There's an endless supply of music apps on the Play Store, so it can be challenging to find the best one that suits your personal needs. This is why we gathered our favorites and broken them down by audiophile quality, streaming, local, free, and theming, as these are some of the best Android apps around that go hand-in-hand with the best smartphones out there. So no matter your needs, today's best music player roundup is for you. Enjoy!

Audiophile players

Neutron Music Player

Neutron Music Player may not look as appealing as many of the options in this list, but it's one of the most audiophile-grade apps around. Its platform-independent in-house 32/64-bit audio engine is how you can get the most out of your DAC, with an audio engine that excels at playing hi-res audio straight to the DAC, cutting out the middleman (the OS).

Neutron Music Player is great for hi-res audio, and it comes packed with features, like support for all audio codecs, a parametric equalizer, bit-perfect playback, and every other feature you'd expect from an audiophile-grade music app. Even though the UI looks a bit dated and poorly laid out, the tech behind the app makes this release shine.

USB Audio Player PRO

This audio player courts audiophiles. It supports USB audio DACs and HiRes audio chips, with support for any resolution and sample rate. An MQA Core Decoder is built-in, and it can unfold the MQA stream from 44.1/48kHz to 88.2/96 kHz if you're the sort that prefers to stream instead of playing local files. Local file support is also superb, with native support for 32-bit/768kHz.

This wouldn't be a high-quality player without wide file-type support. This music player supports WAV, FLAC, OGG, MP3, MQA, DSD, SACD ISO, AIFF, AAC, M4a, APE, CUE, and WV. It also supports UPnP/DLNA if you prefer to stream files from your home servers.

Streaming players

Spotify: Music and Podcasts

Spotify is pretty much the defacto music streaming service across platforms, and that's because of its playlists. Spotify builds playlists from your interests that are often remarkable. Since everyone can create playlists, they are easily shared. You can also train the AI with prebuilt lists from friends if you're new to the service but want to hit the ground running.

Since Spotify is pretty much everywhere, you'll rarely have an issue where you can't access your music. The streaming may not offer audiophile quality, because of compressed streams on Spotify, but the tech is advancing fast. This means Spotify could replace some of the high-end players. Plus, you get access to tons of podcasts if you prefer to chill to some discussion when using Spotify.

YouTube Music

If you're more into the core Google ecosystem, you probably use YouTube Music or have heard of it. It wasn't the best replacement for Play Music, but now that the app has had time to improve things, it's a fine choice for those looking to stream their tunes in a familiar YouTube interface.

Much like Spotify, auto-generated playlists are available, tuned to your interests, which is where music streaming apps shine. They learn as you listen to better recommend and alert you of exciting music, which is worlds better than crawling through online stores looking for what's new.

Local players

Poweramp Music Player

Poweramp is as powerful as its name suggests. Along with playing many local music file types, it lets you import HTTP streams from sites like Digitally Imported. It offers Android Auto, Chromecast, and Google Assistant support to bridge the hole left by Play Music's departure.

Bass heads can adjust the bass and treble from a user-friendly equalizer interface, and there's Direct Volume Control (DVC) for extended dynamic range and deeper bass. If you want to listen to music loudly from your phone, select the Speaker (Loud) setting in the equalizer to increase the gain and get loud results.

It's easy to find the menu item you're looking for, whether you're fielding playlists, streams, or all songs. If you're putting on a party (even if it's a party of one), you can choose from several animated visualizations that appear over the interface or take over your screen as an ambient display.

Poweramp is a robust app, with more features buried in the Settings. The app is free to try for 15 days, so you can thumb through everything it does before committing for $5.

foobar2000

On Windows, foobar2000 is a mainstay. It's a freeware music player that holds up to the great, like Winamp. foobar2000 made the move to Android in 2016. While the Android version might not be celebrated as much as the PC app, it's an excellent interpretation, especially if you enjoy minimal designs.

Gapless playback is supported out of the box, along with various file types, such as MP3, MP4, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, and Musepack. The app also supports UPnP media servers if you'd rather stream than store local files.

VLC for Android

Traditionalists love VLC for Android for its reliable simplicity and tons of utility. Those looking for something design-forward won't find much here. It's a bare-bones, no guff kind of music-playing experience. On the plus side, you can include video in your music playback.

VLC for Android is a full audio player with support for a ton of video and audio file types, including MKV, MP4, FLAC, and OGG. Media junkies can access internet streams, DVD ISOs, and disk shares. There's also support for multi-track audio and subtitles. One minor caveat is that the app's gesture control is sensitive.

AIMP

If you're keen on playlists and all that matters in your music life is the order in which you listen to songs, try out AIMP. This app's primary focus is quick access to the lists you rely on to get you through the day. And though playlists exist on every other music player app featured here, the playlists you make in AIMP are embedded into the hamburger menu for super quick access.

Dig into the settings, and you'll find options for theming, gesture control, and the criteria displayed in the file name during playback. And if what you love to do is listen to those playlists while driving, AIMP has Android Auto support.

Free players

Simple Music Player

There's a reason K.I.S.S. stands for "keep it simple, stupid." Keeping it simple reduces the chances of complications. And in the case of Simple Music Player, keeping it simple means focusing on local music playback.

Simple Music Player gives you all the features you need from a beefier music player, including playlists, an equalizer with a handful of presets, color customization, and a playback widget. There's also a handy search button for fetching what you're looking for, and any new audio you download is added to the queue.

Simple Music Player has no ads, and of the apps featured here, it asks for the fewest permissions. But there is no Google Cast integration, so you'll need another method to send music to a nearby smart speaker.

Oto Music

If you're looking for something that's genuinely free, Oto Music should be on your radar. This full-featured music player offers gapless playback, fade in/out, synched lyrics, a sleep time, a built-in equalizer, and a choice of five widgets. The whole thing clocks in at under 5MB for the entire app. It's small, easy to use, and supports a wide range of music codecs.

The best part is that you get all of this for free. The app contains in-app purchases, but these are optional and only exist for donating to the developer and nothing else. Plus, the app is a looker, sporting light and dark themes, with tons of animations to keep navigation looking slick. So whether you require Android Auto support, Chromecast support, or enjoy free apps, Oto Music is a top option that easily competes with the paid apps in this list.

Players for themers

Pulsar Music Player

Pulsar Music Player is the sister app to Omnia Music Player, but its focus is on aesthetics. Choose Pulsar if you're looking for a capable music player that lets you match its color scheme to the rest of your interface. The Pulsar interface is the same Material Design look as Omnia, but with a ton of dark and light color presets to choose from, provided you pay the .99 for Pulsar Pro or subscribe through Google Play Pass. You can customize each theme, selecting colors for up to six interface elements.

Pulsar has a couple of other standard music playback features, including smart playlists and lyrics display, as well as essential Google Cast and Android Auto support. Unlocking the app also gets you a five-band equalizer controller, nine presets, a bass booster, and a reverb option.

Musicolet

Musicolet puts a little more effort into interface styling, though it can seem a bit busy at times, and it's not as customizable as other apps here. If what you like is easy-to-make queues, Musicolet sings like the sound of its name. They're easy to create. For those with massive music libraries, there's a batch editor for editing tags and album art. You can choose how to peruse those files with linear or hierarchical browsing.

For playback, Musicolet has it all: embedded lyrics, gapless playback, sleep timers, and shortcuts for your favorite album or playlists. There's Android Auto support here, light and dark themes, and a backup and restore feature.

Musicolet Play Store
Source: Musicolet

Uncover the best player for your needs in 2023

There are plenty of awesome music players on Android. Whether you need something that streams from the cloud like Spotify, prefer local players like Poweramp, or need something free that gets the job done, like Simple Music Player, today's roundup has you covered. And now that you've had the chance to find the perfect music app for your needs, you'll want to pair your favorite tunes with the best wireless headphones to get the most out of your smartphone.