Music Player Daemon
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 21 of 38 music players by recommenders
Lightweight, fast music server you can control over the network, with many clients. Common caveat: a DIY setup needing a separate server and client.
Lightweight, fast music server you can control over the network, with many clients. Common caveat: a DIY setup needing a separate server and client.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: 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 carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Works with many GUI and terminal clients
“I can use a mega-complete GUI for MPD that makes Foobar2k blush.”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders” “I still like the plainness of MPD + ncmpcpp.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “for local playback I like ncmpcpp with MPD”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” Plain, simple, rarely needs changing
“I hated it at first, but gave up and nowadays I feel it's good enough not to change anything.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “I still like the plainness of MPD + ncmpcpp.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs separate server and client setup
“it has good flac/cue support ... but you have to set up the mpd server first, then choose a client, and it can be a pretty DIY experience”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “macOS Music Players” Hard to like at first
“I hated it at first, but gave up and nowadays I feel it's good enough not to change anything.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026”
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 | — |
| Music Player DaemonThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
7 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“why try to rebuild the whole mpd client/server stack”
“I hated it at first, but gave up and nowadays I feel it's good enough not to change anything.”
“for local playback I like ncmpcpp with MPD”
“Lightweight, fast and since it is a server, you can control it from outside.”
“I still like the plainness of MPD + ncmpcpp.”
“it has good flac/cue support ... but you have to set up the mpd server first, then choose a client, and it can be a pretty DIY experience”
“I can use a mega-complete GUI for MPD that makes Foobar2k blush.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.