The Most Popular Music Player for Mac OS X

What is the best music player for Mac? iTunes will be always the first choice. Because it can manage all your media files (assuming you use iTunes supported formats) for your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. Although iTunes allows users to convert other media into Mac compatible formats, they still want to own a free Mac music player, which can playback all the popular music, even lossless ones directly. Below I will recommend you some music player software for Mac OS X.

As iTunes has been introduced for a very long time, it has become a huge, multimedia and store program. Though its powerful functions, many people need something simpler. You can use your iTunes to stream music with AirPlay to speakers around the house. But the fact is that it becomes a clunky, bloated piece of software which both can be used as a storefront and a media player. Though has plenty of memory for running iTunes, we are still looking for the simple yet compatible tools.

There are a lot of music player tools available in the market now. For user’s reference, here is a list of the players I collected, along with some basic information about them.

Aurora Blu-ray Player (Commercial)

It is all-in-one Mac media player software which supports all the popular video(*.3gp, *.amv, *.asf, *.avi, *.divx, *.dv, *.f4v, *.flv, *.iso, *.m2t, *.m2ts, *.m4v, *.mkv, *.mov, *.mp2, *.mp4, *.mpg, *.mts, *.mtv, *.mxf, *.rm, *.rmvb, *.tod, *.ts, *.vob, *.vro, *.webm, *.wmv, etc.) and audio formats(*.aac, *.ac3, *.aif, *.aiff, *.amr, *.ape, *.cda, *.dts, *.flac, *.m4a, *.mka, *.m4p, *.mp3, *.oga, *.ogg, *.wav, *.wma, etc.) as well as Blu-ray(watermarked when playback if not paid), DVD movies and Video CD, etc. In addition, the built-in DTS5.1 technology will make you enjoy your Blu-ray HD movies vividly. Download

Amarra by Sonic Studio (Commercial)

The player software basically acts as an attachment to iTunes and utilizes some fancy iZotope resampling software for the ultimate playback experience. However, the license either requires an iLok USB key or the software is locked to a single computer which can't be transferred.

Clementine Player (Free and Open Source based on Amarok 1.4)

This multi-platform player is more of a music organizer, with features geared in that direction, rather than having any audiophile settings. It isn't Java based but using Qt instead, so the user interface is fast.

Audirvana (Free, Open Source)

This free player offers a window that looks like a piece of hi-fi gear; it offers device "hog mode" and up-sampling for no cost at all.

BitPerfect (Commercial)

Integrating with iTunes, this software sits in your menu bar and feeds music via Integer Mode to your DAC. Great if you want a simple and cheap solution while still using iTunes.

Decibel by Steven F Booth (Commercial)

It was free and has a history of being called "AyreWave" at one point in time. The tool now dropped any association with them and has been renamed Decibel. The software itself, while basic, allows one-click importing from files selected in the Finder or iTunes, "hog mode".

Ecoute by PixiApps (Commercial)

With iTunes integration, including song rating and metadata support, this is the player for people who want a slick, theme-able one-window interface and want to share your listening habits on Twitter, Facebook or LastFM. Unfortunately, this pretty add-on will require some cash.

Fidelia by Audiophile Engineering (Commercial)

This commercial product offers a main window that looks like a piece of high-end hi-fi gear, has the ability to play music directly from iTunes playlists without iTunes running. It comes with an array of re-sampling methods and remote control software for the iPhone and iPod Touch available in the App Store.

Play by Steven F Booth (Free)

This free package is an alternative to iTunes if you wanted a simple music player and nothing else. Allows access to the built-in Mac OS X audio effects filters, which can be very handy if you want a 31-band equalizer, high-pass filter or the like.

Pure Music by Channel D (Commercial)

Based upon Pure Vinyl and using its own playback engine, like Amarra, integrates with iTunes, running alongside iTunes and resamples stuff on the fly. Unlike Amarra, it requires iTunes to be running to select tracks, but offers a considerable slew of other options.

Songbird (Free)

More a multi-platform internet connected media library project by previous Firefox, Netscape and Winamp developers, it's pretty much the "anti-iTunes" of this roundup, even though a lot of the buttons look exactly like iTunes' playback interface.

Vox by Alessio Nonni (Free but donations requested)

This free player is much like Play, a slowly developed app that does little more than just play music with a minimal footprint. Like Play, it gives access to in-built Mac OS X audio effects filters.

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