Clementine-Top Music Player For Windows

Clementine-Top Music Player For Windows

Clementine has many familiar features, but it offers quite a bit more connection to the wider world of technology than our other picks.

Sure, you get basic features like smart playlists, internet radio, visualizer, multi-format support, and so on. But you also get more expansive capabilities for cloud and device support. That includes tools that make it easy to copy music onto mobile storage drives, or the ability to search and play songs from the cloud if you’ve stored audio files in Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive. You can even use a Wii Remote, Android device, or other mobile tool as a remote control for the software.

When you add in the connections to MusicBrainz, Last.fm, and Amazon, this is a brilliant solution for those who have a lot of music in the cloud and really don’t want to use iTunes.

AIMP 4.11-Top Music Player For Windows

AIMP 4.11-Top Music Player For Windows

AIMP’s continuous updates have yielded an impressive, clean interface for music lovers who prefer to get down to business. In addition to support for an array of formats (including DirectSound and SIO for output), the software also includes Internet Radio support, a Sound Engine with an 18-band equalizer, and smart playlist capabilities.

Need to convert audio? No problem, AIMP can handle that too, as well as provide editing options for all your audio tags and scheduling options for setting timers or shutdown times if you like mixing music and sleep.

Media Monkey-Top Music Player For Windows

Media Monkey-Top Music Player For Windows

Media Monkey is similar to MusicBee, and boasts many of the same features. Though it lacks Last.fm synchronization, Media Monkey is compatible with podcasts, audiobooks, and can be set up to download your favorite podcasts for you.

It supports a whopping 100,000 file and playlist types, while also making it easy to tag and organize your files. The software is also pretty smart. It automatically identifies tracks, syncs or fixes tags, and looks up related information, which is all great for getting an old collection of music back in order.

We’re impressed by the playlist tools, which makes them easy to create (or automatically spawn via Auto-DJ). The syncing and recording capabilities are great for amateur musicians as well. When you add the party mode, the visualizer, and the exported audio file reports, it’s hard to see why you would pay for a music manager when Media Monkey exists.

MusicBee-Top Music Player For Windows

MusicBee-Top Music Player For Windows

MusicBee is an excellent pick for those who have huge collections of tunes that need to be organized. It can import your existing iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries, and lets you tag each file as you see fit. The program’s Auto DJ feature lets you sync with Last.fm, and will play similar artists/genres based on what you play. You can also set MusicBee up to organize your favorite podcasts, audiobooks, and radio stations.

With its 10-band to 15-band equalizer options, cross-fade function, and gap-less playback options, audio tweaks are plentiful with MusicBee. It even packs some visual flair in the form of a five-band Spectrum Visualizer that matches up with the tracks you’re playing.  Plug-ins are available for added customization.

The latest sync support between mobile devices is handy, and the ability to change theme colors is an unexpected bonus among other free software choices. MusicBee even supports up to 5.1 surround sound if you have an array of speakers and want the best result possible.

Tidal Unofficial-Top Music Player For Windows

Tidal Unofficial-Top Music Player For Windows

This is only useful if you're a Tidal subscriber, but if you like high fidelity music and you want it on demand, you should probably try it out.

Tidal Unofficial is a Store app and it's not only nicer to look at but also more reliable than the official Tidal desktop client. You lose no functionality, you can still download music for offline listening, and best of all it still pulls down those lossless streams.

You get a free 30-day trial if you sign up to Tidal, and once you have you should definitely use this excellent app and not the official one.

Light Media Player-Top Music Player For Windows

Light Media Player-Top Music Player For Windows

Light Media Player is a Store only app and it's a very good music player for all your different formats. It costs $5, making it the only paid app here, but it's impossible not to fall in love with its modern look that fits perfectly within the new Windows 10 design language.

It supports a bunch of different formats, including lossless audio like FLAC, and is a very easy to use app for managing your library.

Besides managing your library and looking glorious, Light Media Player also offers gapless playback and support for synchronized lyrics. You know, in case you want to sing along.

Foobar2000-Top Music Player For Windows

Foobar2000-Top Music Player For Windows

While Foobar2000 was pushing forwards with a Windows Store app to complement its existing Win32 offering, that project seems to have stalled thanks to low user count. The "proper" app is still very much alive and kicking and is both powerful and customizable.

When you set it up you can tweak the interface to your liking, and Foobar2000 will play basically anything you can throw at it. It's also got a built in transcoder, support for full Unicode, tags, and gapless playback. That last one alone is reason enough to give it a try.

Spotify-Top Music Player For Windows

Spotify-Top Music Player For Windows

Spotify is probably the most popular streaming music service on the planet, and it's now available through the Windows Store, too. It's the same desktop app as it's always been with the added bonus of seamless updates through the Store.

Not only do you get access to Spotify's vast catalog of content, be you a paid or free subscriber, but you can also use it to play your own locally stored content. The app is free.

VLC-Top Music Player For Windows

VLC-Top Music Player For Windows

If a format exists, the likelihood is that VLC will play it. This is very much the Swiss Army Knife of media players.

VLC also comes in two flavors for Windows, both free. There's the Windows 10 Store version which is built for phones, PCs, tablets and Xbox One, and there's the old-school desktop app. VLC goes beyond just digital files and also allows for streaming and media conversion.

Groove Music-Top Music Player For Windows

Groove Music-Top Music Player For Windows

You may have overlooked the built-in Groove Music app, but you shouldn't. It's very good.

It looks fantastic, is very easy to use and has minimal fluff. For those not using the Groove Music Pass, it'd be nice to have it detach from that entirely, but you get the option to store your own music in OneDrive and stream it to your devices.

Groove has come along way since the early days. The subscription service is excellent, and the app itself is very good even just for your own music.