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 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 capability
5 Container format capability
6 Scalable, composite and emulation format capabilities
7 Protocol capabilities
8 Playlist format capability
9 Metadata capability
10 Optical media capability
11 See also
12 References

General

Name	Author	First public release	Most recent stable version	Cost	Software license	Based Framework	Written in
ALLPlayer	Allplayer ltd	00 Jan 1998	3.7 (24 December 2008)	Free	Proprietary
Amarok	Mark Kretschmann	00 Jun 2003	2.5 (December 20, 2011; 2 months ago (2011-12-20))	Free	GPL	via Phonon: GStreamer, xine, MPlayer, VLC, DirectShow, QuickTime	C++
aTunes	Alex Aranda et al.	00 Jan 2006	2.1.0 (2011-10-01)	Free	GPL		Java
Audacious	Audacious Development Team	30 Oct 2005	3.1.1 (December 5, 2011; 3 months ago (2011-12-05))	Free	GPL		C, C++
Audion	Panic	16 Aug 1999	3.0.2 (2002)	Free	Proprietary
Beep Media Player	Milosz Derezynski	06 Jun 2004	0.9.7.1 (22 October 2005)	Free	GPL		C
Calaym	Jan Vorel	11 August 2002	19 September 2011	Free	GPL	FModEx/FMod / BASS	VB6 / PureBasic
CDPlayer	Microsoft	00 Nov 1992	4.00.950	Free	Proprietary
Clementine	Clementine Team	00 March 2011	1.0 (December 27, 2011; 2 months ago (2011-12-27))	Free	GPL	GStreamer	C++
cmus	Timo Hirvonen	18 Jan 2005	2.4.3 (30 Nov 2011)	Free	GPL		C
Cog	Vincent Spader	1 May 2006	0.07 (23 December 2007)	Free	GPL		Objective-C
Creative MediaSource	Creative Technology	00 Jan 2002	5.10.38	Non-free—Bundled (requires Creative product)	Proprietary
Decibel Audio Player	François Ingelrest	13 May 2007	1.05	Free	GPL	GStreamer	Python
Exaile	Adam Olsen	24 May 2006	0.3.2.2 (July 18, 2011; 7 months ago (2011-07-18))	Free	GPL	GStreamer	Python
Flash MP3 Player	Reality Software	11 Mar 2008	1.00	Free	Proprietary
foobar2000	Peter Pawlowski	00 Dec 2002	1.1.10 (2 December 2011; 3 months ago (2011-12-02))	Free	Proprietary (core), BSD (first-party components)		C++
JuK	Scott Wheeler	00 Feb 2003	3.4 (February 9, 2010; 2 years ago (2010-02-09))	Free	GPL		C++
Listen	Mehdi Abaakouk	04 Mar 2006	0.6	Free	GPL	GStreamer	Python
Media Jukebox	J. River	00 Jan 1998	14.0.166 (July 15, 2010)	Free	Proprietary
MediaMonkey Standard	Ventis Media Inc.	25 Aug 2003	4.0.2.1462 (December 25, 2011; 2 months ago (2011-12-25))	Free	Proprietary		Delphi, C
MediaMonkey Gold	Ventis Media Inc.	25 Aug 2003	4.0.2.1462 (December 25, 2011; 2 months ago (2011-12-25))	Non-free US$19.95	Proprietary		Delphi, C
MediaMonkey Lifetime	Ventis Media Inc.	25 Aug 2003	4.0.2.1462 (December 25, 2011; 2 months ago (2011-12-25))	Non-free US$29.95	Proprietary		Delphi, C
MPXPLAY	MPXPLAY	00 Jan 1998	1.58 (May 22, 2011; 9 months ago (2011-05-22))	Free	GPL
Music on Console	Damian Pietras	00 Jan 2002	2.4.4 (January 4, 2009; 3 years ago (2009-01-04))	Free	GPL		C
Music Player Daemon	Warren Dukes	00 May 2003	0.16.6 (1 December 2011)	Free	GPL
MusicBee	Steven Mayall	04 Dec 2008	1.3.4344 / 14 Nov 2011	Free	Proprietary	BASS Audio Library	VB.NET
musikCube	Casey Langen	00 Jan 2005	1.0 Final (December 2, 2006; 5 years ago (2006-12-02))	Free	BSD
Napster	William Christopher Gorog	00 Oct 2003	4.0.4.8	Non-free US$9.95+	Proprietary
Rhapsody	RealNetworks	00 Jan 2003	14.0 (16 October 2006)	Free	Proprietary
Rhythmbox	Colin Walters	00 Apr 2004	0.13.3 (January 16, 2011; 13 months ago (2011-01-16))	Free	GPL	GStreamer	C
Sonique	Media Science	00 Nov 1998	1.96 (March 2002)	Free	Proprietary
Style Jukebox	Antiu M. Ionut Alexandru	00 Jul 2009	Beta 1.1 (July 19, 2010; 19 months ago (2010-07-19))	Free	Proprietary		C#
XMMS	XMMS Team	00 Nov 1997	1.2.11 (16 November 2007)	Free	GPL	original	C
Zinf	Zinf Team	00 Apr 2002	2.2.5 (14 February 2004)	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	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD Unix	Solaris	Other Unix	DOS (FreeDOS, Dr-DOS)
Amarok	Not yet officially^{[osnotes 1]}	Not yet officially^{[osnotes 2]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
aTunes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Audacious	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Audion	No	PPC native^{[osnotes 3]}	No	No	No	No	No
Calaym	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
cmus	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Cog	No	10.4+	No	No	No	No	No
Clementine	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Decibel Audio Player	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Exaile	Not yet officially	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
foobar2000	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
JuK	Not yet officially^{[osnotes 4]}	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Listen	No	No	Yes	?	?	No	No
Media Jukebox	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
MediaMonkey	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
MPXPLAY	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Music Player Daemon	cygwin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MusicBee	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
musikCube	2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista only	No	No	No	No	No	No
Rhapsody	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Rhythmbox	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Sonique	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
XMMS	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Zinf	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Audio player	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD Unix	Solaris	Other Unix	DOS (FreeDOS, Dr-DOS)

^ Amarok for Windows Download Page - not yet officially supported
^ OS X Amarok for Mac OS X Download Page - not yet officially supported
^ Might be usable with Rosetta.
^ 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)
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
Calaym	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	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^[1]	Yes^{[featurenotes 3]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	Yes
JuK	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes^{[featurenotes 4]}	?
Listen	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	?	?
Media Jukebox	No	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MediaMonkey	Partial^[1]	Partial^[1]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	Yes
MPXPLAY	Only sound output	?	text-interface	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (also LCD capability)	?
Music Player Daemon	No	Yes	Client dependent	Yes	Yes	Client dependent	Yes	Client dependent
MusicBee	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox	No	No	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	?
musikCube	No	No	No	Yes	No	Partial^[1]	?	Yes
Rhapsody	No	No	No	Yes	?	No	?	?
Rhythmbox	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sonique	Partial^[1]	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	?	No
XMMS	Partial^[1]	Partial^[1]	Yes	No	Partial^[1]	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	Mass tagging	Flexible tagging^{[featurenotes 5]}	Time stretching	Pitch shifting	A-B repeat	Bookmark	Auto resume	Shutdown on play complete	Archive capability
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	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Calaym	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
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^[1]	Yes^[1]	Yes	Yes^[1]	No
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[1]	Yes^[1]	Yes^[1]	Partial^[1]	Yes	Partial^[1]	Yes
JuK	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Listen	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Media Jukebox	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
MediaMonkey	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	Partial^[1]	Partial^[1]	Partial^[1]	Yes	Yes	?
MPXPLAY	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
MusicBee	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox	?	Partial^{[featurenotes 7]}	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	?
musikCube	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
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	Mass Tagging	Flexible tagging^{[featurenotes 5]}	Time Stretching	Pitch Shifting	A-B Repeat	Bookmark	Auto Resume	Shutdown on play complete	Archive capability

^ 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
^ ^a ^b Flexible tagging means 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

Audio format capability

Information about what audio formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about capabilities 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	AC3	APE	FLAC	ALAC	SHN	WV
Amarok	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	No	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	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	?
Calaym	Yes	Partial^[2]	No	Yes	No	No^[3]	No	No	No^[3]	No	No	No
cmus	Yes	Yes^[4]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[4]	Yes^[4]	Yes	Yes^[4]	Yes^[4]	Yes
Cog	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Exaile	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	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	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MediaMonkey	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Partial^[6]	Partial^[6]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	Partial^[1]
MPXPLAY	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Music Player Daemon	Yes	Yes^[4]	Partial^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[4]	Yes^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes^[4]	Yes
MusicBee	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
musikCube	Yes	Partial^[6]	No	Yes	Partial^[6]	Partial^[6]	Partial^[6]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Partial^[6]
Rhapsody	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Rhythmbox	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]	Yes^[5]
Sonique	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial^[6]	Partial^[6]	No	No	No	No	No	No
XMMS	Yes	Partial^[6]	Partial^[6]	Partial^[6]	Yes	Yes	No	Partial^[6]	Yes	No	Partial^[6]	Yes
Zinf	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Audio player	MP3	WMA	RealAudio	Vorbis	Musepack	AAC	AC3	APE	FLAC	ALAC	SHN	WV

^ Requires following fix: http://www.listen-project.org/ticket/722.

Container format capability

Information about what container formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about capabilities 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
Amarok	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Basic	Basic	Yes	?	?	?
Audacious	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Audion	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?	?	?
Calaym	No	?	No	Vorbis only	No	No	No	?	No	No
cmus	No	No	No	Vorbis only	No	Basic	Yes	?	?	?
Cog	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Partial	?	?	?
foobar2000	Partial^[1]	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	No	No	Vorbis only	No	No	Yes^[5]	?	?	?
Sonique	No^[6]	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 capabilities

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
Amarok	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Audacious	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audion	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Calaym	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
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	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
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 capabilities

Information about which internet protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content. Footnotes lead to information about capabilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.

Audio player	HTTP	RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT)	MMS (MMSU, MMST)	Podcasting	Other
Amarok	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audacious	Yes	No	Yes	No	?
Audion	Yes	No	No	No	?
Calaym	Yes	No	No	No	No
cmus	Yes	No	No	No	?
Cog	No	No	No	No	?
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^{[protocolnotes 1]}	?
JuK	?	?	?	?	?
Listen	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
Media Jukebox	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
MediaMonkey	Yes	No	No	Yes^{[protocolnotes 2]}	?
MusicBee	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	?	?	?	?
musikCube	Yes	No	No	?	?
Rhapsody	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Rhythmbox	Yes	Yes	No	Partial^{[protocolnotes 3]}	upnp
Sonique	Yes	?	?	?	?
XMMS	Yes	?	?	?	?
Zinf	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Audio player	HTTP	RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT)	MMS (MMSU, MMST)	Podcasting	Other

^ 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 capability

Information about which playlist formats the players understand.

Audio player	asx/wax/wvx	M3U	pls	xspf
Amarok	?	Yes	?	?
Audacious	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audion	?	?	?	?
Calaym	No	Yes^[7]	No	No
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	?	?
Musicmatch Jukebox	?	?	?	?
musikCube	?	?	?	?
Rhapsody	?	?	?	?
Rhythmbox	?	?	Yes	?
Sonique	?	Yes	Yes	?
XMMS	?	Yes	Yes	?
Zinf	?	?	?	No
Audio player	asx/wax/wvx	m3u8	pls	xspf

Metadata capability

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 capabilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.

Audio player	ID3v1	ID3v2	APEv2 tag	Vorbis comment	Cue sheet	CD-Text
Amarok	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Partial^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes^{[metadatanotes 1]}	Yes	No^{[metadatanotes 2]}	?
Audacious	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audion	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	?
Calaym	Partial^[8]	Partial^[8]	No	Partial^[8]	No	No
cmus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Cog	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
foobar2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[metadatanotes 3]}
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
Musicmatch Jukebox	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	Yes
musikCube	Yes	Yes	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

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Understanding of ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2 and Vorbis comments is handled by an external library called TagLib.
^ Only older 1.5.* versions work with CUE files, it may work in future versions of 2.*.
^ There is a plugin called CD-TEXT Reader adding such a feature.

Optical media capability

Information about what kinds of optical discs the players can play. Footnotes lead to information about capabilities 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
Amarok	Yes	No	No
aTunes	No	No	No
Audacious	Yes	No	No
Audion	Yes	No	No
Calaym	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

^ ^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 Plugin available.
^ The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
^ ^a ^b Requires another sound system.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j 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 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
^ Order of songs is discarded
^ ^a ^b ^c Displays some tags as formated text

Media players

Technologies

Articles	Codec · Demultiplexer · Internet radio · Internet television · Playlist · Media resource locator · Music visualization · Syndication · Podcast · P2PTV

Preferences	Video player (Comparison) · Audio player (Comparison) · Portable media player (Comparison) · HD media player · Home Theater PC · Home cinema

Commercial

Mobile

Various	Media Player (Windows Mobile), Pocket Tunes (Palm OS) Multi-Platform: CoreAVC CorePlayer · Core Pocket Media Player

Android	DoubleTwist Media Player · RealPlayer for Android · TuneWiki for Android · Winamp for Android

Microsoft Windows	Connect Player · Iriver plus 3 · Media Center · PowerDVD · SonicStage · Core Media Player · WinDVD · Windows Media Center · Windows Media Player · Yahoo! Music Jukebox · Zune

Mac OS X	Centerstage · Chroma · DVD Player · Front Row · Peel · Flip4Mac WMV Player

Freeware or Free software

Microsoft Windows	Adobe Media Player · CrystalPlayer · Dell MediaDirect · foobar2000 · GOM Player · jetAudio · K-Multimedia Player · Macromedia Shockwave · MadCat Media Browser · Media Go · Media Player Classic · MediaMonkey · Mod4Win · Mpxplay · MusicBee · MusikCube · PC Friendly · QuickPlayer · Quintessential Player · QuuxPlayer · Style Jukebox · Winamp · WinPlay3player

Linux	Baudline · Beep Media Player · cmus · Decibel Audio Player · Exaile · Gnome Music Player Client · Helix · JuK · Kaffeine · LinuxMCE · Lsongs · Miro · Mpg123 · Muine · Music Player Daemon · Music on Console · Noatun · Ogle DVD Player · Rhythmbox · Totem · Unix Amiga Delitracker Emulator · Xine · XMMS · XMMS2

Multi-Platform	Adobe Flash Player · Adobe Shockwave · Amarok · Audacious · Banshee · Boxee · Clementine · DivX Player · ffplay · iTunes · Miro · MPlayer · Nightingale · QuickTime · RealPlayer · Songbird · VLC media player · XBMC · Zinf

Home theater PC software and related devices

Windows	iTVmediaPlayer · Beyond TV · GB-PVR · Meedio · MediaPortal · JRiver Media Center · ShowShifter · Windows Media Center

Mac OS X	Centerstage · Front Row · ITheater

Linux	Distributions Element OS · GeeXboX · LinuxMCE · Mythbuntu · Mythdora · XBMC Live · MythTV · OpenELEC · Video Disk Recorder

Cross-platform	iTVmediaPlayer (iOS, Android, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) · Boxee (iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) · Plex (Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) · SageTV (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) · XBMC (Apple TV, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Xbox)

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

Related hardware	ATI Theater Cards · Elgato EyeTV devices · 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