# cmus

7 Hacker News commenters recommended cmus and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Simple, long-lived terminal music player that people keep using; the most common caveat is some warts and UX downsides.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, stable and long-lived (2 comments): "GUI players come and go, cmus stays." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46778488)) "I like things to be simple." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46452751))
- Fits a terminal workflow (2 comments): "I can open mutt and cmus with a complete different configuration and database" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49945252)) "I still like to use cmus in the terminal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46453013))

## What people warn about

- Some warts and UX downsides (1 comments): "it has some warts and UX downsides" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514984))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [cliamp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cliamp.md): 6 recommend
- [Retro Music Player](https://hackerapproved.com/p/retro-terminal-music-player-inspired.md): 6 recommend
- [ncmpcpp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ncmpcpp.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "cmus", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cmus/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).