Best Windows 10 Music Player Apps for PCs in 2021

Windows is a vast platform with a huge selection of apps, and it’s sometimes difficult to know where to get the best one for you. That’s certainly true of music apps, since different types of music listener will have different requirements. Fortunately, there’s a lot of great apps to choose from. Here we’ve rounded up what we feel are the best of the best.

If a format exists, VLC can probably play the file. It’s very much the Swiss Army Knife of media players.

VLC also comes in two flavors for Windows, both free. There’s the Microsoft Store version which is built for PCs, tablets and Xbox One; and there’s the old-school desktop app.

VLC goes beyond just digital files and also offers streaming support and will convert various file formats. It’s an extremely useful tool to have around for music and video

Spotify

Spotify is probably the most popular streaming music service on the planet, and it’s now available through the Microsoft Store, too.

It’s the same desktop app as it’s always been, with the added bonus of seamless updates through the Store. If you’re going to use Spotify, then getting it from the Store is the thing to do.

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 itself is totally free to use, and while the design is a little cluttered, if you want to stream as well at catalog your own tunes, it’s a top choice.

Foobar2000

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. It’s also free, if you need another reason.

MusicBee

Despite not being a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app for Windows 10, MusicBee sports a modern design that looks really nice. But looks aren’t all it has going for it.

It’s easy to move your existing music library from Windows Media Player or iTunes with the import feature, as well as being able to organize your podcasts and audiobooks.

Toss in gapless playback, some pretty robust equalizer controls and a host of customizations, and MusicBee very easily becomes your music player. You can even pump the sound out of your PC in 5.1 if you have the speakers for it!

It’s also totally free. There’s nothing not to like.

Great affordable accessories for music fans

Getting the most from your music requires a little help from some hardware. Whether it’s headphones or speakers, if it doesn’t sound good you’re going to have a bad time. These are some of our favorite accessories.

COWIN E7 PRO ($90 at Amazon)

COWIN’s E7 Pro delivers active noise canceling on a budget. They’re lined with well-cushioned earpads for a comfortable and great-sounding experience.

Anker SoundCore 2 ($40 at Amazon)

The Anker SoundCore 2 offers punchy mobile audio, boasting impressive audio quality over Bluetooth and 3.5mm connectors with a promised 24-hour battery life.

HiFiMan RE-400 ($39 at Amazon)

The RE-400s offer a comfortable fit and a neutral soundstage that makes them stand out from a lot of other similarly priced headphones.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

These tools will help you keep your PC’s drivers updated

Windows 10 does a good job of updating your PC’s drivers, but third-party tools can help you clean up and optimize your system. Here are the best tools to keep your Windows 10 PC’s drivers up to date.

These 10 apps are must-haves apps for any new Windows PC

You just purchased a new PC and set it up, and now you’re looking for some great apps. Look no further. These are the best apps for your new Windows 10 PC.

These are the best PC sticks when you’re on the move

Instant computer — just add a screen. That’s the general idea behind the ultra-portable PC, but it can be hard to know which one you want. Relax, we have you covered!

Richard Devine

Richard Devine is an Editor at Windows Central. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently you’ll find him covering all manner of PC hardware and gaming, and you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

10 Best Music Players for Windows PCs

Are you fond of listening to music? Here are the pros and cons for 10 best music players for Windows users. Some of them play videos, but all play audio files. Check this list and decide which music player you should stick to.

Freemake Music Box

Freemake Music Box is a free software developed by Freemake Assets Corporation. Originally Freemake Music Box played only online music from YouTube. However, now the software supports offline files from your PC.

Pros:
Freemake Music Box is easy to use and lets you manage your music library easily. It is free and many people adore it for its intelligent music search capabilities. The software features a very crisp visual interface and video watching function. The main feature of Freemake Music Box is the ability to play both offline and play online music. If the software can’t find a track on your PC, it’ll stream it from the Web. Freemake Music Box also lets create and import playlists in most popular formats: M3U, M3U8, ASX, TPL, KPL, WPL, AIMPPL, PLC, PLS, RLC, ZPL, XSPT, SMI.

Cons:
The interface is not very full and looks a little too empty when compared to others. The software doesn’t have an equalizer option, neither it supports music CDs. Moreover, if you like changing skins of your music player, Freemake Music Box is not your choice.

Supported formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, WAV, OGG, M4A, APE, AIFF, M4B, MP2, MP1, MPC, M4R, SPX.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a standard audio and video player that is installed by default on every Windows based PC including the latest Windows 10.

Pros:
It plays the most common video files except for FLV, so you will need to convert FLV to some other format. It has a loop and shuffle function, and your playlist is only limited by the number of tracks you have on your PC. It allows you to store a large library and update its information off the net with data from music producers and top US writers. Moreover, Windows Media Player lets burn and rip audio disk to WAV, MP3 and WMA formats for further use on portable gadgets.

Cons:
Its shuffle function has a habit of playing the same songs during the same session and if you add too many to the playlist, more likely Windows Media Player won’t play them all. If you update your library manually, the software sometimes mixes up the information when it plays in your playlist.

Supported formats: MP3, WMA, CD, WAV, AIFF, MP2, MIDI, ASF.

Groove Music Player

Groove music is a default audio player of Windows 10. With its subscription based service, it has become pretty popular among users. It’s available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile and Xbox One.

Pros: Groove Music doesn’t require any tech knowledge. It’s easy to add tracks and manage your music library. If you choose to use Groove streaming service, you’ll get an access to over 40 million tracks. The design is quite minimalistic and won’t distract your attention.

Cons: Unfortunately, Groove Music Player does not have an equalizer, so you can’t change sound output settings. Neither you can use auto playlists. Unlike Freemake Music Box, the software doesn’t allow you to export playlists.

Supported formats: MP3, FLAC, AAC, M4A, WAV, WMA, AC3, AMR.

iTunes

iTunes is a standard player of Apple computers. However, there was also released Windows version for those who use iPod, iPad and iPhone but don’t have Mac.

Pros:
iTunes has a very good looking interface and allows you to easily sort and organize your music and videos. Recently iTunes has got an iCloud integration. It means that every track you have in iTunes will now show up in your music library, whether or not it has been downloaded. The mini player is now smaller and more comfortable to manage. You may customize your media library by adding a colored background for each individual album. Besides, iTunes offers you to listen to radio stations and podcasts, burn your music tracks to CD, rip audio CDs, compress audio files, create iPhone ringtones and many more.

Cons:
Many people find iTunes hard to use. Now, it doesn’t let you create playlists or organize your tunes by the DJ like you could with iTunes 10. Moreover, the number of supported formats is not that huge.

Supported formats: MP3, WAV, Apple Lossless, AAC, AIFF, CD.

VLC is a well-known free audio and video player that supports a great number of media formats.

Pros:
VLC can play a lot of video files including BluRay and HD, and almost every music file type and it supports 10bit decoding. It is open source, but it is still updated on a regular occasion. In spite of the program is free, it does not have ads. VLC can stream media files from the Internet.

Cons:
The “skin” option could use some improvement and modernization. Both the library and playlist features are not up to modern standards and are beaten by the more popular and mainstream players. Some people complain that it crashes on their system, but it is not a common complaint.

Supported formats: AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, It, MACE, Mod, Monkey’s Audio, MP3, Opus, PLS, QCP, QDM2/QDMC, RealAudio, Speex, Screamtracker 3/S3M, TTA, Vorbis, WAV, WMA.

Foobar2000

Foobar2000 is one of the most popular music players adored by Windows users for its great customization and a variety of features.

Pros: Foobar2000 is a lightweight player with a clean minimalistic interface that can be easily changed with a number of skins. It can play the majority of popular audio formats and grab the missing meta-data from the Internet. The player lets you easily organize your music library and tracks any changes in a specified period of time. The software creators allow developers to add their own plugins to the app to expand its functionality. Foobar2000 also plays CD discs, HDCD, and can be used as DVD ripper for audio DVD discs.

Cons: Advanced features like skin changing and add-ons installation may seem a bit difficult for a beginner.

Supported formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, SND.

MediaMonkey

MediaMonkey is an audio player for a serious music collector. The interface is highly customizable. It allows you to have different skins and rearrange the layout to better suit your needs.

Pros: The software has a built-in auto-DJ feature, called Party Mode, that automatically plays tracks based on set criteria. With this tool you can rip CDs, download podcasts and meta-data for your music tracks. As well as Foobar2000, MediaMonley scans your music collection and updates it when you delete the songs. One of the coolest MediaMonkey’s features is that it can sync with your iOS or Android phones.

Cons: At the first view the software may seem a little bit difficult. Besides, the whole number of features is available only in paid version for $24.95.

Supported formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, MPC, APE, FLAC, VQF, WAV, and audio CDs.

Clementine

Clementine player is an outstanding music tool famous for its support for Google Drive, Dropbox, Spotify, and Grooveshark tracks. It supports all most popular audio formats and gives an advanced music library management.

Pros: Clementine is a great choice for those who like to listen to podcasts and want to stream music from their cloud accounts. Simply sign in to your account within the software, and it’ll bring your tracks for you. Clementine also syncs with your USB devices and can add music to your phone or player. Moreover, the player gives you an Android app for remote control.

Cons: The software may use more CPU than it’s supposed too. Thus you’d better install it on a powerful PC or laptop.

Supported formats: MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC.

MusicBee

MusicBee is a lightweight yet powerful music player for Windows PCs with beautiful and highly customizable interface.

Pros: The software lets you import music libraries from iTunes and Windows Media player and organize your music collection in a very simple way. MusicBee automatically fills the missing metadata of your tracks when you are connected to the Internet. Here you’ll also get a built-in ID3 tag editor to manually edit your music. One more great thing about MusicBee is numerous plugins that you may install to get more features.

Cons: Podcasts handling is rather limited and gives only a few options. Besides, the software uses quite a lot of CPU what might slow down old PCs.

Supported formats: MP3, AAC, M4A, MPC, OGG, FLAC, APE, Opus, TAK, WV, WMA and WAV, CDs.

The last but not the least is AIMP play that will be appreciated by Winamp fans for its similar design.

Pros: The player has a 18-band graphics equalizer with extra built-in sound effects. Thus you are free to increase the tempo, add an echo, pump up the bass and change other settings in the way you like. The software lets convert audio CDs to popular MP3 format to listen to on iPod, iPhone, Android and MP3 players. Other than that, AIMP allows you to listen to Internet radio stations and record radio streams in different formats. Besides, you can change the interface with a set of additional skins.

Cons: There are not serious cons about AIMP. It’s powerful, easy to use and can look the way you want.

Supported formats: CD, AAC, AC3, APE, FLAC, MIDI, M4A, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA.

What music player do you use? Why did you choose it?

If none of the tools suggested above doesn’t support a rare audio format, try to convert the file with this Free Audio Converter.