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 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.