Looking for music player. Frustrated. No hope?

[Spright]

I'm looking for an MP3 player, and I'm getting totally frustrated.

There are literally dozens of players for Android. They all seem like clones of each other: all have the same 5-channel equalizer, playlist functionality, and all other UI features. Can anyone point me to a truly unique player?

I'm a simple, old-fashioned guy. My favourite player on Windows is WinAmp. I don't care for streaming, album covers, automatic download of lyrics, file sharing, or playlists. By God, I've never in my life used a playlist. What are they for? I want to get into my car and simply listen to a whole Metallica album for 50 minutes, uninterrupted. Who uses playlists? I would really appreciate if you could enlighten me in the comments about what playlists are good for.

I hate it that all players use by default the metadata (tag) of my MP3s. Since most of mine don't have tags, what I'm getting is a huge list of albums by "Unknown", filled with tracks that are all called "Unknown". This is insane. On Windows I simply use Windows Explorer. Each of my MP3s has a file name, and they are all organized in named folders. Done.

I find that most apps give me a hard time trying to find my files on my phone. The default is always those silly playlists. Then you can choose based on artist ("Unknown"), album, track... But I'm simply asking for a file-manager-type interface that will allow me to browse my folders and choose my albums from there. Too much to ask?

Everyone recommends VLC, but I find its interface inferior. If I listen to my Metallica album and pause, then the album won't continue to play continuously afterwards. I need to tap on each track individually while driving. Unacceptable. Why can't the songs just continue to play after each other? Is this such a programming challenge?

Also, in order to pause in VLC, or in most other players, I need to tap, while driving, on a 16x16 pixel pause button. Really? Can't there be any app that allows me to press anywhere on the screen to pause? What's more basic than this? The same goes for skipping a song. Tiny, inconspicuous button for the most basic of actions.

In addition, I always need to navigate to my music folder on my phone, which is on my external SD card. VLC refuses to remember that it's there and to point there by default.

So, dear people: is there any 90s-style player out there for me that would simply play music without all the fluff?

 

[mikedt]

Don't have any suggestion for players you could try, but doesn't Winamp show the same "Unknown artist" things if your Metallica or whatever isn't tagged?

I believe that Winamp has been discontinued for a few years now, no longer supported and updated, and no longer "whips the llama's ass"

 

[Hadron]

I've never used it, so don't know how many of your other requirements it meets, but I remember that Mortplayer is a folder-based Android music app.

 

[Dannydet]

Found this one...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.folderplayer

 

[dontpanicbobby]

PowerAmp. Click on the four squares icon and choose All files. Easy peasy.

 

[Trom]

I also like minimalistic player without all the fluff, I found Foobar, same player I use on my PC at work, does everything I want without getting all cute, and it's open source with no ads.

 

[Trom]

Foobar:

 

[Spright]

You guys are awesome. I LOVE FolderPlayer. It seems to cater to exactly what I want: option to ignore tags, option to ignore album covers, simple interface. I see that there's several "folder players" on Play Store, I wasn't even aware of the concept. Nice!

Foobar also looks promising, I'll check it out soon.

 

[mikedt]

I've started using Folder Player now. Definitely recommended.

 

[Xavier Black]

I can suggest you the only one I've ever had..it's not free, though..it's called Neutron, it has an extensive setting options..the best part..it's very very very black

 

[mikedt]

I was actually after a simple media player that just browses and plays files in folders, and I remembered this thread and what the OP was asking for. Basically to browse and play lesson material MP3s in a classroom. This is a main reason why my phone must have a headphone jack, to plug into the classroom PA.

For my regular music listening I actually use BlackPlayer EX(paid version), which is as its name suggests is very black, and is well featured and reliable.

 

[NewDev4IOS]

i know this post is over a year old, but in regards to what playlists are used for (since none touched on this)... answer: they are used typically to play your favorite songs in your entire library or a select genre/artist/album/etc..., i use playlists for playing my favorite songs from a certain TV show and to listen to my favorites from my entire library and a certain genre etc... Typically i only listen to playlists because as with soundtracks there are usually some good songs in an album but then there are those wacky, off the wall, sometimes terrible songs, or just songs you just don't want to listen to in the one album that if you just listen to the entire album the songs you don't want to listen to pop up, you have to skip them every time, and if you want to listen to more from the same TV show (IE. season 1, season 2, season 3, etc...) without having to stop playing the one album and move on to the next manually you create a playlist for those albums. If you have like thousands of songs (which i do) in your library and you don't want to have to continually be pressing the skip button every time a song you don't want to listen to plays which if you play entire library that is definitely going to happen and sometimes it could take like 30-50 skips just to get to a song you like. Playlists also make it easy to play your favorite songs without having to look down at your phone when a song you do not want to listen to very often, this is especially helpful when you are driving.