Best Linux Music Players In 2023

​For all the music lovers, what better way to enjoy music and relax than to stream your music online. Below are some of the best Linux music players in 2023 you can use to stream music online and how you can get them running on your machine. It will be worth your while.

Best Linux Music Players

Spotify

Spotify is known to be one of the best Linux music players to stream online music. It allows you to stream music and when you are offline, you can listen to your local files on your machine. Your music is organized into various genres to which the music belongs.

Spotify allows you to see what your friends are listening to and also try them out yourself. The app looks great and is well organized, it is easy to search for songs. All you have to do is type into the search box and Voila! You get the music you are searching for online.​ The app is cross-platform and allows you to stream your favorite tunes.

There are some catches though. You will need to create an account with Spotify to use the app. You can do so using Facebook or your email. You also have a choice to upgrade to premium which will be worth your money since you have access to high-quality music and you can listen to music from any of your devices. Apparently, Spotify is not available in every country. You can install Spotify by typing the following commands in the terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 0DF731E45CE24F27EEEB1450EFDC8610341D9410echo deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install spotify-client

Once you have run the commands, you can start Spotify from your list of applications.

Amarok

Amarok is a Linux media player that can play online music as well as local music files that you have on your PC. It has the capability of fetching online lyrics of any song whether online or playing locally, and the best bit about that is that the lyrics can scroll automatically.

It is easy to customize to your preference. When you close Amarok, you have the option to let the music keep playing and a menu attached to the system tray to let you control your music so that it doesn’t use up all your resources as you enjoy your music. It has various services that you can choose from to stream your music from. It also integrates with the system tray as an icon with a menu that you can control music on. Amarok is available on the ubuntu software center for download and install. You can also use the following command in the terminal to install:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install amarok

Amarok in the notification area to control music play.

Some of the internet services found in amarok.

Amarok integrates with the top bar when you close the main window.

Audacious

Audacious is a simple, easy to use and customizable audio player. It is an open source audio player that you can stream your online music from. Audacious is not resourced hungry leaving a lot for other applications when you use it, you’ll feel that the app is light and has no impact on your system resources.

In addition, you have the advantage of changing the theme to the theme you want. The themes are based on GTK and Winamp classic themes. You have the option to record music that you are streaming in case it pleases your ears. The player comes with visualizations that keep you feeling the rhythm. Audacious is available on the ubuntu software center for download and install. Alternatively, you can type the following to install it in ubuntu terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install audacious

Audacious has various themes to choose from.

Rhythmbox

Rhythmbox is an inbuilt app that comes with the GNOME desktop experience, however, if you want it on other distros, you will have to install it. It is a lightweight music player that you can use to stream your music. It is easy to use and not as complicated as other music players that stream online music. To install Rhythmbox, type the following commands in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install rhythmbox

VLC Media Player

VLC is one of the most famous open source media players for Linux.  The player has options to stream your music. It is easy to use and can play any time of media. It has tons of features for you to discover such as recording music streams, updating cover art for your tracks and even has an equalizer you can tweak around with so that your music comes out the way you want it to.

You can add your own skins, or download and apply them, mess with the UI of the app to your preferences. To install, type the following commands into the terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc

Harmony

Harmony is an almost free online music streaming application. It’s almost free because you have an untimed free version that you can upgrade to a one time paid version.

The free version has that annoying dialog reminding you to upgrade your installation. It has a great user interface and easy to use. It also has the capability of playing local files. You can install any compatible plugin of your choice thus getting more from your music player. It has multiple streaming sources options so that you can enjoy the most out of the Internet. All you have to do is enable the source you wish to stream media from and you are good to go.​

In order to get the application on your machine, you will need to install using the official .deb file. To get the application, you will have to get it from the official site here. I would have wished if the creators of this app made an official PPA that one could use to install it via the terminal.

Mellow Player

​The Mellow player is an across-platform open source and free music player that allows you to play online music. Mellow player has over 16 supported online music services that you can choose to stream from. There are options to install plugins that let you install the service you want. If you want to install it, you will have to get it from the official site here.

It comes in the form of an app image that is easy to install since it doesn’t mess with other files since all required files come sandboxed as an app image. When you download the file, you will need to change the file properties by typing the following commands in the terminal:

chmod +x MellowPlayer-x86_64.AppImage

Then running it as follows:

sudo ./MellowPlayer-x86_64.AppImage

Conclusion

There are plenty of Linux music players out there but those are the best you would want to try out. All in all, the music players have their pros and cons, but the most important part is to sit down, open the app, start streaming your music and relax. The music players may or may not meet your expectations, but don’t forget to enjoy the next app in case the first isn’t for you. Enjoy!