Linux Open Source Audio Players | Comparison tables

Link	Nightingale	Guayadeque	XBMC	Clementine	Rhythmbox	Exaile	Banshee	Quod Libet	gmusicbrowser	Listen	JaJuk	aTunes	Amarok 2.x	Amarok 1.4
Gesamtwertung	no rating	*5.0/5* 1 rating	*5.0/5* 1 rating	*3.7/5* 3 ratings	*3.0/5* 2 ratings	*3.5/5* 2 ratings	*3.5/5* 2 ratings	*5.0/5* 2 ratings	*3.0/5* 1 rating	*4.0/5* 1 rating	no rating	*2.0/5* 1 rating	*2.0/5* 1 rating	*5.0/5* 1 rating
Extrakt	Nightingale chirps your favorite tunes! A beautiful interface with a wide range of supported audio formats, all with multi-platform support! [Notye: Songbird's fork ! (now that Songbrid's development is closed on Linux)]	Guayadeque is a music management program designed for all music enthusiasts. It is Full Featured Linux media player that can easily manage large collections and uses the Gstreamer media framework	XBMC is an open source digital media hub designed to be a media player for the living-room TV. Its graphical user interface allows to easily manage video, photos, podcasts... using a remote control.	A cross-platform music player inspired by Amarok 1.4	An integrated music management application, originally inspired by Apple's iTunes.	A music player and manager written in Python. It incorporates automatic fetching of album art, lyrics fetching, Last.fm scrobbling, support for tabbed playlists, many portable media players, internet radio such as shoutcast.	A music and video player which can manage your podcasts, Internet radio and keep your portable device loaded with good stuff.	An audio player designed around the idea that you know how to organize your music better than we do.	An open-source jukebox for large collections of mp3/ogg/flac/mpc/ape files, written in perl.	A music management and audio player for GNOME	Organizes and plays music. It is a full-featured application geared towards advanced users with large or scattered music collections.	A full-featured audio player and manager, developed in Java	An audio player with many exciting features
Vorteile
Nachteile	crashes too often (on my PC at least) :(
Reviewed version	1.11.1 (Ubuntu 12.04)	0.3.1-1639 (Ubuntu 11.10)		0.7.1 (Ubuntu 11.10)	2.90.1 (Ubuntu 11.10)	0.3.2.2 (Ubuntu 11.10)	2.2.0 (Ubuntu 11.10)	2.3.2 (Ubuntu 12.04)	1.1.9 (Ubuntu 12.04)	0.6.5 (Ubuntu 11.04)	1.9.1 (Ubuntu 11.04)	2.0.1 (Ubuntu 11.04)	2.5.0 (Ubuntu 12.04)	1.4.10 (Ubuntu 11.04)
Player
ReplayGain	Ja option: Album/Track	Ja option: radio/album/off modes and preAmp		Ja options: pre-ampli and Radio/Album modes	Ja [plugin] options: pre-ampli and Radio/Album modes	Ja usual options	Ja no options	Ja options: pre-ampli and default ampli	Ja	Nein Not seen in preferences...		Nein Not seen in Preferences...	Ja option: Album/Track	Nein External script - not stable
Transitions		Ja options: in and out lenghts, in volume, in start => graphical view :)		Ja configurable	Ja option: length	- Only using unstable "unified" sound engine	Nein	Nein	Nein	Ja		Ja	- Only on Stop	Ja options: Transition [NO (blank length) OR YES (length, always OR auto change only OR manual change only). FadeOut [NO OR length]
Gapless		Ja configurable		Nein	Nein	- Only using unstable "unified" sound engine	Ja no options	Nein	Nein	Nein			Nein	Nein
Equalizer		Ja Presets & Custom		Ja Presets & Custom	- 3rd party plugin (not easy to install)	Ja Presets & Custom	Ja Presets & Custom	Ja plugin	Ja	Ja plugin		Nein	Ja	Ja
Navigator
Mode de navigation		Many and configurable (you can save display presets): Chained lists (configurable) AND/OR TreeView (many modes) AND/OR sources ...		TreeView (up to 3 levels among album, artist, albumartist, genre, year, filetype, albumyear, composer)	Chained lists (Limited to Artist/Album OR Genre/Artist OR Genre/Artist/Album)	TreeView (Limited to Artist, Album, Genre/Artist, Genre/Album, Year/Artist, Year/Album, Artist/Year-Album)	Chained lists (Artist/Album only), but album can be displayed as text or image (by default)	Chained lists (Grouping/Genre/Artist/Album)	Many CONFIGURABLE modes !! Check it out	Chained lists (Artist/Album OR Genre/Artist OR Genre/Artist/Album)		TreeView (Artist/Album OR Genre/Artist/Album OR Album OR Year/Artist/Album OR FileSystem)	TreeView (up to 3 levels among album, artist, genre, artistalbum, composer, label)	TreeView (up to 3 levels among album, artist, genre, year, albumyear, composer, label)
File		Ja		Ja Library only	Nein	Ja	Nein	Ja	Ja Library only	Nein		Ja Libary only	Ja	Ja
Cover Navigator		Ja		Nein but there is a cover manager that can replace, though not handy	Nein	Ja	- Slows down app a lot, but it can be disabled	Ja	Ja	Nein		Nein	Nein but there is a cover manager that can replace, though not handy	Nein but there is a cover manager that can replace, though not handy
Library
Multiple folders		Ja		Ja	- Yes, but not easy to manage. Use gconf-editor: apps > rhythmbox > library_locations	Ja	Nein	Nein	Ja	Nein	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Watch folders		- can only scan at startup (option) or manually		Ja	- Only new files	Nein	Ja plugin	- Only startup scan (option) or manual scan	- can only scan at startup (option) or manually	Ja			Ja	Ja
Statistics		playCounter, lastPlayed, added, rating		playCounter, lastPlayed, score, rating, skippedCounter	playCounter, lastPlayed, added, rating	playCounter, lastPlayed, added, rating	playCounter, lastPlayed, score, rating, skippedCounter, lastSkippedDate	playCounter, added, lastPlayed, skippedCounter, rating	playCounter, lastPlayed, score, rating, skippedCounter, lastSkippedDate	playCounter, lastPlayed, added			playCounter, lastPlayed, firstPlayed, score (optional), rating (optional)	playCounter, lastPlayed, score (optional), rating (optional), added
Playlists
Playlists		Ja		Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja			Ja	Ja
Smart		Ja		Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja			Ja	Ja
Dynamic		Ja Called "Smart mode": auto-fills queue with a given playlist (you can exclude another playlist too)		Ja	- But when the queue is empty auto plays a file from the navigator (selected artist/album/genre)	- No options !?	Ja	Nein	Ja	- No options !? what source ?			Ja	Ja
Queue		Ja		Ja separate window.	Ja	Nein	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja			Ja	Ja separate window.
Tags
Editor		Ja		Ja	Nein Updates only database, not files.	Ja	Ja	Ja Full-featured	Ja	Ja		Ja	Ja	Ja
id3 version		2.4		2.4	N/A	2.4	2.3	??	2.3 (default) OR 2.4	??		2.3	??	2.4
Auto tag tools		Ja MusicBrainz (artist/album names) + covers (Google, Amazon, last.fm OR Discogs) + lyrics (several choice)		Ja MusicBrainz (audio print) + covers (Last.fm)	- With some plugins only	- Only convert first letter uppercase	Nein cover and metadata (plugins - no options) + BPM detection (built-in)	Ja From path only. MusicBrainz, CDDB, cover search plugins	- Probably with plugins	Nein		Ja NOT configurable. No choices displayed. Not handy.	Ja MusicBrainz, Filename	- MusicBrainz but seems outdated
Scrobbler
Last.fm		Ja		Ja	Ja plugin	Ja plugin	Ja plugin	Ja plugin	Ja plugin	Ja			Ja plugin
Libre.fm		Ja		Nein	Ja plugin	Ja plugin	Nein	Ja plugin	Nein	Ja			Nein maybe a plugin
Internet
Lyrics		Ja many sites		Ja many sites	- ==> TBD !!!	- Lyrics Fly only (does not work well)		- Only on a separate window	Ja	Ja			Ja	Ja
Biography		Ja last.fm		Ja many sites incl. wikipedia, last.fm, ...	Ja last.fm	Nein		Nein	Ja	Ja wikipedia			Ja Wikipedia	Ja wikipedia
Photos		- only one from biography		Ja	Nein	Nein		Nein	Nein	- Only one from biography			Ja	- Only one from biography
Online sources
Online radio		Ja		Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja plugin	Ja	Nein			Ja	Ja	Ja
Podcasts		Ja	Ja	Nein	Ja	Nein	Ja plugin	Ja	Nein	Ja Balado		Ja	Ja	Ja
Jamendo		Ja		Ja	Ja plugin	Ja plugin	Nein	Nein	Nein	Ja plugin			Ja	Nein
Magnatune		Ja		Ja	Ja plugin	Nein	Nein	Nein	Nein	Ja plugin			Ja	Nein
Last.fm		Nein		Ja	Ja	Nein	Ja	Nein	Nein	Ja			Ja	Ja
Libre.fm		Nein		Nein	Ja	Nein	Nein	Nein	Nein	Nein			Nein	Nein
Others				icecast, somaFM			Plugins: eMusic, Ubuntu One, Amazon, Internet Archive, Miro						Librivox.org, Amazon
Andere
Plugins		Nein		Nein	Ja Most features are plugins	Ja		Ja	Ja	Ja			Ja	- Plugin system not very stable
Visualisations		Nein		Ja	Nein	Nein		Nein	Nein	Ja plugin			Nein	Ja
Karaoke		Nein		Nein	Nein	Ja plugin	Nein	Nein	Ja	Nein		Nein	Nein	Nein
Exclusive		Configurable Web links, commands and "copy To". Configurable shortcuts.		Wii Remote control, Transcoder	Add. 3rd plugins exist. Check website. Not always easy to install.		Video, BPM computing (plugin), import Rhythmbox, AmaroK, iTunes (plugin), Audio books (plugin),	Regex-based search. Tag editing allows to edit all kind of tags, though not that user-friendly.	Interface highly customizable. ReplayGain analysis.	?
Global shortcuts		Gnome Multimédia shortcuts		Gnome multimedia shortcuts OR configurable shortcuts	==> TBD !!!	Gnome multimedia shortcuts (plugin)	Multimedia shortcuts (plugin - not reviewed yet ==> TBD)	Gnome multimedia shortcuts	Configurable, homemade	?			"Win"+ shortcuts by default. Configurable. Did not manage to make multimedia keyboard to work.	"Win"+ shortcuts by default. Configurable. Did not manage to make multimedia keyboard to work.
Ubuntu (gnome) integration		Ja		Ja OR Custom OSD	Ja	Nein Custom OSD		- No OSD, but appears in Volume control (plugin)	- No OSD, but appears in Volume control	Nein Custom OSD			Ja OR Custom OSD	Nein Custom OSD
Other systems
Windows		Nein	Ja	Ja	Nein	- dev	- beta-quality technology preview	Ja	Nein	Nein	Ja	Ja	- with KDE for Windows (dev)	- with KDE for Windows (dev)
macOS		Nein	Ja	Ja	Nein	- dev	- beta-quality technology preview	Ja	Nein	Nein	Ja	Ja	- no official support	Nein
Technische Daten
License		GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	MIT	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL	GNU GPL
Programming language		C++ (wxWidgets)	C++, Python	C++ (Qt)	C	Python (GTK+)	Mono C# (Gtk#)	Python (GTK+)	Perl	Python	Java	Java	C++ (Qt)	C++ (Qt)
Database		Sqlite (~/.guayadeque/guayadeque.db)	Sqlite (~/.xbmc/userdata/Database/MyMusic7.db)	Sqlite (~/.config/Clementine/clementine.db)	XML (~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml)	Exaile's custom binary file (~/.local/share/exaile/music.db)	Sqlite (~/.config/banshee_1/banshee.db)	Custom, non-relational binary file (~/.quodlibet/songs)	Custom INI/Tab separated file (~/.config/gmusicbrowser/gmbrc)	Undefined, maybe "proprietary" binary file ? (~/.config/listen/songs.db)	XML (~/.jajuk/collection.xml)	XML (~/.atunes/repository.xml)	Sqlite (default) (~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/collection.db) or MySQL (on demand)	MySQL or Sqlite (~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/collection.db)
Static Playlists		in database (how?)												XSPF (XML) in ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/playlists/
Dynamic Playlists		N/A
Smart Playlists		in database (how ?)
Engine		gstreamer		gstreamer	gstreamer	gstreamer. What is "Unified" one ? ==> TBD !!!	gstreamer		gstreamer OR mpg321/ogg123/flac123/amixer OR mplayer			mplayer for all environments, xine for Linux systems	gstreamer	xine
id3 library		TagLib		TagLib	N/A	==> TBD !!!	taglib-sharp		homemade (done by gmusicbrowser author)			JAudiotagger	==> TBD !!!	TagLib
Distribution
Ubuntu software-center		Ja	Nein But a PPA exists on official website	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja Default application	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Nein But a debian package exists on official website	Ja	Ja Using a PPA: http://raphael.camus.free.fr/wiki/index.php?title=Amarok
Ubuntu one-click install		apt://guayadeque		apt://clementine	apt://rhythmbox	apt://exaile	apt://banshee	apt://quodlibet	apt://gmusicbrowser	apt://listen	apt://jajuk		apt://amarok
External Information
Webseite		guayadeque.org	xbmc.org	clementine-player.org	gnome.org/...	exaile.org	banshee.fm	google.com/...	gmusicbrowser.org	listen-project.org	jajuk.info	atunes.org	kde.org/en	kde.org/en
Wikipedia			wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...		wikipedia.org/...		wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...	wikipedia.org/...
Ubuntu-fr		ubuntu-fr.org/...		ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...			ubuntu-fr.org/...	ubuntu-fr.org/...

User reviews and comments

blewbubbles on 2019-07-25 17:40:01
rated Quod Libet: Gesamtwertung 5/5
Mike Timberlake on 2013-04-30 08:52:45
rated XBMC: Gesamtwertung 5/5
Roel Telmo on 2012-06-24 07:27:44
Nice one! Try this for rhythmbox equalizer! roelpaulo.com/...
Quinn James on 2012-06-12 21:02:39
rated Banshee: GUI 3/5
Would be much better if it could tell, in any perceptible way, when I've deleted a file. That's a major limitation.
Quinn James on 2012-06-12 21:01:45
rated Exaile: Gesamtwertung 4/5
Quinn James on 2012-06-12 21:01:33
rated Rhythmbox: Gesamtwertung 3/5
Quinn James on 2012-06-12 21:00:39
rated Clementine: Gesamtwertung 3/5
Does what it says it does, but not very full-featured and a bit awkward to navigate.
Quinn James on 2012-06-12 20:56:38
rated Quod Libet: Gesamtwertung 5/5
Despite a few limitations (would prefer properly dynamic playlists and easier ID3 editing) this is the best I've tried by far.
Quinn James on 2012-06-12 20:55:03
rated Amarok 2.x: Gesamtwertung 2/5
Simply too slow to be practical for me.
Raphael Camus on 2012-06-06 23:45:11
rated Listen: Gesamtwertung 4/5
Good player. Unfortunately latest version was released in 2010 ...
Raphael Camus on 2012-06-06 22:07:45
rated Banshee: Gesamtwertung 3/5
Raphael Camus on 2012-06-06 22:06:55
rated gmusicbrowser: Gesamtwertung 3/5
Good player with highly configurable interface. Good tag modification interface but missing auto-tag tool.
Raphael Camus on 2012-06-05 23:28:35
rated aTunes: Gesamtwertung 2/5
A good try but has a poor interface and lacks some major features to me.
arcorreia on 2012-05-11 22:23:36
rated Amarok 1.4: Gesamtwertung 5/5
Raphael Camus on 2011-10-20 15:01:17
rated Clementine: Gesamtwertung 4/5
Good player, originally from AmaroK 1.4 (my prefered one at the time - and still)
Raphael Camus on 2011-10-20 09:47:56
rated Exaile: Gesamtwertung 3/5
Nice player but yet missing basic features.
Raphael Camus on 2011-10-19 17:12:42
rated Rhythmbox: Gesamtwertung 3/5
Good music player with all basic features. Easy to use. Good choice for those who do not need advanced features such as tag writing. 3rd party plugins are not always easy to install.
Raphael Camus on 2011-10-19 00:22:50
rated Guayadeque: Gesamtwertung 5/5
Seralive on 2011-10-12 00:29:11
rated Banshee: Gesamtwertung 4/5
Cygniapolis on 2011-09-28 04:44:50
rated Clementine: Gesamtwertung 4/5

see older comments