The best music players, according to Hacker News commenters
30 music players were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and October 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 12 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
On Hacker News, the most recommended music player that earns the badge is mpv media player: 68 people recommended it, 11 had mixed feelings and 11 criticized it between November 2025 and October 2026. Next is Infuse video player (61 recommend, 14 mixed, 9 criticize), most often for “Plays almost any codec, direct play”. More people recommend VLC media player (139), but 79 criticize it, so it misses the 2 to 1 line.
Top picks
The three most recommended music players with the badge. Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsMixed feelingsCriticizes One comment
Plays YouTube well with yt-dlp
“mpv + yt-dlp does not have this problem because it serves the users interests rather than the platform's.”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “Microsoft patents system to freeze games and inject ads during downtimes” Free, lightweight open-source player that handles almost any file and online video through yt-dlp; people praise its reliability. Common caveat: bare interface that relies on config files and command-line flags.
Plays almost any codec, direct play
“I have no trouble playing any of my alternatively sourced media, 4K Dolby Vision included, using an app called Infuse”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device” Plays nearly any video format on Apple TV and works well with Jellyfin libraries. Remote streaming can be weak since it skips server transcoding.
Still runs on Windows 11
“which works great with WinAmp (even the old versions from the 90s still run fine in Windows 11”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player” People recommend Winamp for its fast, simple, customizable interface, and old versions still run on Windows 11; the main caveat is that it feels dated.
All 30 music players, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Mixed counts the people with mixed feelings, who count toward neither side. Approval share is recommenders out of recommenders and critics; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 12, in which someone recommended it. Had for is the median time people say they have had or used it, shown when 10 or more said.
| Rank | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VLC media player | 139 | 31 | 79 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
| 2 | mpv media player | 68 | 11 | 11 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Infuse video player | 61 | 14 | 9 | 87% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 4 | Winamp | 53 | 6 | 6 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 5 | Kodi | 48 | 11 | 31 | 61% | 11 | — | — |
| 6 | foobar2000 | 45 | 8 | 4 | 92% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 7 | iTunes | 31 | 21 | 78 | 28% | 11 | — | — |
| 8 | Plexamp | 24 | 6 | 5 | 83% | 8 | — | Approved |
| 9 | Stremio | 21 | 1 | 4 | 84% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Tied 10 | IINA media player | 19 | 1 | 1 | 95% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 10 | XBMC for the Original Xbox | 19 | 2 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| 12 | Audacious music player | 16 | 0 | 1 | 94% | 3 | — | — |
| 13 | Music Player Daemon | 14 | 2 | 1 | 93% | 7 | — | Approved |
| 14 | TV Explorer | 13 | 4 | 1 | 93% | 6 | — | — |
| 15 | QuickTime Player | 12 | 5 | 19 | 39% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | Strawberry music player | 11 | 0 | 3 | 79% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 16 | Swiftfin | 11 | 4 | 7 | 61% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | Symfonium | 11 | 0 | 1 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 19 | MPlayer | 10 | 2 | 1 | 91% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 19 | MPC-HC | 10 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Tied 21 | Wholphin | 9 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 21 | Relisten | 9 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 23 | Poweramp | 8 | 1 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 23 | Quod Libet | 8 | 1 | 1 | 89% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 25 | Moonfin | 7 | 2 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 25 | Fooyin | 7 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 25 | Media Player Classic | 7 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 28 | Popcorn Time | 5 | 0 | 2 | 71% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 28 | SMPlayer | 5 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 28 | Winamp clone for macOS | 5 | 1 | 4 | 56% | 1 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment between November 2025 and October 2026. Someone who praises the same music player in five threads counts once, in the column of their latest opinion.
A music player earns the badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.
Counts come from Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 3 Nov 2026. How it works