How to install CMUS (C* Music Player) in Linux
A Console Based Audio Player for Linux - C* Music Player
Installation and working of CMUS (C* Music Player), an audio player for Linux is explained in this article.
Cmus Features
- Play queue and excellent compilations handling.
- Easy to use directory browser and customizable colors with dynamic keybindings.
- Added Vi data-style search mode and command mode with tab completion.
- Continuous playback and ReplayGain support.
- Steaming of Ogg and MP3 tracks from Icecast and Shoutcast.
- Strong music library filters and live filtering.
- Easily controlled via cmus-remote command (UNIX socket or TCP/IP).
- Runs on Unix-like systems, including Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Cygwin.
- Added support for many audio formats including MP3, MPEG, WMA, ALAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WavPack,
- Musepack, Wav, TTA, SHN and MOD.
- Faster start-up with thousands of tracks.
To Install C* Music Player
For Ubuntu/Debian and Linux Mint
Open the terminal and run the following command to install it.
root@linuxhelp:~# apt-get install cmus
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
.
.
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up cmus (2.7.1-1build1) ...
Setting up cmus-plugin-ffmpeg (2.7.1-1build1) ...
To launch C* Music Player
Type cmus in a terminal and press ‘ Enter‘ . It will start and open an album/artist view.
root@linuxhelp:~# cmus
cmus
To Add Music to CMus
Pressing “ 5” to open file browser view and add some music.
To select the folder use arrow keys and press ‘ Enter‘ to navigate to the folder, where you have stored all audio files.
To add an audio files to your library, use arrow keys to select a file or folder and hit ‘ a‘ key, which leads down to the next line and start adding files or folders by pressing ‘ a‘ on to your library.
Once you have added music files, save them by typing “ :save” on command prompt and press ‘ Enter‘ .
To Play Tracks From The CMus Library
Type ‘ 2‘ to get the library view to play track.
The ‘ up‘ and ‘ down‘ keys are used to choose a track, that you like to play and press ‘ Enter‘ .
Some of the CMus keys to control Play are:
Press *c* to pause/unpause
Press right/left to seek by 10 seconds
Press *< */*> * seek by one minute
Press " r" to repeat the track
Press " s" to random order to play all tracks.
To Manage The Queue
If your are listening to a song, and want to play next song of your choice, without interrupting the currently running track. Navigate to the track that you want to play next and type ‘ e‘ .
Press ‘ 4‘ to view/edit queue.
Hit ‘ p‘ key to change the order of the tracks. To remove a track from the queue list, use ‘ *shift+d‘ .
The Playlist Mode
The playlist mode on ‘ 3‘ , add some songs before moving to playlist view. Press ‘ 2‘ to get the library view and navigate to the track that you want and hit ‘ y‘ to add. Now type ‘ 3‘ to go the newly created playlist.
To Search for track
To search a track navigate to the library view by entering ‘ 2‘ and then press ‘ /‘ to start a search. Type a track name you’ re looking for. CMus will start searching for tracks that have all those words in them. Press Enter to get out of search mode and press n to find the next match.
To Customize CMus
Cmus has a bunch of settings to tweak, like changing track disk numbers, enabling replay again support or changing the keybindings. To get the quick view of current keybindings and settings, press 7 and to change setting or keybind use (up/down keys) and press Enter.
To Quit CMus
Press :q and press Enter to quit and this will save all your library, settings, playlist and queue.
cmus is light. On my old netbook cmus used 15 megabytes of RAM to play one mp3, while Banshee used 135 megabytes. It's also fast to start and has few dependencies.
cmus respects your files. Unlike some other music players, cmus won't automatically download album art, create hidden folders in your albums' directories, or otherwise change your ID3 tags in any way. In fact, it can't do any of these things.