The best Android music players

Hardware Hub Phones, Tablets, & Wearables
1

I've spent a lot of time searching for just the perfect music players, and I've gone through a lot... just to name a few:

  • Stock Android 2.x (there is a forked version on the Play Store called Android Music by JRT Studio), which I've used for a good long while, with no major complaints other than the lack of lock screen controls, lack lack of persistent notification icon (causes notification bar to auto-close when skipping songs).

  • WinAmp - my favorite until they came out with a Pro version and added nagging in the free version

  • Google Play Music - had some minor performance issues; don't like how music is organized (streaming optimized)

  • Rocket Player - also made by JRT Studio - too flashy, performance issues

  • PowerAmp

  • DoubleTwist - haven't used in a while, but I don't recall liking it

  • Meridian

  • Probably a few others


And now, without further adu, my favorite music players:

  • Apollo (CM10 stock music) - baked into most CyanogenMod ROMs. Forked version on Play store called Nexmusic. There is also Omich, which is a fork of Apollo and Google Play Music - This play is quick, lightweight, and great with fetching album art. My biggest gripe is that I can't go to a previous song in shuffle if I accidentally skip one I actually want to listen to. Not sure if issue(s) are present in the forks, since I happen to be using a CM based ROM. NOTE there is a crummy music of the same name on the Google Play store, which does not resemble the on baked into CyanogenMod in any way. I'd stay away from that, even if it is open-source.

  • Vanilla Music - forked from an the abandoned Vanilla Music Player, this is "the" perfect music player. Has every feature you could possible want - playlists, que management, shuffle, lock screen controls, gesture controls (swipe to skip), lots of options to customize, all in a minimal, lightweight, open-source package.

 

2

Is there any way I can listen to Google Play music through another player? I've got a 16 GB DNA that is really like a 9 GB DNA after software and a few apps, which doesn't really give me room for music, and there's no expansion. I've got like 60 GB's on Google play, but I also don't really like the player.

3

My favourite music player would be VLC for Android, had no complaints about performance and does everything that it's supposed to do

4

anyone know how I can get the music player that came with cyanogen mod 7 I think for the motorola cliq, I loved the shit out of it but that phone is so slow compared to my motorola photon 4G, I'll love you forever if you can find one that I can install on it

 

5

Yes VLC is great.

I also use DeadBeef as music player in android, it's just a solid linux music player that always works.

6

Don't know what you're running now on your phone, but the music player used in CM7 was Apollo, and the exact music player version can be found here:

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_packages_apps_Apollo

You can always build it for whatever you're running now and side-load it.

7

I've been using PlayerPro for the past 2 years or so. Looks great, has that basic, minimalistic look to it. A ton of features. It can automatically find and download artist photos and cover art. Has lyrics search. You can edit the metadata of whole albums or endividual tracks. Widgets, and lockscreen controls, gesture controls, customization, scrobling, and probably a bunch of other crap I forget. One annoying thing that was changed in recent updates is that to got back to the main library screen from the current playing screen, you have to press the back arrow a 2 or 3 times, instead of -menu-, -library-. It's awkward to do so since the back bottom is in the top left corner, I have to stretch my finger all the way across to press it.

I have used WinAmp before, and I'm actually in the same boat with you on that one. It was great before the developer decided to half-ass the standard version and sell the "Pro" version for the same price as other music players which I think are now superior to WinAmp.

I can't stand that stock music player on Android 4.0+.

Double Twist is way too basic. The interface is nice though.

I have tried Rocket Player and Meridian, didn't like 'em. Don't remember why though.

I tried MixZing, has a good amount of options but the interface is hideous on that one.

N7's interface is weird. Limited options as far as I remember.

Songbird has a great looking interface but lacks options of players like PlayerPro or PowerAmp.

Speaking of which, I know a lot of people hail PowerAmp as THE music player on Android, but I just don't like that interface.

Cobed has an interesting player/library interface but I coudn't stand the way it queued only one track instead of a whole album if you wanted to start listening the whole album from a specific track.

8

Anyone ever knew of a thing called Neutron? if you want to pirate it that wont be easy anyway cause its buit under C++ I think.

I still use the damn Walkman player.

9

There are many audio and video players for android are provided by the android Google play, through this you can download and use it for free.

10

I am using N7 Player and it recently got upgrades for 10 band equalisation and chromecast/DLNA streaming. It is always being updated though every month or so. I got it initially because I liked the interface but it is a really solid player with a good dev behind it. He delivers on what people like to see. Last year it got gapless playback and other good things. 

It has a laundry list of other features that I will let you read rather than rattle them off. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.n7mobile.nplayer

EDIT: Sorry I did not realise how old this was. 

11

Bluetooth player and bs player atm. Really like the bluetooth one for pushing audio to other devices. Well that and i use viper for android with it.

12

i subscribe to google music play thing. it's pretty great. a near limitless libary at my fingertips. you can store a cache of the album on your phone to play when you have a lack luster cellular connection or none at all.

13

I use poweramp as I feel it has the best sounding audi. I have tried a lot of different music apps and the best are: N7 Player(its pretty), Poweramp(best sounding), Playerpro(can edit track info).

 

14

I use the google play music app. Since this thread started almost exactly a year ago it has added a que, a play next button, and even i'm feeling lucky which shuffles all of your music based off of your listening history.

15

I use NexMusic, basically the best parts of Apollo and Google's card aesthetics lumped together, it also has a really good theming engine 

16

I'm still using Vanilla Music. It's still stupid quick and easy to use. The only issue I have is sometimes the lockscreen controls get all wonky, and the controls spazz out. I don't know if it's a Vanilla issue, or an AOKP issue. I've had the same problem with Apollo, so I'm leaning towards the latter.