Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Music trends, latest album reviews...whatever!

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

Post Reply
DrMeatball
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:58 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by DrMeatball »

Bear with me I'm new to linux and multimedia coming from itunes/music land. I've totally jumped ship from Apple with an iphone to Ubuntu with a Oneplus 8T. Went full on zealot mode after getting sick of Windows and Mac privacy issues. [but i digress..]

What is everyone using if you aren't using Rhythmbox? Nothing really wrong with RB persay, just wondering if there's something better for integration with an Android phone as well as keeping a music library maintained (personal music library but also sorting and archiving bounces, etc)?

Secondly, with Google no longer selling music and itunes not being a Linux thing, where does everyone buy their music? I detest streaming and I will not pirate. No spotify. Suggestions?

edit

BONUS POINTS if there happens to be an Android companion Music app. Is DoubleTwist still a thing?
Last edited by DrMeatball on Fri Jun 04, 2021 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
sysrqer
Established Member
Posts: 2519
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 11:47 pm
Has thanked: 319 times
Been thanked: 148 times
Contact:

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by sysrqer »

For me the best approach was to separate the the functions compared to all in one solutions on windows.

For library management I use puddletag, it's really powerful and can do batch file/folder naming if your tags are in order.

For playback I use mpd + cantata. I tried almost all other players on linux and found this to suit my needs the most. I think it has options to sync devices but I haven't tried that in years. If that doesn't work then you can set up custom actions (I have one to open the album in the file manager and another for opening the album in puddletag) so you should be able to set one up for sending to an external device I think.
User avatar
Largos
Established Member
Posts: 616
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2020 12:21 pm
Has thanked: 70 times
Been thanked: 179 times

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by Largos »

I use strawberry for my music player https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org

I don't know what you mean exactly by integration but you can use kdeconnect to control media playback from an android phone. That's not specific to a music player, works with firefox as well.

bandcamp is a good place to buy music.
User avatar
milo
Established Member
Posts: 1242
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:55 am
Location: Southern Utah, USA
Has thanked: 275 times
Been thanked: 218 times
Contact:

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by milo »

I used to use iTunes on a Mac, but I agree the best approach on Linux is modular. I prefer Audacious with a WinAmp skin (cause I'm old school) as my desktop audio player, and I maintain my directory structure manually. I use ExFalso for tagging as needed.

On my phone I use VLC. I transfer files to my phone using a USB drive.

I don't purchase a lot of music these days. Sometimes I'll buy a CD at the thrift store. I'll download free tunes if available by the artist. Occasionally I'll buy an album on Amazon.
User avatar
bluzee
Established Member
Posts: 338
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:43 pm
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 88 times

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by bluzee »

Similar to RB but something I like better is Clementine. That said I don't use that much either. Music is served out via UPnP with servers like Mediatomb or Kodi. On my android phone I have UPnPlay. On desktops upmpdcli acts as a UPnP frontend to mpd. upplay is the GUI control point that creates your playlist and controls which device it goes to.

I buy CDs or Download links directly from musicians' merch table at shows and festivals. At least I used to before Covid. Mostly I just turn on the radio. ckua or stream kexp online.
User avatar
d.healey
Established Member
Posts: 610
Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:33 pm
Has thanked: 274 times
Been thanked: 100 times

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by d.healey »

I use VLC
David Healey
YouTube - Free HISE scripting and sample library dev tutorials
Libre Wave - Freedom respecting instruments and effects.
caprenter
Established Member
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:32 pm
Has thanked: 44 times
Been thanked: 30 times

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by caprenter »

I know this is an old thread, but...

I used to use Google Play - I uploaded my CD collection and used the phone app/computer to play stuff from it. When it ended and went over to YouTube music, I ended up setting up Ampache on (first an old laptop, and later) a raspberry pi - so that I have my own music server running basically. I use Ultrasonic on Android to stream music from that server and often bluetooth that to a speaker.

For me it was a good bit of work to set up, and it's not always hassle free, but I like it a lot.

When I buy music, it tends to be from Bandcamp. Lots if artists also provide music there on a pay what you feel basis or offer free download codes.
I have music on there on the same basis, and it's also licenced under creative commons for re-use.

I'm happy to help if I can if anyone wants help with Ampache etc, but the online support is pretty comprehensive.

I also want to mention Resonate https://resonate.is/ as an alternative - this is a 'stream to own' model. It's run as a co-op. You pay a small amount for every song you play. If you play the same song 9 times,then you will own it, paying in total about £1. (The pricing is structured such that pay very little for your first stream so that it's supper cheap to discover new music. Some of my music is on there.
asbak
Established Member
Posts: 897
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:04 pm
Has thanked: 71 times
Been thanked: 64 times

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by asbak »

Another vote for Audacious.
For Internet Radio there is Streamtuner2 which can be configured to use Audacious as the backend player.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
User avatar
bluzee
Established Member
Posts: 338
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:43 pm
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 88 times

Re: Not a fan of Rhythmbox, better alternatives? Also Song Stores / buying music / not streaming

Post by bluzee »

Something I've added in since recently discovering it is snapcast. https://github.com/badaix/snapcast

MPD now plays to a snapserver fifo and snapclient plays to the sound device. It adds time code to the packets so audio can be synchronized. I installed a client in every computer, laptop, tv box and phone in the house. There is a web UI to control the volume of every client and the android client can also control all the volumes from your phone. All the devices play audio in sync.

I like Cantata for MPD control on the computers. On Android so far liking M.A.L.P. the best. There is a package called mpd-sima that I also installed that keeps the playlist going if you neglect to add tracks on your own. Cantata also supports dynamic playlists.

For stand alone player another one I really like now is Strawberry.
Post Reply