Audacious music player
Ranked 14 of 38 music players by recommenders
People recommend it as a fast, minimal, cross-platform music player that plays almost any format and supports classic Winamp skins. The one recurring complaint is that it struggles with HiRes displays.
People recommend it as a fast, minimal, cross-platform music player that plays almost any format and supports classic Winamp skins. The one recurring complaint is that it struggles with HiRes displays.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 94%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 17 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Supports Winamp skins
“I'm using audacious on macOS installed via homebrew - it has a winamp-like skin.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “an excellent and cross-platform player, with support for Winamp skins”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Winamp clone in Swift for macOS” “The amazing foss music player audacious supports winamp skins”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Winamp Skin Museum” - Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Winamp Skin Museum”
- Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Winamp clone in Swift for macOS”
Plays nearly any format
“Audacious with audacious-plugins could play anything (even video game music files)”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11” “Audacious comes with Game Music Emu for playing original game music data”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” Fast, minimal, and simple
“simple enough in terms of UI and good enough in terms of features”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “Is fast, native (gtk or Qt), and you can save playlists.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “Minimalistic but quick and effective.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” Cross-platform, including macOS
“an excellent and cross-platform player, with support for Winamp skins”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Winamp clone in Swift for macOS” “I'm using audacious on macOS installed via homebrew - it has a winamp-like skin.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “Like most days, I am using it right now on macOS.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Winamp clone in Swift for macOS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Struggles with HiRes displays
“it struggles with HiRes displays amongst other things”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Winamp clone in Swift for macOS”
Other music players people recommend
The four most recommended other music players, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VLC media player | 172 | 83 | 67% | 12 | 20 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| mpv media player | 82 | 12 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Infuse video player | 78 | 11 | 88% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Kodi | 64 | 38 | 63% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | — |
| Audacious music playerThis page | 17 | 1 | 94% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Setting aside the bad default interface, my experience with that is the same as with most media players.”
“All of these Winamp skins work perfectly well in Audacious.”
“The amazing foss music player audacious supports winamp skins”
“Audacious (in classic WinAmp/XMMS mode) for playing audio”
“Yeah audacious is where it's at.”
“Is fast, native (gtk or Qt), and you can save playlists.”
“Minimalistic but quick and effective.”
“simple enough in terms of UI and good enough in terms of features”
“Audacious comes with Game Music Emu for playing original game music data”
“I'm using audacious on macOS installed via homebrew - it has a winamp-like skin.”
“Audacious with audacious-plugins could play anything (even video game music files)”
“Supports old Winamp skins too, which is the whole point!”
“Like most days, I am using it right now on macOS.”
“an excellent and cross-platform player, with support for Winamp skins”
“it struggles with HiRes displays amongst other things”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.