It's 2014 and I still haven't found a music player/manager I really like. Tomahawk and Musiq come close but they each leave something to be desired. iTunes circa 2008 was pretty good, but I'd like something for Linux, and I'd like it built in Java too, because I've found over the years that Java has amazing compatibility with sound cards on almost every computer.
I really like Google Music, but I don't like managing my music via the cloud. And I've tried just about every Linux home audio server and they all are a little wonky.
Some very basic features I see missing or hard to access in music players are:
- no ability to shuffle on different levels of granularity: genere/artist/year/etc
- ID3 tag editing somehow is terrible in everything but iTunes
- Full equalizer and audio effects (e.g., reverb, compression, filters)
- Canonical and clean song/album/artist data with extra attributes listed as comments, not cluttering up the main tags--I don't care that your song is "Feat. Jay-z;T-Pain;Snoop Lion;Sting; (album version (explicit version))"
And stepping back, I think the whole grid/table-based approach to viewing your music is a bit lifeless. I'd like to see other ways to navigate, .e.g., something built on the data that Pandora or Last FM has, but specific to my collection. And I'd also like to be able to navigate by artist history and associations, e.g., see all my albums by bands that have ever opened for the Flaming Lips.
I really like Google Music, but I don't like managing my music via the cloud. And I've tried just about every Linux home audio server and they all are a little wonky.
Some very basic features I see missing or hard to access in music players are:
- no ability to shuffle on different levels of granularity: genere/artist/year/etc
- ID3 tag editing somehow is terrible in everything but iTunes
- Full equalizer and audio effects (e.g., reverb, compression, filters)
- Canonical and clean song/album/artist data with extra attributes listed as comments, not cluttering up the main tags--I don't care that your song is "Feat. Jay-z;T-Pain;Snoop Lion;Sting; (album version (explicit version))"
And stepping back, I think the whole grid/table-based approach to viewing your music is a bit lifeless. I'd like to see other ways to navigate, .e.g., something built on the data that Pandora or Last FM has, but specific to my collection. And I'd also like to be able to navigate by artist history and associations, e.g., see all my albums by bands that have ever opened for the Flaming Lips.