Windows 10 has improved its stock apps a lot, but, there are still places where it can improve a bit more. Default Music app Groove Music and the Windows Media Player are the same cases. In this post, we will discuss some of the best music players for Windows 10.
Groove music has its set of limitations. Luckily, Dozens of good music players are available for Windows 10. Granted that some of them lack the polish that Microsoft has in its apps, but some are excellent -so good that you can use them in place of built-in music apps in Windows 10.
Dopamine
Dopamine is probably the sleekest music player ever created for Windows. At first glance, dopamine looks and feels a lot like Microsoft’s ill-fated Zune music player, and that’s not a bad thing. The UI is consistent and the app launch time combined with player’s flexibility make it the best Music player for Windows 10.
You can change app’s background and color scheme; there are a neat equalizer and information viewer too. The library management is mostly excellent, and it can handle large collections of music files easily.
The app is not perfect though, you won’t find some advanced features found on some other music players such as music ripping and automatic music organization, but if you are looking for a sleek, lightweight and free music player that works as it is supposed to, Dopamine is a must look.
Download Dopamine
Media Monkey
Probably the best media management application on Windows, Media Monkey is a full featured Music Playing and management software. The app has almost everything that an Audiophile may need on its feature set.
You can create and manage playlists, sort, and sync media files. The UI of the Player is fully skinnable, meaning you can download additional skins form Internet and use them to customize it to your will. One of the best features that Media Monkey offers is auto media management UI, with this, once set-up, the app will automatically rename and store music files in their subfolders.
MediaMonkey – Non Skinned
Although Media Monkey handles music fantastically, Support for Video is not that good.
The free version should be enough to keep you hooked with the app, if you want more features, there is also a paid version.
Download MediaMonkey
Songbird
Claimed to be built for music fans, songbird looks very similar to Apple iTunes.
Songbird has a rich media management features, and it works as a music hub in your home as with Songbird, you can stream music to any room in your home. Apart from playing music, you can follow artists and sync music to your portable devices.
Songbird
Songbird is easy to use and considering the app is completely free, you should give it a chance if you are looking for good music players for Windows 10.
Foobar2000
This one is straight for power-users, Foobar is an Open source music player that is very light weight and customization. The core app looks quite old-school. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the makers want users to use extensions to customize the UI upon its wish. As the app has been around for more than a few years, you can find extensions for almost everything.
Foobar is a bit confusing at first, but investing time in understanding its UI will be worth if you are looking for a flexible music player.
VLC Media Player
Usually, People use VLC to play video files -and it shines at it, VLC Can be a great Music Player if you are a FOSS supporter and want a no-frills music player that Plays any files that you throw on it.
VLC Media Player – Library Mode
VLC has a satisfactory media library; it is not as flexible as on Media Monkey but the player has built-in support for Podcasts and online Radio.
The App will also let you play from other computers connected via a local network.
The best thing about using VLC? The apps is quick, and it can handle a large music library without breaking a sweat.
MusicBee
MusicBee shares a lot of similarities with Media Monkey, but it does it with a slicker and easier interface. MusicBee has built-in features to manage and categories your music library and it has dozens of different color schemes and themes to chose from. You can use it to auto tag your file from the internet and retrieve lyrics and other metadata.
MusicBee in Xbox Theater Mode
The app also has a theater mode that looks a bit similar to Windows Media Player’s Full Screen Mode. At the time of Writing, MusicBee is completely free to use.
AIMP
AIMP is a simple music player that may remind you of new dead WinAMP music player. Apart from Windows, the app is also available for Android. AIMP looks a lot different than other music player apps listed above, but the UI is easy to navigate and understand. AIMP has good library management and a low system footprint. It comes with two skins by default, but you can install other skins from its official website.
AIMP with Default Skin
Conclusion: As discussed above, the following are the best music players for Windows 10:
- MediaMonkey
- MusicBee
- AIMP3
- Foobar
- Songbird
- VLC Media Player
What is your favorite Music Player for Windows 10?
What do you use to listen to Music on your computer and why? Share with others in the comments below.
Been trying to use MediaMonkey there for a few hours and it’s a mess. It looks like it’s not scaled for high resolution monitors at all (eg 4k). You can increase the font size alright but then everything gets squished and messy and the buttons are still tiny.. The search goes on……
Agreed, Media Monkey may take a lot of time to set-up, I have used a player called Dopamine ( http://www.digimezzo.com/software/dopamine ) on a 4K monitor and it looks great, you should probably give it a try.
Might give it a go, thanks. I’m using MusicBee at the moment, it’s a lot better than MM…
Media Monkey’s free version can’t even do something as basic as rip a CD in mp3 format…
Resonic is one of the best and free audio players and it’s not even listed here. I’ve always used VLC or Winamp but a friend who is really into music and produces some tracks himself told me to try this one and now I’m in love with it.
Thanks for your comment, I will take a look at it.
Thank you, savior! This is the best.
I’ve also used VLC and Winamp before.. I’ll check it out, Thanks
So far the best player that i used. thanks
Regarding to Dopamine…
– usually it can consume more than 100MB ram with just 30 songs on it’s library. the bigger library the more ram it demands. For the same amount of ram, you can just install Zune.
– secondly, Zune is way better than Dopamine: the interface is gorgeous and a lot richer than dopamine’s, zune even has background wallpapers LOL, the closest thing to that on Dopamine it’s the now playing screen that displays the artwork (artworks are 500×500, put that on a 1366×768 screen, it get’s pixelated. imagine that on bigger screens, becomes blurry and definitely not pleasant for your eyes).
– apart from that, Zune is able to also play videos, dopamine is a player of music only.
I have been using Music Bee for several years now & I love it. It’s interface is very user friendly.
MediaMonkey in combination with EqualizerApo works like a charm for me. VLC had a much better built-in equalizer compared to MediaMonkey, but it had a lot of problems with music playback. Mostly when shuffling through songs.