Comparison of audio player software Informatics & Computer 482 regular-tuition-program.pts-ptn.net

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 which can only play audio files. Players capable of video playback are included under comparison of video player software, even if they are primarily well known for audio playback.

1 General
2 Operating system requirement
3 Features
- 3.1 Extended features
4 Audio format ability
5 Container format ability
6 Scalable, composite and emulation format abilities
7 Protocol abilities
8 Playlist format ability
9 Metadata ability
10 Optical media ability
11 See also
12 References

General

Name	Author	First public release	stable version	Cost	Software license	Based framework	Written in
AIMP	AIMP DevTeam	02006-08-08August 8, 2006	3.20 (Build 1165) (December 21, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-12-21) ^[1]) [±]	Free	Proprietary	Bass audio library (decoder)	Delphi
Amarok	Mark Kretschmann	02003-06-01June 1, 2003	2.7 (January 18, 2013; 2 months ago (2013-01-18)) [±]	Free	GPL	via Phonon: GStreamer, xine, MPlayer, VLC, DirectShow, QuickTime	C++
aTunes	Alex Aranda et al.	02006-01-01January 1, 2006	3.0.5 (February 9, 2013; 48 days ago (2013-02-09)) [±]	Free	GPL		Java
Audacious	Audacious Development Team	02005-10-30October 30, 2005	3.3.4 (February 3, 2013; 54 days ago (2013-02-03)) [±]	Free	GPL		C, C++
Audion	Panic	01999-08-16August 16, 1999	3.0.2 August 22, 2002; 10 years ago (2002-08-22)	Free	Proprietary
Beep Media Player	Milosz Derezynski	02004-06-06June 6, 2004	0.9.7.1 (October 22, 2005; 7 years ago (2005-10-22)) [±]	Free	GPL		C
Clementine	Clementine Team	02011-03-01March 1, 2011	1.1.1 (November 19, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-11-19)) [±]	Free	GPL	GStreamer	C++
cmus	Timo Hirvonen	02005-01-18January 18, 2005	2.5.0 (November 7, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-11-07)) [±]	Free	GPL		C
Cog	Vincent Spader	02006-05-01May 1, 2006	0.07 (December 24, 2007; 5 years ago (2007-12-24)) [±]	Free	GPL		Objective-C
Exaile	Adam Olsen	02006-05-24May 24, 2006	3.3.1 (November 15, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-11-15)) [±]	Free	GPL	GStreamer	Python
Flash MP3 Player	Reality Software	02008-03-11March 11, 2008	1.00	Free	Proprietary
foobar2000	Peter Pawlowski	02002-11-29November 29, 2002	1.2.3 (February 13, 2013; 44 days ago (2013-02-13)) [±]^[2]	Free	Proprietary (core), BSD (SDK)		C++
G-Ear	Zsolt Szatmári	02012-04-01April 2012	1.3	Non-free US$2.99	Proprietary	AV Foundation, QuickTime (fallback)	Objective-C
JRiver Media Center	JRiver	01998-12-01December 1, 1998	18.0.106 (January 15, 2013)	Non-free US$49.98	Proprietary
JuK	Scott Wheeler	02003-02-01February 1, 2003	3.8 (August 1, 2012; 7 months ago (2012-08-01)^[3]) [±]	Free	GPL		C++
Listen Media Player	Mehdi Abaakouk	02006-03-04March 4, 2006	0.6.5 March 8, 2010; 3 years ago (2010-03-08)	Free	GPL	GStreamer	Python
MediaMonkey Standard	Ventis Media Inc.	02003-08-25August 25, 2003	4.0.7.1511 (November 12, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-11-12)) [±]	Free	Proprietary		Delphi, C
MediaMonkey Gold	Ventis Media Inc.	02003-08-25August 25, 2003	4.0.7.1511 (November 12, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-11-12)) [±]	Non-free US$24.95	Proprietary		Delphi, C
MediaMonkey Lifetime	Ventis Media Inc.	02003-08-25August 25, 2003	4.0.7.1511 (November 12, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-11-12)) [±]	Non-free US$49.95	Proprietary		Delphi, C
MPXPLAY	MPXPLAY	01998-01-01January 1, 1998	1.59 (August 1, 2012; 7 months ago (2012-08-01)) [±]	Free	GPL
Music on Console	Damian Pietras	02002-01-01January 1, 2002	2.4.4 (January 4, 2009; 4 years ago (2009-01-04)) [±]	Free	GPL		C
Music Player Daemon	Warren Dukes	02003-05-01May 1, 2003	0.17.3 (January 6, 2013; 2 months ago (2013-01-06)) [±]	Free	GPL		C
MusicBee	Steven Mayall	02008-12-04December 4, 2008	2.0.4663 October 10, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-10-10)	Free	Proprietary	Bass audio library	Visual Basic .NET
musikCube	Casey Langen	02005-01-01January 1, 2005	1.1 Final^[4] (March 23, 2012; 11 months ago (2012-03-23)) [±]	Free	BSD
Napster	William Christopher Gorog	02003-10-01October 1, 2003	4.6.3.4 (August 31, 2010; 2 years ago (2010-08-31)) [±]	Non-free US$9.95+	Proprietary
Quod Libet	Quod Libet Team	02004-11-08November 8, 2004	2.5 (December 19, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-12-19)) [±]	Free	GPL	GStreamer	Python
Rhapsody	RealNetworks	02003-01-01January 1, 2003	14.0 (16 October 2006) [±]	(subscription required)	Proprietary
Rhythmbox	Colin Walters	02004-04-01April 1, 2004	2.98 (September 30, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-09-30)) [±]	Free	GPL	GStreamer	C
Songbird	POTI Inc.	02006-02-08February 8, 2006	2.2.0, Build 2453 (February 4, 2013; 53 days ago (2013-02-04)) [±]	Free	GPL	GStreamer
Sonique	Media Science	01998-11-01November 1, 1998	1.96 (March 2002)	Free	Proprietary
Spotify	Spotify LTD	02008-01-012008	0.8.8.450 (March 20, 2013; 9 days ago (2013-03-20)) [±]	Non-free UK£9.99	Proprietary
Style Jukebox	Antiu M. Ionut Alexandru	02009-07-01July 1, 2009	0.6 (January 28, 2013; 60 days ago (2013-01-28)) [±]	Free	Proprietary		C#
XMMS	XMMS Team	01997-11-01November 1, 1997	1.2.11 (November 16, 2007; 5 years ago (2007-11-16)) [±]	Free	GPL	original	C
Zinf	Zinf Team	02002-04-01April 1, 2002	2.2.5 (February 17, 2004; 9 years ago (2004-02-17)) [±]	Free	GPL
Name	Author	First public release date	Stable version	Cost	Software license	Based framework	Written in

Operating system requirement

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	OS X	Linux	iOS	Android	BSD Unix	Solaris	Other Unix	DOS
AIMP	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	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
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	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Ecoute	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Exaile	Not yet officially	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
foobar2000	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
JRiver Media Center	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
JuK	Not yet officially^{[osnotes 1]}	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Listen Media Player	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
MediaMonkey	Yes	No	No	No	No	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	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
musikCube	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Quod Libet	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Rhapsody	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Rhythmbox	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	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
XMMS	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Zinf	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Audio player	Windows	OS X	Linux	iOS	Android	BSD Unix	Solaris	Other Unix	DOS

^ KDE on Windows Project - Part of kdemultimedia

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
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	No	Yes
foobar2000	No	Partial^[5]	Yes^{[featurenotes 3]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[5]	Yes
JRiver Media Center	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JuK	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes^{[featurenotes 4]}	?
Listen	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	?	?
MediaMonkey	Yes	Partial^[5]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[5]	Yes
MPXPLAY	Only sound output	?	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	Partial^[5]	?	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
Sonique	Partial^[5]	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	?	No
Spotify	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
XMMS	Partial^[5]	Partial^[5]	Yes	No	Partial^[5]	Yes	Yes	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)

Extended features

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^[6]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Amarok	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes^{[featurenotes 6]}	Yes	Yes	No	No
Audacious	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Audion	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
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	?	No	No	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes	Yes^[5]	No
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Partial^[5]	Yes	Partial^[5]	Yes
JuK	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Listen	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
JRiver Media Center	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
MediaMonkey	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[5]	Partial^[5]	Partial^[5]	Partial^[5]	Yes	Yes	?
MPXPLAY	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
MusicBee	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox	?	Partial^{[featurenotes 7]}	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	?
musikCube	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Quod Libet	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^{[featurenotes 8]}	Partial^{[featurenotes 8]}	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Rhapsody	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Rhythmbox	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Sonique	No	No	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	?
XMMS	Partial	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
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

^ Basic function with NMM
^ Context Browser uses CSS.
^ UIs may be switched. Shares Windows' themes by default. Additionally, a plugin (foo_looks) can skin foobar2000.
^ Using DCOP
^ 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.
^ Through plugin: http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Repeat+A+B?content=45993&PHPSESSID=a86dadfbbaf38573a7287e13947745e7
^ Paid version only
^ ^a ^b 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
Audio player	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^[7]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Amarok^[8]^[9] ^[10]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audacious	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
Audion	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	?
Clementine	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?	No	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
cmus	Yes	Yes^[11]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[11]	?	?	Yes^[11]	Yes	Yes^[11]	Yes^[11]	Yes	?
Cog	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Exaile	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	?	?	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	?
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[5]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JuK	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	?
Listen	Yes	Yes^{[audionotes 1]}	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?
Media Jukebox	Yes^{[audionotes 2]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
MediaMonkey	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Partial^[13]	Partial^[13]	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[5]	Partial^[5]	?
MPXPLAY	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	?
Music Player Daemon	Yes	Yes^[11]	Partial^[11]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[11]	Yes^[11]	Yes	Yes^[11]	Yes	Yes	Yes^[11]	Yes	?
MusicBee	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[7]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[7]	Yes	Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	?
musikCube	Yes	Partial^[13]	No	Yes	Partial^[13]	Partial^[13]	Partial^[13]	?	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	Partial^[13]	?
Quod Libet	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	?	Yes	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	?
Rhapsody	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	?
Rhythmbox	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	?	?	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	Yes^[12]	?
Sonique	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial^[13]	Partial^[13]	No	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	?
XMMS	Yes	Partial^[13]	Partial^[13]	Partial^[13]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes^[5]	?	Partial^[13]	Yes	No	Partial^[13]	Yes	?
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

^ Requires following fix: http://www.listen-project.org/ticket/722.
^ 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	No	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	Partial^[5]	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes^{[containernotes 1]}	Yes	?	?	Audio only
JuK	No	No	No	Vorbis only	No	No	No	?	?	?
Listen	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
Media Jukebox	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?
MediaMonkey	No	No	No	Vorbis only	No	No	No	?	?	?
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	Yes^[12]	?	?	?
Sonique	No^[13]	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	?	?	?
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

^ Native Matroska tag reading and writing

Scalable, composite and emulation format abilities

Audio player	Flash	RealPix	QuickTime Video Effects in mov	HTML+TIME(+VML)	Silverlight	smil/smi	SVG	MIDI(smf)	MIDI(kar)	MIDI(xmf)	MIDI(rmi)	MIDI(xmi)	NSF	SPC	PSF
AIMP	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Amarok	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Audacious	No	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	No
Cog	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
foobar2000	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes (plugin)	?	?	Yes (plugin)	Yes (plugin)	Yes (plugin)	Yes (plugin)	Yes (plugin)
JuK	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Listen	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Media Jukebox	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
MediaMonkey	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	Yes (Winamp plugin)	Yes (Winamp plugin)	Yes (Winamp plugin)
MPXPLAY	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
MusicBee	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?^[12]	Yes	?	?	?
Musicmatch Jukebox	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
musikCube	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Rhapsody	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Rhythmbox	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Sonique	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
XMMS	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Zinf	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Audio player	Flash	RealPix	QuickTime Video Effects in mov	HTML+TIME(+VML)	Silverlight	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	?	?	?	?	?
Listen	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
Media Jukebox	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
MediaMonkey	Yes	No	No	Yes^{[protocolnotes 3]}	?
MusicBee	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	?	?	?	?
musikCube	Yes	No	No	?	?
Rhapsody	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Rhythmbox	Yes	Yes	No	Partial^{[protocolnotes 4]}	UPNP
Sonique	Yes	?	?	?	?
XMMS	Yes	?	?	?	?
Zinf	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Audio player	HTTP	RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT)	MMS (MMSU, MMST)	Podcasting	Other

^ Only WMA files are playable by foobar2000 through an RTSP connection. RealMedia, AAC, etc. are not supported.
^ 3rd party plugin for 0.9 allows reading RSS 2.0 feeds as playlists. No subscription/automatic update features.
^ Present in version 3.0 currently going through Alpha Testing.
^ 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
AIMP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Amarok	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audacious	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audion	?	?	?	?
cmus	No	Yes	Yes	No
Cog	?	?	?	?
Exaile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JuK	?	?	?	?
Listen	?	?	?	?
Media Jukebox	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
MediaMonkey	?	Yes	?	No
MPXPLAY	?	?	?	?
MusicBee	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox	?	?	?	?
musikCube	?	?	?	?
Quod Libet	Partial	Yes	Yes	No
Rhapsody	?	?	?	?
Rhythmbox	?	?	Yes	?
Sonique	?	Yes	Yes	?
XMMS	?	Yes	Yes	?
Zinf	?	?	?	No
Audio player	asx/wax/wvx	M3U	pls	XSPF

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	?
Amarok	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes	Yes^{[metadatanotes 2]}	?	Yes
Audacious	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Audion	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	?	?
cmus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Cog	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[metadatanotes 3]}	Yes
JuK	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	?	?	?
Listen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
Media Jukebox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
MediaMonkey	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	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	?	?	?
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

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Understanding of ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2 and Vorbis comments is handled by an external library called TagLib.
^ Yes, but buggy.
^ 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
Audio player	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
Media Jukebox	Yes	No	No
MediaMonkey	Yes	No	No
MusicBee	Yes	?	?
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	No	No
musikCube	Yes	No	No
Rhapsody	Yes	No	No
Rhythmbox	Yes	No	No
Sonique	Yes	No	No
XMMS	Yes	No	No
Zinf	Yes	No	No
Audio player	CD	DVD-Audio	HDCD
Audio player	Audio

References

^ AIMP 3.20(Build 1165) Changelog(Russian). Retrieved January 24, 2012.
^ "foobar2000". February 13, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
^ http://kde.org/announcements/4.9/
^ http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/musikCube,0301-1536.html
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z Plugin available.
^ Through use of the Advanced Tag Editor.
^ ^a ^b ^c Available through a Winamp plugin.
^ 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.
^ "Amarok/GettingStarted/Download/Windows". Retrieved 24 February 2013.
^ "VLC playback Features". VideoLAN Organization. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Available through a FFmpeg plugin.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al Available through a Gstreamer plugin.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation

Media player software

Freeware or free software

Microsoft Windows	Adobe Media Player AIMP CrystalPlayer Dell MediaDirect foobar2000 GOM Player jetAudio KMPlayer MadCat Media Browser Media Go Media Player Classic MediaMonkey Mod4Win Mpxplay MusicBee MusikCube InterActual Player QuickTime Quintessential Player QuuxPlayer Style Jukebox Winamp

Linux	Amarok Baudline Beep Media Player cmus Gnome Music Player Client Helix JuK Kaffeine LinuxMCE Miro Mpg123 Muine Music Player Daemon Music on Console Noatun Ogle DVD Player Rhythmbox Totem Xine XMMS XMMS2

Multi-platform	Amarok Audacious Banshee Boxee Clementine DivX Player Exaile ffplay iTunes KMPlayer Miro MPlayer Nightingale Plex (software) QuickTime RealPlayer Songbird VLC media player XBMC Zinf

Commercial or bundled

Microsoft Windows	Connect Player Iriver plus 3 JRiver Media Center PowerDVD TotalMedia Theatre SonicStage WinDVD Windows Media Center Windows Media Player Yahoo! Music Jukebox

OS X	Centerstage DVD Player Front Row Peel

Mobile	Pocket Tunes CoreAVC CorePlayer Core Pocket Media Player doubleTwist RealPlayer TuneWiki Winamp

Lists

Video players Audio players Portable media players Personal video recorders

Home theater PC software and related devices

Windows	Beyond TV DVBViewer GB-PVR MediaPortal JRiver Media Center ShowShifter Windows Media Center

OS X	Centerstage Front Row ITheater

Linux distributions	Element OS GeeXboX LinuxMCE Mythbuntu MythDora XBMC Live MythTV OpenELEC Video Disk Recorder Ubuntu TV

Cross-platform	Plex (Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Windows Phone) SageTV (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) XBMC (Android, Apple TV, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, MeeGo, Raspberry Pi, Windows, Xbox)

Set-top boxes/ Digital media receivers	Apple TV Boxee Box DBox2 Dreambox HP MediaSmart Connect Hauppauge MediaMVP Inview Technology Google TV Nexus Q Netgear Digital Entertainer Roku TiVo Vu+ WD TV Windows Media Center Extender

Related hardware	ATI Theater Cards Elgato EyeTV devices TechniSat DVB Adapters TerraTec DVB Adapters Hauppauge Computer Works WinTV PVR Cards HDHomeRun Remote control Touchscreen Mac Mini Nvidia TV-Tuner Cards Quiet PC

System manufacturers	Alienware Apple Inc. Dell Gateway Hewlett-Packard Intel Logitech Interact-TV Shuttle Inc. Sony VAIO series Toshiba Velocity Micro Zotac

Related articles	10-foot user interface Comparison of video player software Comparison of audio player software Digital media receiver HD media player Home cinema Home theater PC Internet television Media server Portable media player Set-top box Hybrid IPTV Smart TV Video player

Comparison of audio player software

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