Wax No No No Yes Yes No No No
Winamp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XMMS Partialb Partialb Yes No Partialb Yes Yes No
XMPlay Partialb Partialb Yes No Yes Yes No No
Zinf No No Yes Yes ? No ? ?
Audio player Video playback Outbound streaming Skinnable Media database Gapless audio decoding Visualizer Remote controllable Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria)
Audio player ReplayGain Tag mass Tag flexible
featurenotes 5 		Time stretch Pitch shift A-B repeat Bookmark Auto resume Shutdown on play complete Archive ability
AIMP Yes Yes
featurenotes 6 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Amarok Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
featurenotes 7 		Yes Yes No No
Audacious Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
Audion ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
BTR Amp Yes ? Yes ? No ? No Yes No
cmus Yes No No No No No No Yes No No
Cog ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Clementine Yes Yes No No No ? No No No No
Exaile Yes Yes Yes
27 		No No Yesb Yesb Yes Yesb No
foobar2000 Yes Yes Yes Yesb Yesb Yesb Partialb Yes Partialb Yes
iTunes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
featurenotes 7 		Yes Yes Yes No
JuK ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MediaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Partialb Partialb Partialb Partialb Yes Yes ?
MPXPLAY ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MusicBee Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox ? Partial
featurenotes 8 		? No No ? ? ? ? ?
musikCube ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quod Libet Yes Yes Yes Partial
featurenotes 9 		Partial
featurenotes 9 		No Yes Yes No No
Rhapsody ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Rhythmbox Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No
Sayonara Player Yes Yes No No No ? Yes Yes ? ?
Sonique No No ? Yes Yes No No No No ?
Spotify No No No No No No No Yes No No
Wax No No Yes No No No No No No No
Winamp Yes Yes ? No Yes ? Yes ? No ?
XMMS Partial Yes ? No No No No Yes No No
XMPlay Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No Yes
Zinf ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No ?
Audio player ReplayGain Tag mass Tag flexible Time stretch Pitch shift A-B repeat Bookmark Auto resume Shutdown on play complete Archive ability
  1. Basic function with NMM
  2. Context Browser uses CSS.
  3. UIs may be switched. Shares Windows' themes by default. Additionally, a plugin (foo_looks) can skin foobar2000.
  4. Using DCOP
  5. Flexible tagging is the ability to read or write custom tags, apart from the default ones like title, album and date. Users can use custom tags to provide additional information to media files. Custom tags work via ID3v2.4 (via the TXXX tag field), Vorbis comments and APEv2.
  6. Through use of the Advanced Tag Editor.
  7. "Repeat A/B".
  8. Paid version only
  9. Through Audio Pitch, Speed plugin

Audio format ability

Information about what audio formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such functionality.

Audio player Lossy compression Lossless compression
MP3 WMA RealAudio Vorbis Musepack AAC Dolby AC-3 VQF Opus APE FLAC ALAC SHN WV WMA L
AIMP Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
c 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Amarokd
2829 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Audacious Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
e 		Yes Yes Yes No Yes ?
Audion Yes No No Yes No No No ? ? No No No No No ?
Banshee Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? No ? ? ? ? ?
BTR Amp Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
cmus Yes Yes
e 		No Yes Yes Yes Yes
e 		? Yes
f 		Yes
e 		Yes Yes
e 		Yes
e 		Yes ?
Cog Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Exaile Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		? Yes Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		?
foobar2000 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Partial
b 		No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Groove Music Yes Yes No No ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JuK Yes No No Yes Yes No No ? ? Yes Yes No Yes No ?
Media Jukebox Yes
audionotes 1 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
MediaMonkey Yes Yes No Yes Yes Partial
h 		Partial
h 		? No Yes Yes Yes Partial
b 		Partial
b 		?
MPXPLAY Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Partial
b 		Yes Yes No No Yes ?
Music Player Daemon Yes Yes
e 		Partial
e 		Yes Yes Yes Yes
e 		Yes
e 		Yes Yes
e 		Yes Yes Yes
e 		Yes ?
MusicBee Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
c 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
c 		Yes Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox Yes Yes No No No No No ? ? No No No No No ?
musikCube Yes Partial
h 		No Yes Partial
h 		Partial
h 		Partial
h 		? ? Yes Yes No No Partial
h 		?
Quod Libet Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		? Yes Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		?
Rhapsody Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No ? ? No No No No No ?
Rhythmbox Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		? Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		?
Sayonara Player Yes ? ? Yes ? ? No ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Sonique Yes Yes No Yes Partial
h 		Partial
h 		No ? ? No No No No No ?
Spotify30 Yes No No No No Yes No No No No Yes No No No No
Style Jukebox Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No Yes
Wax Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		? Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		Yes
g 		?
Winamp Yes Yes Yes
b 		Yes Yes
b 		Yes ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes
b 		?
XMMS Yes Partial
h 		Partial
h 		Partial
h 		Yes Yes No Yes
b 		? Partial
h 		Yes No Partial
h 		Yes ?
XMPlay Yes Yes
b 		Yes
b 		Yes Yes
b 		Yes
b 		Yes
b 		? Yes
b 		Yes
b 		Yes
b 		Yes
b 		Yes
b 		Yes
b 		?
Zinf Yes No No Yes No No No ? ? No No No No No ?
Audio player MP3 WMA RealAudio Vorbis Musepack AAC Dolby AC-3 VQF Opus APE FLAC ALAC SHN WV WMA L
  1. Requires External Encoding App

Container format ability

Information about what container formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or filters that provide such functionality.

Audio player AVI ASF QuickTime Ogg OGM Matroska MP4 MPEG-21 NUT FLV
AIMP No Yes No Yes No Yes Partial No No No
Amarok Yes Yes Yes Yes Basic Basic Yes ? ? Yes
Audacious No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No Audio only
Audion No No No No No No No ? ? ?
cmus No No No Vorbis only No Basic Yes ? ? ?
Cog No No No Yes No No Partial ? ? ?
foobar2000 Partialb Yes No Yes No Yes Yes ? ? Audio only
JuK No No No Vorbis only No No No ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
MediaMonkey No No No Vorbis only No No No ? ? ?
MOC Yes ? ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes
MPXPLAY Yes Yes No Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ?
MusicBee No No No Vorbis only No No AAC only No No No
Musicmatch Jukebox No No No No No No No ? ? ?
musikCube No No No Vorbis only No No No ? ? ?
Rhapsody No No No No No No No ? ? ?
Rhythmbox No Yes No Vorbis only No No Yesg ? ? ?
Sayonara Player No ? No Vorbis only ? ? ? ? ? ?
Sonique Noh No No Yes No No No ? ? ?
Winamp Yes Yes Yesb Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
XMMS No No No Vorbis only No No No ? ? ?
Zinf No No No Vorbis only No No No ? ? ?
Audio player AVI ASF QuickTime Ogg OGM Matroska MP4 MPEG-21 NUT FLV

Scalable, composite and emulation format abilities

Audio player Flash RealPix QuickTime Video Effects in mov HTML+TIME
(+VML) 		smil/smi SVG MIDI
(smf) 		MIDI
(kar) 		MIDI
(xmf) 		MIDI
(rmi) 		MIDI
(xmi) 		NSF SPC PSF
AIMP No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No
Amarok ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Audacious No No No No No No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Audion ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
cmus No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Cog ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
foobar2000 No No No No No No Yes (plugin) ? ? Yes (plugin) Yes (plugin) Yes (plugin) Yes (plugin) Yes (plugin)
JuK ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MediaMonkey ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes (Winamp plugin) Yes (Winamp plugin) Yes (Winamp plugin)
MPXPLAY ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MusicBee ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?g Yes ? ?
Musicmatch Jukebox ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
musikCube ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Rhapsody ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Rhythmbox ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
Sayonara Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Sonique ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XMMS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Zinf ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Audio player Flash RealPix QuickTime Video Effects in mov HTML+TIME
(+VML) 		smil/smi SVG MIDI
(smf) 		MIDI
(kar) 		MIDI
(xmf) 		MIDI
(rmi) 		MIDI
(xmi) 		NSF SPC PSF

Protocol abilities

Information about which internet protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.

Audio player HTTP RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT) MMS (MMSU, MMST) Podcasting Other
AIMP Yes No Yes No No
Amarok Yes Yes Yes Yes UPNP
Audacious Yes No Yes No ?
Audion Yes No No No ?
cmus Yes No No No ?
Cog No No No No ?
foobar2000 Yes Partial
protocolnotes 1 		Yes Partial
protocolnotes 2 		?
JuK ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
MediaMonkey Yes No No Yes
protocolnotes 3 		?
MusicBee Yes ? ? Yes ?
Musicmatch Jukebox Yes ? ? ? ?
musikCube Yes No No ? ?
Music Player Daemon Yesi Yesj Yesk Yes Music Player Daemon
Rhapsody Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Rhythmbox Yes Yes No Partial
protocolnotes 4 		UPNP
Sayonara Player Yes ? ? ? ?
Sonique Yes ? ? ? ?
XMMS Yes ? ? ? ?
Zinf Yes Yes No No ?
Audio player HTTP RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT) MMS (MMSU, MMST) Podcasting Other
  1. Only WMA files are playable by foobar2000 through an RTSP connection. RealMedia, AAC, etc. are not supported.
  2. 3rd party plugin for 0.9 allows reading RSS 2.0 feeds as playlists. No subscription/automatic update features.
  3. Present in version 3.0 currently going through Alpha Testing.
  4. As of 0.9.2 it allows reading RSS as podcast source. Issues if links in RSS do not point directly to playable media. Automatic update of podcasts available.

Playlist format ability

Information about which playlist formats the players understand.

Audio player asx,
wax, wvx 		M3U pls XSPF CUE SMIL
AIMP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Amarok Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Audacious Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial
Audion No No No ? ? No
Clementine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
cmus No Yes Yes No ? ?
Cog ? ? ? ? ? ?
Exaile Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
foobar2000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
iTunes No Yes ? ? No ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
JuK ? ? ? ? ? ?
MediaMonkey ? Yes ? No ? ?
MPXPLAY ? Yes Yes ? Yes ?
MusicBee Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Musicmatch Jukebox ? Yes ? ? ? ?
musikCube ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quod Libet Partial Yes Yes No ? ?
Rhapsody ? ? ? ? ? ?
Rhythmbox ? ? Yes ? No ?
Sayonara Player ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Sonique ? Yes Yes ? ? ?
Spotify31 No No No No No ?
Winamp Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
XMMS ? Yes Yes ? ? ?
Zinf ? ? ? No ? ?
Audio player asx/wax/wvx M3U pls XSPF CUE SMIL

Metadata ability

Information about what metadata, or tagging, formats the players understand. Most other containers have their own metadata format and the players usually use them. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.

Audio player ID3v1 ID3v2 APEv2 tag Vorbis comment Cue sheet CD-Text WAVE chunks
AIMP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Amarok Yes
metadatanotes 1 		Yes
metadatanotes 1metadatanotes 2 		Yes
metadatanotes 1 		Yes Yes
metadatanotes 3 		? Yes
Audacious Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Audion Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
cmus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ?
Cog Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
foobar2000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
metadatanotes 4 		Yes
iTunes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JuK Yes
metadatanotes 1 		Yes
metadatanotes 1 		Yes
metadatanotes 1 		Yes
metadatanotes 1 		? ? ?
MediaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ?
Mixxx Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
MPXPLAY Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
MusicBee Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox Yes Yes No ? ? Yes ?
musikCube Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
Quod Libet Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Rhapsody Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
Rhythmbox Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Sayonara Player Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Sonique Yes No ? ? ? ? ?
XMMS Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ?
Zinf Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ?
Audio player ID3v1 ID3v2 APEv2 tag Vorbis comment Cue sheet CD-Text WAVE chunks
  1. Understanding of ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2 and Vorbis comments is handled by an external library called TagLib.
  2. Amarok does not understand embedded covers.
  3. Yes Archived 2012-05-12 at the Wayback Machine, but buggy.
  4. There is a plugin called CD-TEXT Reader adding such a feature.

Optical media ability

Information about what kinds of optical discs the players can play. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality. Playback of Super Audio CD is not possible for any media player, because no suitable hardware exists. All media players capable of audio CD playback will also play the Redbook core of any HDCD disc, providing no sound-quality benefits over standard audio CDs.

Audio player Audio
CD DVD-Audio HDCD
AIMP Yes No No
Amarok Partial No No
aTunes No No No
Audacious Yes No No
Audion Yes No No
cmus No No No
Cog No No No
foobar2000 Yes Yes (plugin)opticalmedianotes 1 Yes (plugin)opticalmedianotes 2
JuK Yes
opticalmedianotes 3 		No No
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes
opticalmedianotes 4 		Yes
MediaMonkey Yes No No
MusicBee Yes Yes Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox Yes No No
musikCube Yes No No
Rhapsody Yes No No
Rhythmbox Yes No No
Sonique Yes No No
Winamp Yes No No
XMMS Yes No No
Zinf Yes No No
Audio player CD DVD-Audio HDCD
Audio
  1. "DVD-Audio Decoder and Watermark Detector". SourceForge. February 24, 2024.
  2. "Foobar2000: Components Repository - HDCD decoder".
  3. Requires K3B
  4. "How to rip audio from DVD/DVD Audio".
See also

See also

Notes

Notes

  1. Including iPadOS, watchOS and tvOS
  2. Plugin available.
  3. Available through a Winamp plugin.
  4. Amarok uses non-Amarok libraries to decode audio. It will play any file for which a codec is available on the system. The default libraries in Linux are from the GStreamer project, and in Windows from the VLC project.
  5. Available through a FFmpeg plugin.
  6. Available through the opusfile plugin.
  7. Available through a Gstreamer plugin.
  8. Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation.
  9. Provided by the "curl" plugins.
  10. Provided by the "ffmpeg" plugin.
  11. Provided by the "mms" plugin.
References

References

  1. Latest AIMP for Windows changelog
  2. Latest AIMP for Android changelog
  3. "Audacious 4.5.1 released". 7 September 2025. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
  4. "Audacious - An Advanced Audio Player". audacious-media-player.org. Retrieved 2022-09-08.
  5. "October 10, 2012". banshee.fm. October 3, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
  6. "foobar2000 for Windows change log". Retrieved 30 May 2026.
  7. "Release Notes MC". Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  8. "Welcome to the PDSoft Homepage". Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  9. "Releases - MusicPlayerDaemon/MPD". Retrieved 12 April 2020 – via GitHub.
  10. "Release 3.0.5". 21 September 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  11. "Spotify: Music and Podcasts". Google Play.
  12. "Spotify New Music and Podcasts". App Store.
  13. "Open Source". Spotify. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
  14. "Spotify - Music and Podcasts". Microsoft Store. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
  15. "Spotify". Flathub.
  16. "VLC 3.0.23 Vetinari - VideoLAN". Retrieved 8 January 2026.
  17. "3.6.5". 7 May 2025. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  18. "VLC - Chrome Web Store". 23 December 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  19. "VLC for iOS, iPadOS and tvOS 3.7.0". Retrieved 7 February 2026.
  20. "VLC for Windows Store". www.videolan.org. VideoLAN. Archived from the original on 2025-04-01. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  21. "VLC UWP". www.microsoft.com. VideoLAN. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  22. "VLC for Windows Phone". www.videolan.org. VideoLAN. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  23. "Winamp: Supported versions: Latest supported version". Winamp Forums. December 22, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  24. "MusicBee help and FAQ". getmusicbee.com.
  25. "Releases · clangen/Musikcube". GitHub.
  26. Chow Loong, Jin (2012-01-02). "With plug-in remuco-exaile". packages.debian.org. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  27. Kuzník, Ondřej; Christine, Spang; Tristan, Seligmann (2017-01-23). "With plug-ins Ex Falso and Group Tagger". packages.debian.org. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  28. "Amarok/GettingStarted/Download/Windows". Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  29. "VLC playback Features". VideoLAN Organization. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  30. [1]. Spotify.com.
  31. Import and export m3u playlists. Spotify.com.