Play Music Through Terminal on Linux Using CMus
CMus is a music player application for the GNU/Linux based operating system command line interfaces (CLI). By using CMus you can play music using only Terminal.
Not like a music player in general that uses a GUI interface (Graphic User Interfaces), CMus uses command line interfaceso playing music using CMus allows you to save more on the use of resources such as RAM and CPU when compared to using a music player application with interfaces graphic.
CMus is a free music player app and open source. Like most apps open source Otherwise, CMus is released and distributed under the GPL or GNU General Public License.
CMus was first created by Timo Hirvonen in 2004, then in 2008, Timo Hirvonen chose to stop developing CMus. So that in 2008 until now (2022), CMus was developed by various companies developer incorporated in project the.
Even if it’s only based on command line interfaces, CMus has quite a lot of features that can’t be underestimated. Here are some of the main features of CMus:
– Playlist
– Filter or filter the playlist
– Gapless playback
– Option to resume song playback when startup
– Color settings
– Instant startup
– Searches like mode editor Vi
– Write commands like in editor Vi which can press Tab to complete a command.
– Dynamic Keybindings and many other features.
CMus supports various song file formats to play such as Ogg, Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, Opus, Musepack, WavPack, WAV, AAC, MP4, and various ffmpeg formats.
Install CMus on Ubuntu, Linux Mint and their derivatives
On Ubuntu distros and derivatives such as Linux Mint and so on. CMus is available on official repositories. So to install CMus, no need to add repository otherwise, you can install it via official repositories.
To install CMus, updates first repository so that the list of available packages is updated.
Open Terminal by pressing the keyboard combination / shortcuts CTL + ALT + T or open Terminal via the application menu. Then type the following command in Terminal to update repository:
sudo apt-get update
Wait for the update process to finish.
After the update is complete, you can install CMus by using the following command:
sudo apt-get install cmus
Wait for the CMus installation process and the required dependencies to finish. Make sure it’s not there error during the installation process.
How to Play Songs in Terminal Using CMus
To open CMus, open Terminal and type the command “cmus” and press enter, then CMus will open in Terminal with a blank display without a list of songs.
Browse or Search Song Files By Pressing the 5 . Button
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| Browse or Search Music in CMus |
To add playlists of song files, press the button 5 on the keyboard, then search for or browse the location of the song files, you can add only a song file or you can also add a folder so that all the song files in the file are added.
Add Files or Folders to Library By Pressing A . Button
After successfully searching and finding the song file or folder, add the song file or folder by pressing the button A on the keyboard.
Then the file or folder will be added to the libraries. When you add the file or folder of the song, there is no indicator telling you that the file or folder has been added to the libraries. Only the highlight of a file or folder will normally change to the folder or file below it.
Go to Library By Pressing 1 . Button
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| CMus Library View |
After successfully adding the song files to the libraryentered into library by pressing the button 1 on the keyboard. Then you can play the songs that you have added to the library by pressing Enter on the song.
Go to Selected Library or Playlist By Pressing 2 . Button
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| Playlists on CMus |
To enter library or a playlist that you have selected, for example a certain album or band in a folder, press the button 2. Then you will exit view mode library and will only display the song files that you have selected.
Exit CMus
If you have finished listening to a song and want to exit CMus. Just like in the Vi text editor, you can exit by pressing the button “:q” then press enter, or by pressing the button Q, then press button Y to make sure you want to exit CMus.
