mpz

Free, open-source folder player for large local music collections, built in native C++/Qt for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

If you organize your music in folders, mpz treats that folder structure as the library — there's no global indexing or database scan before you can play anything. Its signature 3-column layout puts your directory tree, your playlists, and the current track list side by side: middle-click any folder and a playlist is instantly created from it, or drag files and folders straight in from your file manager. The workflow is inspired by Foobar2000's "Album List," but mpz is a native cross-platform player rather than a clone — it keeps the features the author has relied on daily for years.

Local files are the focus (internet radio via m3u/pls streams is supported too), and the app stays fast, lightweight, and follows your desktop theme.

Highlights:

• Folder-as-library with no indexing step — built for very large collections
• 3-column UI: directory tree, playlists, tracks; middle-click a folder to make a playlist
• Gapless playback
• Multi band and parametric equalizer
• Internet radio support from raw playlist files and built-in radio library
• Built-in tag editor (TagLib: ID3v2, Vorbis Comment, MP4, APE)
• Cover art and lyrics — embedded, .lrc/.txt sidecar, or online (LRCLIB, NetEase, QQ Music, Lyrics.ovh) — in a dialog or dockable panels that follow the playing track
• CUE sheets
• Wide format support via system codecs: FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, AAC, ALAC, M4A/MP4, WAV, WMA, APE, DSD - OS media integration: MPRIS on Linux (remote control via e.g. KDE Connect), SMTC/taskbar on Windows, Now Playing/Dock on macOS, system tray
• Global media-key hotkeys and a built-in shortcuts dialog - Per-playlist and global playback order, track sorting presets, playback log
• mpd (Music Player Daemon) client mode — add an mpd server as a library folder
• Portable YAML config
• Free and open source under GPL-3.0