What defines a good music player? A good music player carries different meanings for different users. Audiophiles with extensive music collection will look for a music player with superb sound quality and advanced music organizer. A casual user will probably cool with a music player that is able to play most of the audio formats, whereas a performance enthusiast hates bloatware and prefers a lightweight and responsive music player.
Regardless of which type of user you are, there’s definitely a music player that suits your taste. Here are 7 free music players that are compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7/8.
MusicBee
Have a huge and unorganized collection of music? MusicBee is the perfect solution for you. MusicBee is one of the best free music manager with superb tagging and organizing features. Easily remove duplicates, edit and add tags on tracks, sort and rename music files and folders based on tag values, and more.
Also, MusicBee has tons of great features such as Auto DJ, MiniLyrics, CD ripper, audio converter, radio player, music synchronizer, 5-band spectrum visualizer, 10-band equalizer, DSP effects, etc. There are also custom skins and plugins available for users to customize the music player according to their needs.
An easy-to-use yet powerful music player. Not too bloated and not too minimal at the same time.
Best For: Users with extensive music collection
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
Portable Version: Available
MediaMonkey
MediaMonkey is another excellent music organizer. After installation, MediaMonkey automatically searches your computer for media files and sort them in the library based on their ID3 tags. Auto-tagging and auto-renaming help you to sort untagged music easily.
Some notable features include CD ripper, audio/video converter, CD/DVD/BD burner, Auto DJ, etc. MediaMonkey also has addons for appearance, foreign languages, remote access, codecs, and more.
In fact, MediaMonkey is very similar to MusicBee, but MediaMonkey consumes more system resources and its interface isn’t as pretty as MusicBee, in my opinion. Also, some of the free functions in MusicBee are limited to MediaMonkey Gold users (costs $24.95) only.
Best For: Users with extensive music collection, with a mid to high-end PC
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8, WINE (Linux)
Portable Version: Available (Not from official)
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Foobar
Foobar is a super-lightweight, flexible, and clean music player. Its interface is simple and highly customizable with several layout options. Supports gapless payback, ReplayGain, keyboard shortcuts (customizable), tagging, DSP effects, CD ripping, and components developed by third-party developers.
Best For: Audiophiles, customization enthusiasts, users looking for lightweight music player
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012
Portable Version: Available, as an option during installation
AIMP 3
AIMP 3 is another lightweight music player with gorgeous interface. Supports ReplayGain, auto shutdown, configurable hotkeys, custom skins and plugins, Internet radio browser and recorder, and over 20 popular audio formats.
AIMP 3 also emphasizes on sound enhancement features with its 18-band equalizer, 32-bit audio processing, and built-in sound effects.
Best For: Users looking for simple, lightweight, and beautiful music player, with sound enhancement features
Operating System: Windows XP SP3/Vista/7/8
Portable Version: Available (Not from official)
iTunes
iTunes is essential for users who own Apple devices. Easily synchronize your iOS devices with Windows machine. Also, it is hard to ignore the world’s largest online music store, especially for music lovers. Browse, discover, buy, play, and organize music – all in iTunes.
However, iTunes is bloated and demands high system resource usage, which is certainly a turnoff for performance enthusiast.
Best For: Apple enthusiasts, iTunes users
Operating System: Windows XP SP3/Vista/7/8, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later
Portable Version: Not available
Winamp
Winamp is one of the oldest media player in the market and remains as a top media player for more than a decade. Winamp isn’t as customizable as Foobar2000 nor as powerful as MusicBee’s ability to organize massive music library with ease, but it does pretty well in both. It is very extendable, with thousands of skins, plug-ins, visualizations, and online services available.
The new version also comes with Android Wi-Fi and USB sync support, which allows you to sync music to your Android phone. Besides, the new Bento skin is much easier to use then before. Winamp also supports over 60 audio and video format.
There are complaints that Winamp Full hogs memory, but there’s a great solution that – Winamp Lite. It is rated as one of the fastest and lightest music player which works as a basic music player, without a library for organizing music.
Best For: Winamp fans, users looking for beautiful and customizable player
Operating System: Windows, Mac OS X (Beta), Android
Portable Version: Not available
VLC Media Player
VLC isn’t exactly a music player, it is a media player that excels in both playing music and video. It plays almost every media format that you throw at it, with no codes pack needed. It is also skinnable and extendable.
Best For: Casual users looking for a media player to play music and watch videos
Operating System: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora), iOS, Android, Solaris
Portable Version: Available
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