Are you tired of streaming music? It feels like everyone is talking about how to stream this, how to stream that, how to stream from PC to phone, etc. Yet while streaming can be convenient, it also eats up your mobile data.
With mobile providers becoming more stingy with data plans and data caps, maybe it’s time we go back to offline music files.
To do this, you’re going to need a good music player app—and for your convenience, we’ve done the research for you. Here are the best offline music player apps for Android, some which you may not have heard about.
Note: Many popular music streaming apps like Spotify and YouTube Music offer the ability to download music for offline playback, but we’re not going to include those here.
The Best Free Offline Music Player Apps for Android
1. AIMP
At first glance, AIMP looks a bit overly simplistic. Flat interface designs are currently in, but AIMP’s approach feels a bit empty. Maybe that’s the point. This app gets straight to the point: it plays your music and doesn’t muck around with distractions.
It handles nearly all audio file types—including lossy and lossless formats—and it comes with a 29-band equalizer, which is rare to see in music players. It can also mix multi-channel files to stereo and/or mono. Overall, if you can get past the interface, it’s a solid choice that won’t let you down.
Download: AIMP (Free)
2. JetAudio
JetAudio comes in both free and premium versions, but you get so much in the free version that most users won’t even need the latter. The only downside is that the free version is supported by ads, but they aren’t intrusive, so they’re tolerable.
Here’s what you get: a 10-band equalizer with 32 presets, lossy and lossless support, effects like reverb and x-bass, playback speed control, automatic gain control, and more.
JetAudio Plus costs $ 4 and comes with a 20-band equalizer, built-in tag editor, over a dozen widgets, and a few other convenience features.
Download: JetAudio (Free)
3. Rocket Player
Rocket Player has been around for a few years now, and it has come a long way since its inception. A lot of the bugs have been fixed, it performs much smoother now, and the feature set has expanded by a lot.
For free, you get a 10-band equalizer with several presets, over 30 themes, a built-in tag editor, Chromecast support, a sleep timer, a nifty playlist manager, and even support for podcasts.
Get Rocket Player Premium for $ 4 to unlock gapless playback, replay gain, crossfading, tag editing, expanded support for audio formats. and more.
Download: Rocket Player (Free)
4. Phonograph
Phonograph is often considered to be the best-looking music player app, mainly because of the many built-in theme color sets and the fact that the interface colors dynamically change to match the content on the screen.
It’s pretty standard as far as features go, so don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles, but if you just want a simple listening experience that never gets in your way, Phonograph may be the app for you.
Download: Phonograph (Free)
5. Pixel Player
If you’ve come this far down the list and aren’t satified with the “lightweight” options further up, then we recommend giving Pixel Player a try. It’s lesser known, as evidenced by its number of reviews, but it’s pretty darn good.
It only supports basic file formats, but it has a 5-band equalizer with bass boost, gapless playback, a built-in tag editor, and a few options for customization, such as themes and colors. Most notably, Pixel Player can analyze what you listen to and suggest more music that matches your tastes.
Download: Pixel Player (Free)
6. Impulse Music Player
What makes Impulse Music Player different? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s designed to be a gesture-controlled music player, making it perfect for any situation where you’re preoccupied—such as when you’re driving!
In addition to gesture controls, Impulse Music Player supports a number of useful features: 5-band equalizer with bass boost and virtualizer, gapless playback, crossfade, metadata editing, automatic album art downloads, and more.
This music player app is no gimmick. It’s highly functional and definitely worth giving a try.
Download: Impulse Music Player (Free)
7. Shuttle Player
Intuitive and lightweight. That’s what separates Shuttle Player from most other music players. It feels smooth and it runs well on older devices, and while there isn’t anything distinctive about the interface, it’s easy enough to use.
Free features include a 6-band equalizer with bass boost, gapless playback, several theme options, a sleep timer, and a few customizable widgets.
Shuttle+ costs $ 3 and grants a few extra features: built-in tag editor, folder browsing, Chromecast support, and a few more themes.
Download: Shuttle Player (Free)
8. BlackPlayer
BlackPlayer is the best free music player I’ve ever used. It’s clean, it’s modern, it’s lovely on the eyes, it’s easy to navigate, and it’s packed with features: 5-band equalizer, gapless playback, scrobbling, and sleep timer.
A premium version does exist, called BlackPlayer EX, which has extra themes, fonts, more settings to tweak, more ways to customize your experience, a visualizer, better sorting, and a first taste of all future features. For just $ 3, it’s well worth it.
Download: BlackPlayer (Free)
9. DoubleTwist
DoubleTwist has been around for a while (we first reviewed it way back in 2012), and after all this time, it feels a bit outdated in terms of what it offers.
As a music player, it gets the job done—at least there aren’t any ads, even in the free version—and the interface is quite nice too, but there’s nothing too special about it anymore. It’s still good! It’s just not great anymore.
DoubleTwist Pro is available for $ 8, which grants AirSync (syncing your music to your PC over Wi-Fi), AirPlay (streaming to devices like Apple TV or Sonos), and a 10-band equalizer.
Download: DoubleTwist (Free)
10. PlayerPro
Again, PlayerPro has all of the standard premium music player features, so choosing it comes down to its interface. While most non-Material apps are ugly, PlayerPro’s unique design is both attractive and satisfying to use.
Special convenience features include importing music history and ratings from desktop music players, custom smart playlists, voice search and Google Now integration, and free complementary plugins.
Download: PlayerPro (Free)
11. Pulsar
If you’re using an older device with outdated hardware, a lot of modern apps may frustrate you with lag and choppiness. Well, Pulsar strikes the perfect balance between a gorgeous appearance and lightweight performance.
It comes at a price—a lack of big advanced features—but that doesn’t mean Pulsar is barebones. You still get smart playlists, fast search, gapless playback, and a built-in tag editor that works quite well. For the 5-band equalizer, bass booster, and reverb features, you’ll need to upgrade to Pulsar Pro for $ 3.
Download: Pulsar (Free)
The Best Paid Offline Music Player Apps for Android
For us, the difference between a “free” and “paid” app is whether the free version can be used indefinitely. While some of the above apps do have paid versions with extra features, the following apps only offer limited free trials.
12. n7player
n7player has a beautifully sleek interface, and at this price point where all competing apps pretty much have the same feature set, the interface could be the one deciding factor. And for that, n7player makes a solid case.
The 10-band equalizer, volume normalization, gapless playback—these things are all great, but n7player’s real selling point is its nuanced approach to organizing your library. Nothing is ever more than a few taps away.
Download: n7player ($ 3.49)
13. Neutron Player
Despite its outdated appearance, Neutron Player is one of the best music players out there—indeed, if you’re an audiophile, you’ll immediately recognize that the audio from this app is of utmost quality. It’s professional, one might say.
And that’s what distinguishes Neutron Player: it’s truly the music player for audiophiles. You’ll need to connect your device to a proper set of speakers to hear the difference, of course. It also comes with all the standard premium features you’d expect.
Download: Neutron Player ($ 6.99)
14. Poweramp
Poweramp is the only app on this list with over 1 million reviews, and that alone should speak volumes. The free trial lasts for 15 days, after which you’ll need to upgrade—and with a price tag of $ 4, it’s a pretty darn good value.
Poweramp has everything you’d need in an advanced music player: 10-band equalizer, gapless playback, crossfade, replay gain, a built-in tag editor, fast library scan, along with some other niceties like dynamic queues.
It’s the Honda of music players: it may not be luxurious, but it’s reliable.
Download: Poweramp ($ 3.99)
15. GoneMAD Player
GoneMAD Player is the perfect music app if you love tinkering and customizing every little detail to your heart’s content. Seriously, it has a built-in theme builder and over 250 options that you can tweak. Or choose from over 1,000 preset themes.
Other notable features, on top of the standard premium ones, include an optimized media library that supports 50,000+ songs, two shuffle modes, custom actions on queue completion, custom gestures, and multi-window support on some devices.
Download: GoneMAD Player ($ 3.99)
Which Android Music Player App Do You Like Best?
Not everyone wants to Spotify their music collection. Streaming music can be convenient, but it’s more reliable and doesn’t use as much data if you download music instead.
AIMP and Pixel Player are my music apps of choice, but you honestly can’t go wrong with any of the ones on this list. And don’t hesitate to shell out a few dollars to get the premium version of an app if you really like it!
By the way, even though most of these music apps have built-in equalizers, the one you choose may not. In that case, you can fall back on one of these sound-boosting equalizer apps for Android.
Read the full article: The 15 Best Offline Music Player Apps for Android
