Recommend me a straightforward Android music player app

[Wombat]

What is says above, but with the proviso that I do not need or want any streaming capability, or constant assumptions that I want to stream music to my phone.  No bloody adverts, either!

I just want an app that will play what I already have on the phone, and understands the concept of folders, rather than thinking it can define albums by reading all the tracks and then making up albums out of its silly little head (just like Windows Media player...).  I don't need "playlists", either, I just want to be able to select an album (i.e. a folder) and play either the track I point to, or the whole thing.  My previous Sony phone music app was fine, but my current cheapo Xiaomi phone has a stupid thing that is full of adverts, assumes I want to stream, and makes it very hard to find my own music. I never, ever, want to stream music.

Actually as a sub rant/request, repeat the same question for Windows 11.  I already own all the music I need, and its filed logically by type, and in folders for each album, and I'm not changing that.  Denon HEOS respects that, for my home audio system.

[Kim]

Starter for 10: VLC.  It does albumy playlisty stuff if you want it to, but that's not compulsory, and you can just browse a directory tree like dog intended.  It's advert-free and understands FLAC, which is about as far as my level of care goes when it comes to playing music on Android.  Being a video player, it has a ton of features related to that, so it's a bit on the complicated side.

It's also the default answer to codec-related playback problems on Windows, on account of directly supporting almost everything.

[Wombat]

Starter for 10: VLC.  It does albumy playlisty stuff if you want it to, but that's not compulsory, and you can just browse a directory tree like dog intended.  It's advert-free and understands FLAC, which is about as far as my level of care goes when it comes to playing music on Android.  Being a video player, it has a ton of features related to that, so it's a bit on the complicated side.

It's also the default answer to codec-related playback problems on Windows, on account of directly supporting almost everything.

Oh, never thought of VLC being a music player, despite having it on the PC, tablet and (Android) telly for just playing (video) stuff.  I do indeed need FLAC, well its not critical, but when I rip CDs I tend to do it as FLAC by default, 'cos I then store them on the NAS, so the Denon HEOS amp can play them.  I'll give it a go on this PC, it may reduce instances of me effing and blinding at windows Media player, which refuses to acknowledge folders, and invents it own albums.  The not understanding folders thing, means all my classical stuff (in several sub categories) is all mixed up with my idea of "modern" music (i.e. anything from Led Zeppelin to Kate Bush, but rarely anything newer than 1990).

Thanks Kim (again)!

[Kim]

There is, I think, a tragic lack of music players that really whip the llama's ass.  Everything's turned into iTunes, somehow forgetting that even iTunes is terrible at being iTunes.  Bring back WinAmp and XMMS!

Oh, it turns out that my desktop player of choice, Clementine, runs on Windows and OSX these days.  Might be worth a look.  Again, it does all that library stuff, but you can still browse a file tree.  Development seems a bit sluggish, as it's a curmudgeonly fork of Amarok from before it - you guessed it - turned into iTunes, and you're likely better off with a development build from GitHub than the official release from 2016.

[Wombat]

Just installed it on the PC, and also I'm currently listening to my choice of music from a folder on my phone, which I'd already installed VLC on ages ago, for playing awkward videos.  I think this comes under the heading of "why didn't I think of this".

Oh, and it can see the NAS drive too!

Anyway, huge and sincere thanks!

[hubner]

SicMu Player, available from F Droid.

It's a bit limited, just a file manager that shows the folders and files and plays the files in sequence.

Foobar2000 is the best music player on Windows, but there's no Linux version, and the Android version is completely different and crap.

[lissotriton]

Winamp is still available, and getting occasional updates. It works OK for me anyway.

For Android, I like Vanilla Music. It is free/open source, no adverts etc. Can play folders etc if you want.

(though still a better idea to add the correct ID3 tags to everything, so you can play by artist/album/year etc)

[rr]

I use musicolet on android, you can play individual tracks and albums, browse your files and all that. You can also edit your tags and artwork. It plays flac and most other formats.
You can also produce playlists that play in you order or a random order. My default playlist is everything on my phone in random order.

[woollypigs]

The llama is still getting a hiding, you can either download the newer version which is very much like this old school or find the good old version on the electrical interweb. Even a android version but it is more aimed at streaming and got shite reviews. There's even a linux version via wine.

MediaMonkey is working ok for me on android and linux.

There is a version of foobar2000 on linux but you need to run it via wine, which I had done and used the foobar2000 android app as a remote.

[MattH]

I've been running PowerAmp for many years on Android. It costs a small amount, but it just works for me and is ad-free.
I did try winamp and a few others back in the day, but they all had issues and didn't work quite how I wanted (ISTR a big problem back then was getting them to let you build a queue easily on the fly).

[dacfvid]

Pulsar Music Player has been my go-to app for Android. It’s great for offline listening and doesn’t have any ads, which is a huge plus. They offer a Pro version, but the free one meets all my needs.