cmus
The most recommended of 4 terminal music players
Simple, long-lived terminal music player that people keep using; the most common caveat is some warts and UX downsides.
Simple, long-lived terminal music player that people keep using; the most common caveat is some warts and UX downsides.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 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
Simple, stable and long-lived
“GUI players come and go, cmus stays.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “I like things to be simple.”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?” Fits a terminal workflow
“I can open mutt and cmus with a complete different configuration and database”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Make Tmux the OS” “I still like to use cmus in the terminal.”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Some warts and UX downsides
“it has some warts and UX downsides”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “A retro terminal music player inspired by Winamp”
Other terminal music players people recommend
The three most recommended other terminal 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cmusThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| cliamp | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| Retro Music Player | 6 | 4 | 60% | 2 | — | — |
| ncmpcpp | 6 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I can open mutt and cmus with a complete different configuration and database”
“it has some warts and UX downsides”
“GUI players come and go, cmus stays.”
“I still like to use cmus in the terminal.”
“I like things to be simple.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.