[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu mp3 players, again

[Rowan]

mac wrote:
> Rowan wrote:
>> Dear all: is anyone aware of an MP3 player for Ubuntu which will
>> play MP3 audio files directly from Ubuntu's own files, without the
>> necessity of compiling its own library first?
>You can simply play any old MP3 file with Totem, Rhythmbox, VLC media player or whatever: navigate to the file, right click on it, and choose from 'Open With'. But you can also have Rhythmbox or Songbird, or Banshee, etc, manage your music library.  And to do that, the software has to create and maintain a database (sometimes called a 'library') of the music, which it does by scanning your music folders and adding the music to its database ('compiling' a database in the ordinary sense of the word, rather than the technical computing usage). As far as I know, any application that manages your music library in this way is going to have to create and maintain a database of some kind, even if it does it in the background.

-- So, in fact, all these players will open and play MP3 files, or whole MP3 folders (i.e. albums), straight from the Nautilus file browser, if you right-click and select that -- even if you prevent them from 'populating' their own 'libraries' altogether? You can certainly do this with Winamp in Windows -- I never let it 'populate' its own 'library', but it worked fine straight from the Windows Explorer file browser.