In the world of Linux, Amarok is quite popular, but this oddball among the media players also works on Windows and macOS. The great thing about this free player is that it seamlessly combines offline and online music playback.
Amarok 2.8.0
Price
For free
Language
English
OS
Windows, Linux and macOS
Website
https://amarok.kde.org
5 Score 50 
- Pros
- Combination of local and internet resources
- Wiki information
- Negatives
- Not intuitive
- Some features that work on Linux don’t work on Windows
When you start Amarok for the first time, the program asks which folder on the hard disk the music collection should be synchronized with (you can change that location afterwards). After that it takes some getting used to the main window where the largest part, right in the middle, is taken up by information about the current track. The developers have integrated a Wikipedia search that will automatically bring up this information.
Music Sources
Furthermore, Amarok has everything you would expect from a media player, such as an equalizer, a bookmark manager and a cover manager. At the top, the song name, artist, and album are displayed in large letters.
The left side of Amarok is used to select the music sources. These can be local resources, such as a folder on the hard drive, an external hard drive or USB stick. Amarok supports almost all known audio formats.
Internet Resources
You can also access internet sources including Last.fm, Jamendo, Magnatune, as well as podcasts. In the beginning, those online resources remain closed; you still have to activate them in the settings. For that you go in the menu Settings nasty Configure Amarok and activate the plug-ins of the internet services you have in mind. For example, Last.fm requires you to enter your username and password via the wrench icon.
Expandable
An important asset are the plugins. Once activated, they work as a regular function. You will find many more additions on the internet to expand Amarok.
The right bar shows the contents of the playlists for the source you selected and the tracks that are waiting to be played. You can then categorize those playlists in the left bar and it is possible to import playlists from other sources.
Conclusion
If you take the time to get to know Amarok, you will notice that this player is very versatile. However, this is not a player for users who want it all intuitive and plug-and-play.
