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I've been thinking about switching to Ubuntu full time, but there are still some programs left behind that I haven't found any equivalent to yet. Does anyone know of a music player similar to Foobar2000 (I've read it doesn't handle well in WINE)?

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  • 1
    what exactly don't you wanna miss from foobar2000?
    – type
    May 19, 2011 at 21:55
  • 4
    foobar2000 works better in wine than other windows-migrated software: I have tested (and they still work) specialized features like tags editing with plugins, lyrics download/display/embedding, converting audio files, detailed media library access with foo_facets. the way it looks is not that good , it's true, but there are tweaks that can be made that i didn't tried... for common use I don't like running Wine and therefore use DeaDBeef (see answer below)
    – user47206
    Apr 3, 2012 at 20:58
  • update: foobar works fine in wine, and even looks good - especially with improvements mentioned below (more on that here)
    – user47206
    Jun 24, 2013 at 22:41

11 Answers 11

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DeadBeef is actively developed and in a way that brings it closer and closer to Foobar2000.

(what it lacks in Foobar2000-features (numbers of addons) it compensates in being light and up-to-the-point - the most straightforward and non-bloated music player/handler I have seen until now in Ubuntu).

With File browser plugin:

enter image description here

With Infobar plugin:

enter image description here

to install it:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alex-p/deadbeef
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install deadbeef

Or download as .deb and install (i686 or amd64)

To install plugins, wich are .so files, they should be put into a certain folder.

~/.local/lib/deadbeef/

or: /usr/local/lib/deadbeef/

For the static portable version it is deadbeef-versionnumber/plugins

Considering problems of incompatibility and other issues in using the plugins, see this related answer

To convert audio files, see this question+answer.

Considering memory use, Deadbeef is much lighter than other players that might be considered foobar-like.

The latest versions (now 0.6.2) bring it even closer to foobar by the 'Designer mode' feature (similar to the layout editing mode in foobar) by which built-in or plugin features (file browser, infobar etc) are integrated to the interface:

enter image description here

enter image description here

File conversion is now very close to Foobar2000's - see the link above on conversion.

Already mentioned in answers, a great alternative is Clementine.

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I like Clementine Install Clementine.

Exaile Install Exaile is an alternative. Look for Clementine in Ubuntu software Center

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Why no one mention DeadBeef http://deadbeef.sourceforge.net/?

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  • superb handling of playlists and of media library with a special file browser
    – user47206
    Apr 3, 2012 at 19:34
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gmusicbrowserInstall Gmusicbrowser with Software Center: A customizable open-source jukebox for large collections

… was heavily inspired by other feature-rich media libraries like Foobar2000, Amarok, and Quod Libet. It comes with multiple layouts and themes that borrow from or try to emulate these or other popular music players.

You can install it via Software Center or the latest version from its official repository:

wget http://gmusicbrowser.org/squentin.key.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository 'deb http://gmusicbrowser.org/deb ./'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gmusicbrowser gmusicbrowser-art

my layout

main features

  • made with big (> 10,000 songs) libraries in mind (currently developed with over 27,000 songs)
  • customizable window layouts (see layouts documentation)
  • artist/album lock: easily restrict playlist to current artist/album
  • easy access to songs related to the currently playing song
    • songs from the same album
    • album(s) from the same artist(s)
    • songs with same title (other versions, covers, …)
  • support ogg vorbis, mp3 and flac files (and mpc/ape/m4a with gstreamer, mplayer or mpv)
  • simple mass-tagging and mass-renaming
  • tray icon, with a very customizable tip window, which can be used to control the player
  • very customizable SongTree widget for a pretty list of songs (example))
  • support multiple genres for a song
  • support multiple artists for each song by separating them with ', ' or ' & '
  • customizable labels can be set for each song (ex : bootleg, live, -'s favorites, …)
  • powerful search (nested conditions, can search any field using regular expression or fuzzy search)
  • customizable weighted random mode (based on rating, last time played, label, ...)
  • browse through pictures and pdf in the album's folder
  • The possibility to act as a icecast server, to listen to your music remotely (experimental)
  • plugin system, included plugins:
    • nowplaying (to update an external program when the playing song changes)
    • last.fm
    • find pictures
    • simple lyrics
    • artist or album info
    • customizable desktop widgets
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4

Try Guayadeque.

enter image description here

It is an extremely customizable music player, and should support most of the features you are looking for. I'm not sure if it will match foobar2000 100%, but at least it should fill the gap :)

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4

Wikipedia has a Comparison of audio player software which could be helpful.

Amarok seems to be a decent match functionality-wise, but it probably depends on which features are most important to you.

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Honestly, I've been in the same position as you for years, looking for a comparable music player to Foobar2K in linux...

MPD & GMPC is good, as is gmusicbrowser... clementine is coming along nicely, but nothing can take the place of foobar for me, and thankfully with the newer builds of wine nothing has too - try installing winepulse from the ppa here https://launchpad.net/~c-korn/+archive/ppa.

Listening to Foobar 1.1.7 on Natty right now, and it runs flawlessly :)

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  • That or you could look into Amarok, Banshee, or Rhythmbox
    – zkriesse
    Jul 13, 2011 at 4:35
  • 1
    daedbeef. as for Amarok, Banshee, or Rhythmbox, maybe having powerful new computers can be an obstacle against seeing that such players are excessively resource hungry and bloated considering what they do and what they ask (and considering the quality of other players like deadbeef, clementine or quod libet !)
    – user47206
    Apr 3, 2012 at 19:55
  • without media library foobar is as light as deadbeef. with media library still lighter than Exaile, Quod Libet, Amarok, Banshee, or Rhythmbox
    – user47206
    Nov 16, 2012 at 15:59
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Foobar 2000 itself in Wine:

  • Foobar2000 was always related in my mind to the use of a lot of addons; but only when monitoring a large media library accessed through the 'Album List' or the 'Facets' addons does it becomes a bit heavy through Wine
    enter image description here

The image above that shows the use of 92MB of RAM is related to the use of a 270 GB media library. Otherwise, Foobar2000 in Wine is very light even with many addons.

But even in this case it looks lighter than very recommendable Ubuntu native players and it is not heavier than it used to be in Windows with the same addons installed.

And what about it's version without manually added addons and naked interface ? It looks extremely light!

enter image description here

Also, considering the looks of Foobar in Wine, a good method of improving this is:

1. enable font smoothing - fire one after the other these lines in Terminal:

wget http://files.polosatus.ru/winefontssmoothing_en.sh

bash winefontssmoothing_en.sh

(select third option in terminal)

2. install a windows msstyle file in Wine/Configure Wine/Desktop Integration enter image description here

3. increase the screen resolution in Wine/Configure Wine/Graphics enter image description here

It comes to smth like this (but colors and fonts are customizable): enter image description here

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Don't forget Quod Libet (disclaimer: I'm one of the current devs)...

Album Browsing with search

It's popular with a lot of ex-Foobar users possibly due to the advanced tag editing features (including multi-tag support) and also complex searching with with regular expressions, boolean algebra, numeric aggregation etc.

Tag renaming

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2

Maybe you are happy with audacious Install audacious a lightweight skinnable player that can be extended with many plugins.

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Great news! As of version 3 of Wine, Winamp 5.x is working perfectly on Linux! (except visualizations) Previous versions of Wine did not supported Winamp's Media Library, my favorite Winamp feature. Now it works excellent!

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