Command line audio players

Question

What are popular audio players for the command line?

• How to play a single sound file?
• Are there command line players that also index the music library like Banshee, Exaile, etc.?

Answer 1

I have compiled a complete list of commandline and other lightweight tools for linux. It also have list of music players too, check it out Command Line Tools.

Here is my personal favorite CMUS

Answer 2

MOC

With MOC we have a powerful commandline player that is capable of browsing directories, generates playlist can can even be extended with plugins, e.g. for lastFM streams.

Answer 3

mpd (daemon) + ncmpcpp (client/interface):

MPD is able to scan a directory and create a music library from its ID3 tags. Ncmpcpp has a library view which lets you add songs/albums/artists to the current playlist, search for tags and edit them in place.

Answer 4

mpg123

mpg123 is a fast, free and console MPEG audio player software program for UNIX and Linux operating systems. mpg123 was ported to the Windows platform using Cygwin and MinGW. It supports MPEG-1 and -2, layers 1, 2 and 3. Its most common use is to play MP3 files. It also comes as a Winamp plugin.

Answer 5

I like mplayer. It's very basic player, but sometimes I find it very useful (for example, I can specify it manually the audio driver I want it to use).

To play a file: mplayer file

As far as I know it cannot manage playlists.

Answer 6

ogg123 (probably already installed)

ogg123 reads Ogg Vorbis audio files and decodes them to the devices specified on the command line. By default, ogg123 writes to the standard sound device, but output can be sent to any number of devices. Files can be read from the file system, or URLs can be streamed via HTTP. If a directory is given, all of the files in it or its subdirectories will be played.

Answer 7

VLC has a command line interface. MPlayer has also a command line interface, but I am not sure if it can play audio as well.

Answer 8

mpg123 (http://www.mpg123.org/)

it's in the universe repositories, supports playlists and streaming from web-sources. When startet with -C you can also skip tracks in playlist etc. edit: not sure about ogg support.

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music123

A command-line shell for programs like mpg123 and ogg123, music123 plays a variety of sound files using a mpg123/ogg123-like interface. With all the Recommends installed, music123 plays wav, mp3 and ogg files. By simply changing the config file, music123 can play any sound file you have a player for.

(If you install a recent version of vorbis-tools, music123 will handle Ogg Flac and Ogg Speex files too.)

Answer 9

cmus

Plugins Input: Ogg Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, Musepack, WavPack, WAV, AAC, MP4, and everything supported by ffmpeg (WMA, APE, MKA, TTA, SHN, ...) and libmodplug Output: PulseAudio, ALSA, OSS, RoarAudio, libao, aRts, Sun, and WaveOut (Windows)

http://cmus.sourceforge.net/#features

Answer 10

I've used mp3blaster in the past. It supports Playlists, Groups, Repeat, Search. Not many special features.