Most streamlined music player for Android?

[yhelothar]

I'm using Google Music now and find it incredibly clunky. You have to press through several orders of menus before you can play your music. What'd be nice is if you swipe the artist, it'll play instead of taking you through submenus of albums and tracks.

I'd like an app that can easily get a song going in two steps or so.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

I really like PowerAmp.

 

[yhelothar]

I've tried that. I don't need all of the EQ options. I don't remember if it's less clunky than Google Music?

 

[Yuriman]

I like Cyanogenmod's Apollo quite a bit. It doesn't have a ton of features but the interface is simple, intuitive and friendly.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Player Pro was my favorite before I switched to Play Music (which I only use because of All Access). I thought the UI was pretty nice.

 

[hanoverphist]

better question is which ones will work with controls on the lock screen? ive been using the stock music app for a long time, since i couldnt get winamp or poweramp to put lock screen controls up. mebbe i should try them again now that im rockin a new phone. the stock player annoys the hell out of me for many reasons.

 

[s44]

better question is which ones will work with controls on the lock screen?

Poweramp definitely does. You may have to turn it on in one of the billion settings menus though.

 

[lothar]

I like Cyanogenmod's Apollo quite a bit. It doesn't have a ton of features but the interface is simple, intuitive and friendly.

This.

 

[Crono]

I use the "Music" app on the HTC One and PowerAmp. Music is easy and simple, and PowerAmp is more fully featured with a ton of settings and has an equalizer.

 

[gorcorps]

Poweramp definitely does. You may have to turn it on in one of the billion settings menus though.

Yup, I have that enabled in poweramp now. It's my favorite music player because of sound quality (DVC) but the interface isn't great.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Unfortunately, this shows the nature of music players on Android - there's no consensus best one, unlike keyboards (Swiftkey X), etc.

I use the built in Samsung one on my S3, and it's pretty good but it hasn't stopped me from trying (unsuccessfully) from trying to find better ones: DoubleTwist, Winamp, etc. PowerAmp does have lots of positive recommendations.

 

[s44]

Unfortunately, this shows the nature of music players on Android - there's no consensus best one, unlike keyboards (Swiftkey X), etc.

PowerAmp is at least as dominant in music players as Swiftkey X is in keyboards.

Also, Swype is better.

 

[iahk]

Yep, Poweramp is as dominant as Swiftkey indeed. It was an app I dropped money for on the first week of my new android device (HTC Evo back in 2010). For those of you curious, I gives you the options of 2 lockscreen controls. Poweramp's own or Android 4.0's. It also gives you control of the notification controls so you have the option of adding reverse track control if needed.

 

[yh125d]

I used to use winamp but it was annoying. Now I'm using mixzing and its pretty good. The free version is ad supported, but not little bar advertisements, like every 3rd album you change to it plays a commercial, but you can skip after 7 seconds or so

It also can give song recommendations in a shuffle playlist, and they're not bad either

 

[jacktesterson]

I used to use winamp but it was annoying. Now I'm using mixzing and its pretty good. The free version is ad supported, but not little bar advertisements, like every 3rd album you change to it plays a commercial, but you can skip after 7 seconds or so

It also can give song recommendations in a shuffle playlist, and they're not bad either

Keep it ZEF

 

[gorcorps]

PowerAmp is at least as dominant in music players as Swiftkey X is in keyboards.

Also, Swype is better.

Off topic: I used Swype up until SwiftKey added Flow. Unless they made some huge improvements to swype since then I couldn't disagree more. SwiftKey Flow had better swiping than Swype at the time, and also is better at tap texting at the same time.

 

[WelshBloke]

Unfortunately, this shows the nature of music players on Android - there's no consensus best one, unlike keyboards (Swiftkey X), etc...

That's a good thing isn't it?

Everyone has slightly different needs from a music player, there's never going to be one best choice for everyone.

Also there very much isn't a consensus on the best keyboard either.

 

[ChronoReverse]

PowerAmp has been my goto for a long time now.

 

[ttott]

:thumbsupowerAmp is the best.

PowerAmp is at least as dominant in music players as Swiftkey X is in keyboards.

Also, Swype is better.

 

[Yuriman]

Here's a link to the Apollo APK, if you'd like to try it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4C9i5e_Qs8IcHZkaF9vN20wOVU/edit?usp=sharing

I don't think it's available in the play store.

 

[s44]

Unless they made some huge improvements to swype since then

They actually have. Swype was great until about 1.3 in the beta, then you had to tweak the settings to get reasonable accuracy. But the Play Store one is great out of the box... Only thing it needs is a number row.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I use Poweramp for commute audiobooks, podcasts and comedy routines. I use Google Music for actual music because nowadays I keep that in the cloud.

For keyboard I find myself just using stock Android's keyboard.

 

[RandomFool]

I like Zplayer. It's a recreation of the Zune HD interface. It's pretty straightforward and easy to use. It has a few weird bugs, like occasionally it'll stop playing when I'm switching between apps a lot.

 

[thewhat]

I'm also looking for some music app recommendations/tips.
I have some simple, but specific needs (I need to play music on a tablet at an event):

1. free or useful trial (no nagging pop ups or interrupted playback)
2. stable!
3. supports at least playing back various playlists and viewing the song lists side by side (if I can edit them easily, even better)
4. supports ReplayGain (or similar)
5. auto crossfade for songs in the playlist (2 seconds or so)

I don't need features like album art or EQ etc. (though if they don't interfere I don't mind).
Mostly I just need managing song lists, queuing songs etc.
Ideally I'd like to set up some playlists on my PC and then transfer everything to the tablet. Which playlist format should I use?
Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Should I just go with PowerAmp? Seems to have it all and a 15 day trial which is fine by me, if it doesn't get in the way.

 

[richierich1212]

Power amp.