iTunes alternative on Ubuntu [closed]

Question

I like iTunes, but unfortunately it is not available for Linux/Ubuntu.

Some features I am looking for:

• Playlists
• Ability to change song from taskbar
• Album covers
• CD import
• Notification when the song is changing

Answer 1

Quod Libet (License: GPL v2) seems to have all features you mentioned:

• playlists are supported (can be exported as M3U and PLS via plugin)
• covers are displayed (it looks for a file in the current folder named, e.g., folder.jpg) (there is also a plugin that can download covers)
• it comes with a notification plugin
• it comes with a plugin for Sound Menu integration
• new tracks can be added via file, folder, URL

It’s based on GTK+, and is available in Ubuntu’s packages.

QL is a great piece of software. You can have ten thousands of tracks in your library and you will still have good performance.

Elaborate search options: You can use regular expressions, boolean and (&), or (|), not (!) (+ greater/lower than (>, <) for numerical values), search for custom tags and their values, search for playcount, rating, track length, ….

It also comes with (and nicely integrates via context menu) the tag editor Ex Falso.

I don’t have an Apple iPod, but friends could successfully copy music from my QL to their device.

Answer 2

In default Ubuntu installation, there's Rhythmbox that includes at least almost all features you want.

List of requirements from the question:

• Playlists: yes.
• Ability to change song from taskbar: yes, with plugin (I haven't used this)
• Album covers: yes.
• CD import: yes.
• Notification when the song is changing: yes (bubble)

It is obviously not as well designed as iTunes is. Rhythmbox have a long history (more than 10 years); that does not guarantee stability, but when I was using it, it was always stable and got things done.

Answer 3

My choice would be Guayadeque Music Player

Guayadeque is included in Ubuntu repositories and can be installed through Ubuntu Software centre

_{(source: ubuntu.com)}

Requested features:

• Guayadeque supports dynamic or static play lists.
• Guayadeque comes with sys-try applet and have ability to change song from taskbar
• Album covers can be downloaded manually or automatically
• Guayadeque can import music from various sources including external media
• OSD Notification when the song is changing

Additional features

• Play mp3, ogg, flac, wma, mpc, mp4, ape, etc
• Allow to catalogue your music using labels. Any track, artist or album can have as many labels you want
• Suggest music using last.fm service
• Allow to subscribe to podcasts and download all new episodes automatically or manually

List of features can be found here

Answer 4

Although I have never tried it myself, I believe Nightingale might be a good alternative, since it described in LinuxFormat as:

The interface is reminiscent of the heyday if iTunes, back when it was about helping you organise your music and less about selling you stuff.

Since I haven't tried it myself, I don't know about some of the features you ask ( such as changing songs from the task bar ), but I think that may be good for you because of the iTunes-like interface. Here is a screenshot:

Answer 5

I would still recommend Rhythmbox -- I myself prefer it a lot to iTunes (at least the new iTunes), but: You can use iTunes on Linux. It is not too hard to install with playonlinux. However, it is not recommended as a default music player, as it is slow to start and a bore to set up to look nice. Still, might be good to mention it, in case you just MUST use iTunes :)