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Recommended Music Player for Linux?


feihong

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Hi fellow Linux users, I'm wondering what music player you use to listen to Chinese music. Rhythmbox is the default on my system (Ubuntu 10.10), but its one great weakness is that there's no way to view and edit lyrics on MP3 files. On a whim I also installed Banshee, but it has the same exact problem.

EDIT: Now I've tried out Exaile as well as the Rhythmbox lyrics plugin. They have slightly different problems than the one I originally mentioned. They actually support lyrics viewing and editing, but they can't see the lyrics in my MP3s (which were entered in iTunes).

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I've "been there", heavily in the past.

My choice was foobar2000 under wine. It's a highly-regarded toolbox too.

I can't remember much more, but did you know of its forum?

[Edit: I don't know if it can display and edit lyrics. I'd be surprised if it can't, given the plugins, too. See the forum.]

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@querido

I don't doubt that foobar2000 is an excellent music player, but the instructions for getting it running in Linux are a little onerous. I run Linux because I'm lazy and like to install things by typing "sudo apt-get install ..." at the command line. Nonetheless, thanks for the suggestion and I'll give it a shot if all else fails.

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I think you are probably in a situation where there may be no perfect choice, which satisfies all of your requirements, but that you can probably find a comprimise solution which is more than adequate.

Banshee
- This is an awesome player, but I've yet to find a lyrics function/plugin.

Rhythmbox
- Similar quality to Banshee imho. As you mentioned, the Exaile plugin exists. However, there is also a built in plugin if you go to Edit>Plugins and check off "Song Lyrics." Before closing the window, you should also click "Configure" and check off the "WinampCN" database. Its disabled by default, but likely has more Chinese lyrics than other databases.
This is most likely your best option
; a compromise of ease of use, good player and Chinese lyrics, but I can't guarantee it will read the embedded lyrics.

gmusicbrowser
- I've never used this player, but it looks decent. It also has a lyrics panel built in and enabled by default.

*All of the above can be installed directly from the Ubuntu Software Centre, without any need to use the command-line or Wine

foobar2000
- This program is second to none when it comes to being lightweight and extremely customizable. It will also have no problem reading the lyrics as you want, and should run fine on Ubuntu under Wine (I installed mine by simply right clicking the .exe and selecting to run it with Wine). However, it will probably take quite a bit of tinkering to get working in a way you like (unless the minimalist interface is to your liking), and some plugins will be needed to lyrics, AAC/m4a support, APE file support etc. So, I'm guessing this option isn't really for you.

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You may also want to check out Clementine. I used it for a short while, ultimately switching back to Banshee because I don't require all the shiny bits. I think the lyric-search function may work for Chinese songs, but I'm not entirely sure - at the very least, it's probably worth checking out. You can get it from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

To read the embedded lyrics in my MP3 files, I ended writing a very short program:

dump_id3_tags.txt (You have to rename the extension to .py after you download it, since it's a Python program)

To run it, type this at the commandline:

python dump_id3_tags.py /path/to/mp3/file

To install its prerequisites, run the following:

sudo apt-get install python-mutagen

It's a bit weird how the Exaile program actually uses the mutagen library, yet can't show me the embedded lyrics. Bah.

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Although the latest versions are not as featureful as the older ones, Amarok is still the standard by which all other players under Linux are judged.

I don't know if it extracts embedded lyrics, but it has integrated wiki and lyrics search.

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