Updated 03-Aug-2025
Any future music player needs:
- Chromecast
- Auto-mix (random function, some limit to number of songs
- Share (album cover, album, song)
- Don't mess with files directly, beyond liking them (turn off external artist info import)
- Normalize across collection (Symfonium does not appear to have this)
- Equalizer
- Android Auto support (an icon and interface, not just playing through the speaker)
Symfonium appears to be the best option currently. Sadly not open source, but a small developer with one-time payment.
- See also Quod Libet
Symfonium is developed by the Yatse developer, which makes sense. Yatse is the best Android controller / remote for Kodi, Plex, Enby, etc. Symfonium is a freemium app which is free (and ad-free) to use, and a paid license (~$6) provides a pro-version experience with additional features. Not open source, and that is a pity. My interest has waned already.
For me, I can't find anything better at this time.
Features of Symfonium
- Can add Internet radio stations by URL (my favorite SomaFM stations play nicely).
- Ability to do random playing of songs and albums (e.g., re-discovery).
- No problem dealing with my 100.6gb music repository.
- Easily connects to chromecast devices, including Google and Xiaomi smart speakers.
- Lots of settings to tweak the playback experience.