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.
General
| Name | Author | First public release | Latest stable version | Cost | Software license | Framework used | Written in |
| AIMP | AIMP DevTeam | BASS audio library | Delphi | ||||
| Amarok | Mark Kretschmann | via Phonon: GStreamer, xine, MPlayer, VLC, DirectShow, QuickTime | C++ | ||||
| aTunes | Alex Aranda et al. | Java | |||||
| Audacious | Audacious Development Team | XMMS based | C, C++ | ||||
| Banshee | Aaron Bockover | GStreamer | C# | ||||
| BTR Amp | BTR Labs | February 13, 2020 | 15.1 | ||||
| BZR Player | aargirakis | 2.0.82 | C++ | ||||
| Clementine | Clementine Team | GStreamer | C++ | ||||
| cmus | Timo Hirvonen | C | |||||
| Cog | Vincent Spader | Objective-C | |||||
| DeaDBeeF | Oleksiy Yakovenko | August 2009 | 1.9.6 / November 7, 2023 | C, C++, Objective-C, Assembly language | |||
| Exaile | Adam Olsen | GStreamer | Python | ||||
| Ecoute | Louka Desroziers & Julien Sagot | 3.0.8 | AV Foundation & QuickTime | Objective-C | |||
| Flash MP3 Player | Reality Software | 1.00 | |||||
| foobar2000 | Peter Pawlowski | , BSD | C++ | ||||
| Guayadeque Music Player | Juan Rios, Tiago T Barrionuevo | 0.7.5 | GStreamer | C++ | |||
| iTunes | Apple Inc. | QuickTime | |||||
| JRiver Media Center | JRiver, Inc. | JRiver code | C++ | ||||
| JuK | Scott Wheeler | C++ | |||||
| MediaMonkey Standard | Ventis Media Inc. | Delphi, C | |||||
| MediaMonkey Gold | Ventis Media Inc. | Delphi, C | |||||
| MediaMonkey Lifetime | Ventis Media Inc. | ||||||
| Groove Music | Microsoft | ||||||
| Mpxplay | Mpxplay | C | |||||
| Music on Console | Damian Pietras | C | |||||
| Music Player Daemon | Warren Dukes | C | |||||
| MusicBee | Steven Mayall | BASS audio library | Visual Basic.NET | ||||
| musikCube | Casey Langen | ||||||
| Napster | William Christopher Gorog | ||||||
| Quod Libet | Quod Libet Team | GStreamer | Python PyGTK | ||||
| Rdio | Rdio Inc | Microsoft Windows: 1.12.0.0 WP 8+ : 4.0.5.0 iOS: 3.0.3 | |||||
| Rhapsody | RealNetworks | ||||||
| Rhythmbox | Colin Walters | GStreamer | C | ||||
| Sayonara Player | Michael Lugmair | 1.5.1-stable5 / 29 August 2019 | GStreamer | C++ | |||
| Songbird | POTI Inc. | GStreamer | |||||
| Sonic Visualiser | Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London | 3.1.1 | |||||
| Sonique | Media Science | 1.96 | |||||
| Spotify | Spotify LTD | ||||||
| Style Jukebox | Digital Geek LTD | C# | |||||
| Video.js | Brightcove, Inc. | 2010 | JavaScript, HTML5 | ||||
| VLC Player | 1996 | C, C++,,... | |||||
| Wax | Jeffrey Barish | 1.0.4 | GStreamer | Python | |||
| Winamp | Nullsoft | Wasabi | C/C++ | ||||
| XMMS | XMMS Team | original | C | ||||
| XMPlay | Un4seen Developments | 3.8 | 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 | |||||||||
| Amarok | |||||||||
| aTunes | |||||||||
| Audacious | |||||||||
| Audion | |||||||||
| Banshee | |||||||||
| BTR Amp | |||||||||
| cmus | |||||||||
| Cog | |||||||||
| Clementine | |||||||||
| DeaDBeeF | |||||||||
| Ecoute | |||||||||
| Exaile | |||||||||
| foobar2000 | |||||||||
| Guayadeque Music Player | |||||||||
| Groove Music | |||||||||
| iTunes | |||||||||
| JRiver Media Center | |||||||||
| MediaMonkey | |||||||||
| MPXPLAY | |||||||||
| Music Player Daemon | |||||||||
| MusicBee | |||||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | |||||||||
| musikCube | |||||||||
| Quod Libet | |||||||||
| Rdio | |||||||||
| Rhapsody | |||||||||
| Rhythmbox | |||||||||
| Sayonara Player | |||||||||
| Songbird | |||||||||
| Sonique | |||||||||
| Spotify | |||||||||
| Style Jukebox | |||||||||
| Wax | |||||||||
| Winamp | |||||||||
| XMMS | |||||||||
| XMPlay | |||||||||
| Zinf | |||||||||
| Audio player | Windows | macOS | Linux | iOS | Android | BSD Unix | Solaris | Other Unix | DOS |
Features
| Audio player | ReplayGain | Tag mass | Tag flexible | Time stretch | Pitch shift | A-B repeat | Bookmark | Auto resume | Shutdown on play complete | Archive ability |
| AIMP | ||||||||||
| Amarok | ||||||||||
| Audacious | ||||||||||
| Audion | ||||||||||
| BTR Amp | ? | ? | ? | |||||||
| cmus | ||||||||||
| Cog | ||||||||||
| Clementine | ||||||||||
| Exaile | ||||||||||
| foobar2000 | ||||||||||
| iTunes | ||||||||||
| JRiver Media Center | ||||||||||
| JuK | ||||||||||
| MediaMonkey | ||||||||||
| MPXPLAY | ||||||||||
| MusicBee | ||||||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | ||||||||||
| musikCube | ||||||||||
| Quod Libet | ||||||||||
| Rhapsody | ||||||||||
| Rhythmbox | ||||||||||
| Sayonara Player | ||||||||||
| Sonique | ||||||||||
| Spotify | ||||||||||
| Wax | ||||||||||
| Winamp | ||||||||||
| XMMS | ||||||||||
| XMPlay | ||||||||||
| Zinf | ||||||||||
| Audio player | ReplayGain | Tag mass | Tag flexible | Time stretch | Pitch shift | A-B repeat | Bookmark | Auto resume | Shutdown on play complete | Archive ability |
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.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 | Audio [Video Interleave|AVI] | ASF | QuickTime | Ogg | OGM | Matroska | MP4 | MPEG-21 | NUT | FLV |
| AIMP | ||||||||||
| Amarok | ||||||||||
| Audacious | ||||||||||
| Audion | ||||||||||
| cmus | ||||||||||
| Cog | ||||||||||
| foobar2000 | ||||||||||
| JuK | ||||||||||
| JRiver Media Center | ||||||||||
| MediaMonkey | ||||||||||
| MOC | ||||||||||
| MPXPLAY | ||||||||||
| MusicBee | ||||||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | ||||||||||
| musikCube | ||||||||||
| Rhapsody | ||||||||||
| Rhythmbox | ||||||||||
| Sayonara Player | ||||||||||
| Sonique | ||||||||||
| Winamp | ||||||||||
| XMMS | ||||||||||
| Zinf | ||||||||||
| 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 | smil/smi | SVG | MIDI | MIDI | MIDI | MIDI | MIDI | NSF | SPC | PSF |
| AIMP | ||||||||||||||
| Amarok | ||||||||||||||
| Audacious | ||||||||||||||
| Audion | ||||||||||||||
| cmus | ||||||||||||||
| Cog | ||||||||||||||
| foobar2000 | ||||||||||||||
| JuK | ||||||||||||||
| JRiver Media Center | ||||||||||||||
| MediaMonkey | ||||||||||||||
| MPXPLAY | ||||||||||||||
| MusicBee | ||||||||||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | ||||||||||||||
| musikCube | ||||||||||||||
| Rhapsody | ||||||||||||||
| Rhythmbox | ||||||||||||||
| Sayonara Player | ||||||||||||||
| Sonique | ||||||||||||||
| XMMS | ||||||||||||||
| Zinf | ||||||||||||||
| Audio player | Flash | RealPix | QuickTime Video Effects in mov | HTML+TIME | smil/smi | SVG | MIDI | MIDI | MIDI | MIDI | MIDI | 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 | MMS | Podcasting | Other |
| AIMP | |||||
| Amarok | UPNP | ||||
| Audacious | |||||
| Audion | |||||
| cmus | |||||
| Cog | |||||
| foobar2000 | |||||
| JuK | |||||
| JRiver Media Center | |||||
| MediaMonkey | |||||
| MusicBee | |||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | |||||
| musikCube | |||||
| Music Player Daemon | Music Player Daemon | ||||
| Rhapsody | |||||
| Rhythmbox | UPNP | ||||
| Sayonara Player | |||||
| Sonique | |||||
| XMMS | |||||
| Zinf | |||||
| Audio player | HTTP | RTSP | MMS | Podcasting | Other |
Playlist format ability
Information about which playlist formats the players understand.| Audio player | asx, wax, wvx | M3U | pls | XSPF | CUE | SMIL |
| AIMP | ||||||
| Amarok | ||||||
| Audacious | ||||||
| Audion | ||||||
| Clementine | ||||||
| cmus | ||||||
| Cog | ||||||
| Exaile | ||||||
| foobar2000 | ||||||
| iTunes | ||||||
| JRiver Media Center | ||||||
| JuK | ||||||
| MediaMonkey | ||||||
| MPXPLAY | ||||||
| MusicBee | ||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | ||||||
| musikCube | ||||||
| Quod Libet | ||||||
| Rhapsody | ||||||
| Rhythmbox | ||||||
| Sayonara Player | ||||||
| Sonique | ||||||
| Spotify | ||||||
| Winamp | ||||||
| XMMS | ||||||
| Zinf | ||||||
| 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 | |||||||
| Amarok | |||||||
| Audacious | |||||||
| Audion | |||||||
| cmus | |||||||
| Cog | |||||||
| foobar2000 | |||||||
| iTunes | |||||||
| JRiver Media Center | |||||||
| JuK | |||||||
| MediaMonkey | |||||||
| Mixxx | |||||||
| MPXPLAY | |||||||
| MusicBee | |||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | |||||||
| musikCube | |||||||
| Quod Libet | |||||||
| Rhapsody | |||||||
| Rhythmbox | |||||||
| Sayonara Player | |||||||
| Sonique | |||||||
| XMMS | |||||||
| Zinf | |||||||
| Audio player | ID3v1 | ID3v2 | APEv2 tag | Vorbis comment | Cue sheet | CD-Text | WAVE chunks |
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.