Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

Is Amarok the best audio player for Linux?

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 03:05 AM PDT

If you have a Linux setup then most probably you are running Amarok for media playing. Amarok is probably the most popular media player for Linux because it offers a lot of functionality: KDE support (it's pretty!), support for outbound streaming, media database support, gapless audio decoding, remote controllable and also supports intelligent playlists from database.

You can see the comparison table from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_media_players

If you have not yet added Amarok, you can add it using your Linux's interface for managing applications. In Ubuntu, for example, you can use the Add/Remove Applications interface under the Applications menu:

Once you get Amarok installed you should see it's somewhat ITunes like interface shown below:

The rounded, but well designed control buttons are accessible at the top left:

It automatically downloads album arts from it's supported media database:

It also downloads the lyrics of the songs in your playlist – this is good for folks who like to sing-along ala-Karaoke.

Also, Amarok now supports ReplayGain natively. When it is enabled Amarok equalizes the volume of songs with ReplayGain tags to avoid big unexpected volume changes between songs.

You can also connect to various web services like Last.fm, Ampache, OMPL, Magnatune, MP3tunes and Libribvox. In addition, you can add community developed scripts to enhance your Amarok experience. For example, the Append Suggestions feature will let you start with as a starting point and it will automatically suggest songs related to that song.

Do you know of a better Linux audio player? In a future post, we will show you how to script Amarok and how to stream media so you can listen to your audio files wherever you are.