Alternatives to cmus
A small, fast console music player for Linux, macOS and other Unix-like systems. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
cmus
A small, fast console music player for Linux, macOS and other Unix-like systems.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as cmus.
musikcube
A terminal-based music player, library and audio streaming server for Windows, macOS and Linux.
musikcube is a terminal music player and library that also runs natively on Windows and can act as a streaming audio server, under a BSD license.
termusic
A terminal user interface music and podcast player written in Rust.
termusic is a Rust terminal player that handles podcasts alongside music, with a keyboard-driven interface and MIT or GPL-3.0 licensing.
ncmpcpp
An ncurses terminal client for Music Player Daemon, with a tag editor and visualizer.
ncmpcpp is a terminal client with a tag editor and visualizer, but it needs a running Music Player Daemon and is in maintenance mode.
DeaDBeeF
A light, plugin-driven music player for Linux, Windows and macOS that stays out of the way.
DeaDBeeF moves to a lightweight graphical player for Linux, Windows and macOS with a plugin architecture, while staying open source.
Audacious
A lightweight open-source audio player descended from XMMS, with optional Winamp Classic skins.
Audacious is a lightweight graphical open-source player with Winamp Classic skin support on Windows, macOS and Linux, replacing the terminal interface.
Strawberry Music Player
A Clementine fork aimed at collectors, with proper support for high-resolution files and CD ripping.
Strawberry Music Player is a graphical GPL player for Windows, macOS and Linux with high-resolution file support, CD ripping and built-in tag editing.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Mopidy
An extensible Python music server that plays local files, Internet radio and streaming services.
beets
Organize a music library from the command line.
cava
Console audio visualiser that draws a live frequency spectrum.
myMPD
A standalone, mobile-friendly web client for controlling a Music Player Daemon server.
Cantata
A Qt graphical client for controlling and browsing music on a Music Player Daemon server.
gonic
A lightweight self-hosted music streaming server that implements the Subsonic API.
