Is there a folder-only based music player for Linux?

I have my music sorted using directories so I don't want a library, tags and what not.

What I want:

easily (recursively) add directories to playlist from my music root, not from library
songs in playlist grouped by directories they reside in
directories in playlist must be collapsible and rearrangable, option to collapse all but currently played folder being a nice bonus
buttons/shortcuts for next/prev directory are a must
shuffle songs within their directories, shuffle directories within playlist

Promsing but not it:

MortePlayer on Android matches most but... it's for Android :)
Pogo has the playlist I want, but is missing essential features. Not to mention gaps between songs.
Amarok 2 is grouping by folders, but can't do anything else mentioned. Also, start without Qt/KDE libs in memory takes bloody ages.
I've been told to try xfmedia, but it's not in repos anymore and seems quite dead. Even more dead than LISP.

Nice but not what I want (to save your time, continually edited):

mocp
quodlibet
decibel
audacious
xmms
rhythmbox
vlc

Are you aware of such a music player? I'm afraid I'll have to write my own MPD client, which would cost enormous amounts of time.

yac

Posted 2011-08-22T16:08:29.363

Reputation: 191

Have you seen this question?

– soandos – 2011-08-22T16:13:34.350

@soandos I'm looking for folder based player. He's looking for Banshee alternative and explicitly mentions library which is exact opposite of that. Therefore it's no wonder the mentioned players doesn't meet any of my requirements. – yac – 2011-08-22T16:46:13.873

Answers

I am a fan of xmms2 mainly because it has a console based interface. It has a few graphical ones as well but I prefer the console one so that I can use keyboard short cuts and a simple mouse menu in fvwm. It does all that you want. Some commands that do things similar to what the question wants:

nyxmms2 playlist create ook
nyxmms2 playlist switch ook
nyxmms2 add `find /path/to/dir/* -type file *.mp3`
nyxmms2 playlist shuffle 
nyxmms2 next
nyxmms2 prev
nyxmms2 jump 13
nyxmms2 help

Note that the find command may need to be modified to get the "right" result.

Sardathrion - against SE abuse

Posted 2011-08-22T16:08:29.363

Reputation: 390

Nothing against console, but this is pure CLI. Graphical frontends are library based and doesn't do what I want, so how do you: 1) go to next folder 2) display the folder oriented playlist as I described 3) shuffle within directories ? – yac – 2011-08-22T17:04:39.210

xmms allows you (at least on my linux system) to drop a folder in the play list and it will pick up all tracks in that folder recursively. – Soren – 2011-08-22T17:09:58.483

There are example on the home page of usage. nyxmms2 is the command line interface, the man page has everything you need. You can use "next", "prev", "jump", and "list". The nyxmms2 help subcommand will give you a quick help. To add something just do nyxmms2 add /path/to/dir//.mp3. – Sardathrion - against SE abuse – 2011-08-22T17:13:33.457

@soren xmms and xmms2 are totally different and not to be confused. – Sardathrion - against SE abuse – 2011-08-22T17:13:57.090

@Soren Yeah, every sane music player can do that. It's the one basic thing of five on the list in question. What about the remaining four? Last time I checked, xmms coundn't do the rest, that's why I'm asking here. – yac – 2011-08-22T17:14:22.500

@Sardathrion I checked the help, but didn't found option to go to the next folder, only to next song. Also, playlist is flat, not grouping by folders (type: list, queue, pshuffle). Directory-wise shuffle seems nonexistent too. That is, 4 of 5 items on my list are not there, if I'm not wrong. – yac – 2011-08-22T17:37:53.773

You should be able to achieve what you want with some scripts and playlist manipulations. Did you look at the media database and different queries within that? – Sardathrion - against SE abuse – 2011-08-22T17:42:34.773

So I'd have to script the functionality myself. All right, I take that as a possible "write my own player" alternative, but not what I'm looking for ;) – yac – 2011-08-22T18:05:03.837

@yac, yeah probably but it should be easy to do: one play list per directory, merge lists, etc... Certainly, if you do write it lemme know. I could well see myself using it. ^_- – Sardathrion - against SE abuse – 2011-08-22T19:42:12.453

Have you tried Exaile or Clementine? They do allow you to play folders. I don't know, however, if you can add a contextual menu to your folders. I hope this helps.

Sapo

Posted 2011-08-22T16:08:29.363

Reputation: 11

I like Exaile a lot and use it, but I don't think it meets the OP's specs. – Kazark – 2012-11-09T02:37:58.140

Exaile seems nice and simple and does both file browsing and collections. – Draemon – 2014-01-06T19:47:07.463

I would recommend you try Rhythmbox… I think it has everything on your list.

Yitzchak

Posted 2011-08-22T16:08:29.363

Reputation: 4 084

2It does nothing I want as it's library/tag based. Seriously, it doesn't do any single one of the things I listed, did you even read my post? Or did I miss some powerfull plugin that changes every aspect of it? – yac – 2011-08-22T16:39:21.590

I did read your post. You're absolutely right. I made the mistake because I don't listen to much music on my computer and I haven't used rhtyhmbox in ages, sorry. (The music I do have is sorted in directories by album already so that would explain how I was seeing it as directory based.) – Yitzchak – 2011-08-22T16:43:10.357

VLC can be setup like this.

You can add it to the context menu and then select the "play with VLC" option. I have seen it in Ubuntu before, but I am unsure if VLC is doing it by default or if the owner of the box customized the function.

Jarco

Posted 2011-08-22T16:08:29.363

Reputation: 595

Playlist can be set to show full tree which is useless without efficient collapse/unroll controls and with folders that are shown as files until opened. Essential next/prev directory buttons/shortcuts are missing. Directory-wise shuffle is nonexistent. 2.5 out of 5 requirements. VLC is a great player with a terrible UI, I use it when all else fails ;) – yac – 2011-08-22T18:30:42.877