What is Cantata?
Cantata is an open-source graphical user interface client for the Music Player Daemon (MPD), a free and open music player server. It enables users to remotely browse, play, and manage music collections stored on an MPD server from a graphical interface instead of the command line.
Key features of Cantata include:
- Browse your music library by album, artist, genre, etc.
- Build and manage playlists
- Smart playlists with advanced filtering capabilities
- Playback controls - play, pause, seek, volume, etc.
- Cover art support
- Lyrics support via lyrics plugins
- Internet radio streaming
- Support for multiple MPD profiles/instances
- Customizable user interface
- Available for Linux, Windows, and macOS
As an MPD client, Cantata does not actually play music files itself. Instead, it connects to a running MPD server to access the music library. This allows MPD to handle the audio playback while Cantata provides the user interface. Cantata offers advanced music management and playback controls compared to MPD's standard command line interface.
Winamp, VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, MusicBee, AIMP, foobar2000, Rhythmbox, Audacious, Clementine, Strawberry, Amarok, Auremo MPD Client, DeaDBeeF, Xfmpc are some alternatives to Cantata.