5 ms·

Brings up a great question: What are the alternatives to Winamp? (No iTunes please)

jbk 13y ago
Tomahawk. http://www.tomahawk-player.org/ http://www.tomahawk-player.org/ Foobar2k. http://www.foobar2000.org/ http://www.foobar2000.org/
- srgseg 13y ago
  Thanks for the Tomahawk recommendation - it was very nearly what I was looking for. Unfortunately it does not support the Mac Play/Pause/etc keys. I'm staggered that such an otherwise well put together application lacks such basic functionality.
  - InnocentB 13y ago
    Support for this was added a couple years ago: https://github.com/tomahawk-player/tomahawk/commit/5cd9e49629b920d0d48c884bb2a827ef75a1f2f7 https://github.com/tomahawk-player/tomahawk/commit/5cd9e4962... I think you ought to file a bug, because it's supposed to work.
mindcrime 13y ago
XMMS - http://www.xmms.org/ http://www.xmms.org/
- Aardwolf 13y ago
  Indeed. I still use the 100% perfect XMMS 1. Audacity and XMMS 2 both were a lot worse for some reason (like slower, weird bugs, needlessly unneeded server/client model, ...) In XMMS 1, you can have 10000s of songs in the playlist (i.e. your whole harddisk), and jump to any of them immediately by just pressing the "j" key and typing part of its name, and it remains blazing fast. Not sure how Winamp was these days. I remember it was good at version 2, then starting from version 5 ("2 + 3"), it became bloated.
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    I also use XMMS as my primary media player. It "just works" and I don't need a lot of fancy stuff in a music player. XMMS for music, and VLC for video, that's pretty much all I need.
    - stass 13y ago
      XMMS is great! I like mplayer better for video though, it's much easier to control and understand.
      - Aardwolf 13y ago
        I like VLC more myself. Seems to support more videos, and easier UI to access its massive amount of options and features.
  - prg318 13y ago
    I think you mean audacious [1] not audacity [2] although both are useful tools (If you're not familiar, audacious is a media player that supports XMMS plugins and Winamp2 skins). But WRT Audacious vs XMMS, I've also noticed that audacious doesn't seem to scale as well as XMMS with a lot of songs in your playlist. [1] http://audacious-media-player.org/ http://audacious-media-player.org/ [2] http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
computer 13y ago
http://gmusicbrowser.org/ http://gmusicbrowser.org/ is the most similar open source music player, in my experience.
cookiecaper 13y ago
Clementine is a great multi-platform open-source clone of Amarok 1.4.x. A little different from the old Winamp/XMMS "tape deck" feel, but very responsive and light with many modern features.
- shortlived 13y ago
  Another vote for Clementine. Nice, clean audio player, with the right number of features.
- thallian 13y ago
  That's my favourite too. Only thing missing for me is mpd support but that is maybe not an everyday requirement.
- diadara 13y ago
  Clementine is great, but I sometimes wish they could implement some scripting/plugin mechanism somehow .
- jlgreco 13y ago
  I use to love Amarok back in the 1.4.x days, but after Amarok messed everything up with 2.0, I swore it off and wrote my own XMMS2 client. Clementine wasn't out yet and I decided that the only way to get something that I wouldn't hate would be to write it myself. These days I just use zsh and mplayer though. Apparently all of my use-cases sum up to "play one or more albums, perhaps shuffling them first". I've given Clementine a shot, and it is quite like Amarok use to be, but now it all seems like clutter.
Semaphor 13y ago
MediaMonkey http://www.mediamonkey.com/ http://www.mediamonkey.com/
crowbar 13y ago
I've had pretty good experience with AIMP. Very similar to WinAmp in most regards. (http://www.aimp.ru/ http://www.aimp.ru/)
srgseg 13y ago
I loved WinAmp - now I'm using Vox on Mac. It is much more basic but it's very polished and is the best of the players I tried http://coppertino.com/vox/ http://coppertino.com/vox/
daveid 13y ago
foobar2000 is great for Windows.
sparkie 13y ago
I'm surprised MPD[1] isn't favored a bit more on HN. I primarily use ncmpcpp on desktop, but fall back to ario when using gnome, and MPDroid from android. The simplicity is great. I have a single NAS containing my entire collection connected to some speakers. In another room I have a rasp pi connected to a different set of speakers which streams the music being played via Icecast2. I can control the music in either room using pretty much any device connected to the network (PC, laptop, pi, tablet, phone), and also stream my collection when not at home. I don't know of any particular client that's similar to winamp or itunes, but there's a lot to chose from[2], although many of those are a bit dated. [1]:http://www.musicpd.org/ http://www.musicpd.org/ [2]:http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients
- mgr86 13y ago
  I do enjoy my MPD/ncmpcpp setup as well. however, I also use plex connected to my roku for other media needs. But, I often find when on the go I will use plex on my phone primarily for music...or a superior remote for the roku...
titraxx 13y ago
On Windows, MusicBee is pretty good with lot of possibilites. http://getmusicbee.com/ http://getmusicbee.com/
- ilcavero 13y ago
  +1 on MusicBee, can't praise it enough
- marris 13y ago
  MusicBee is awesome!
- sheldor 13y ago
  Having used Winamp for over a decade, I switched to MusicBee and never looked back. The level of customization, fluidity and smoothness were all I was looking in a media player. While it's not as lightweight as foobar it feels a lot more polished. Sad to see the old folk go though.
pit 13y ago
This one is a little esoteric, but Billy is a cool, incredibly minimalist audio player: http://sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html http://sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html Unfortunately, it looks like the site's downloads are unavailable right now (suffering from nostalgia overload?), but it's definitely worth checking out: * tiny -- like, 500K * gapless playback * 100% controllable by keyboard
- yitchelle 13y ago
  Glad you mentioned this. This is my favorite, out of the way player. All I want is to just listen to the music and Billy does it.

jbk 13y ago

Tomahawk. http://www.tomahawk-player.org/ http://www.tomahawk-player.org/ Foobar2k. http://www.foobar2000.org/ http://www.foobar2000.org/

srgseg 13y ago
Thanks for the Tomahawk recommendation - it was very nearly what I was looking for. Unfortunately it does not support the Mac Play/Pause/etc keys. I'm staggered that such an otherwise well put together application lacks such basic functionality.
- InnocentB 13y ago
  Support for this was added a couple years ago: https://github.com/tomahawk-player/tomahawk/commit/5cd9e49629b920d0d48c884bb2a827ef75a1f2f7 https://github.com/tomahawk-player/tomahawk/commit/5cd9e4962... I think you ought to file a bug, because it's supposed to work.

mindcrime 13y ago

XMMS - http://www.xmms.org/ http://www.xmms.org/

Aardwolf 13y ago
Indeed. I still use the 100% perfect XMMS 1. Audacity and XMMS 2 both were a lot worse for some reason (like slower, weird bugs, needlessly unneeded server/client model, ...) In XMMS 1, you can have 10000s of songs in the playlist (i.e. your whole harddisk), and jump to any of them immediately by just pressing the "j" key and typing part of its name, and it remains blazing fast. Not sure how Winamp was these days. I remember it was good at version 2, then starting from version 5 ("2 + 3"), it became bloated.
- mindcrime 13y ago
  I also use XMMS as my primary media player. It "just works" and I don't need a lot of fancy stuff in a music player. XMMS for music, and VLC for video, that's pretty much all I need.
  - stass 13y ago
    XMMS is great! I like mplayer better for video though, it's much easier to control and understand.
    - Aardwolf 13y ago
      I like VLC more myself. Seems to support more videos, and easier UI to access its massive amount of options and features.
- prg318 13y ago
  I think you mean audacious [1] not audacity [2] although both are useful tools (If you're not familiar, audacious is a media player that supports XMMS plugins and Winamp2 skins). But WRT Audacious vs XMMS, I've also noticed that audacious doesn't seem to scale as well as XMMS with a lot of songs in your playlist. [1] http://audacious-media-player.org/ http://audacious-media-player.org/ [2] http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

computer 13y ago

http://gmusicbrowser.org/ http://gmusicbrowser.org/ is the most similar open source music player, in my experience.

cookiecaper 13y ago

Clementine is a great multi-platform open-source clone of Amarok 1.4.x. A little different from the old Winamp/XMMS "tape deck" feel, but very responsive and light with many modern features.

shortlived 13y ago
Another vote for Clementine. Nice, clean audio player, with the right number of features.
thallian 13y ago
That's my favourite too. Only thing missing for me is mpd support but that is maybe not an everyday requirement.
diadara 13y ago
Clementine is great, but I sometimes wish they could implement some scripting/plugin mechanism somehow .
jlgreco 13y ago
I use to love Amarok back in the 1.4.x days, but after Amarok messed everything up with 2.0, I swore it off and wrote my own XMMS2 client. Clementine wasn't out yet and I decided that the only way to get something that I wouldn't hate would be to write it myself. These days I just use zsh and mplayer though. Apparently all of my use-cases sum up to "play one or more albums, perhaps shuffling them first". I've given Clementine a shot, and it is quite like Amarok use to be, but now it all seems like clutter.

Semaphor 13y ago

MediaMonkey http://www.mediamonkey.com/ http://www.mediamonkey.com/

crowbar 13y ago

I've had pretty good experience with AIMP. Very similar to WinAmp in most regards. (http://www.aimp.ru/ http://www.aimp.ru/)

srgseg 13y ago

I loved WinAmp - now I'm using Vox on Mac. It is much more basic but it's very polished and is the best of the players I tried http://coppertino.com/vox/ http://coppertino.com/vox/

daveid 13y ago

foobar2000 is great for Windows.

sparkie 13y ago

I'm surprised MPD[1] isn't favored a bit more on HN. I primarily use ncmpcpp on desktop, but fall back to ario when using gnome, and MPDroid from android. The simplicity is great. I have a single NAS containing my entire collection connected to some speakers. In another room I have a rasp pi connected to a different set of speakers which streams the music being played via Icecast2. I can control the music in either room using pretty much any device connected to the network (PC, laptop, pi, tablet, phone), and also stream my collection when not at home. I don't know of any particular client that's similar to winamp or itunes, but there's a lot to chose from[2], although many of those are a bit dated. [1]:http://www.musicpd.org/ http://www.musicpd.org/ [2]:http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients

mgr86 13y ago
I do enjoy my MPD/ncmpcpp setup as well. however, I also use plex connected to my roku for other media needs. But, I often find when on the go I will use plex on my phone primarily for music...or a superior remote for the roku...

titraxx 13y ago

On Windows, MusicBee is pretty good with lot of possibilites. http://getmusicbee.com/ http://getmusicbee.com/

ilcavero 13y ago
+1 on MusicBee, can't praise it enough
marris 13y ago
MusicBee is awesome!
sheldor 13y ago
Having used Winamp for over a decade, I switched to MusicBee and never looked back. The level of customization, fluidity and smoothness were all I was looking in a media player. While it's not as lightweight as foobar it feels a lot more polished. Sad to see the old folk go though.

pit 13y ago

This one is a little esoteric, but Billy is a cool, incredibly minimalist audio player: http://sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html http://sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html Unfortunately, it looks like the site's downloads are unavailable right now (suffering from nostalgia overload?), but it's definitely worth checking out: * tiny -- like, 500K * gapless playback * 100% controllable by keyboard

yitchelle 13y ago
Glad you mentioned this. This is my favorite, out of the way player. All I want is to just listen to the music and Billy does it.