In the age of music streaming services, local media players have taken the back seat. Merely for users who accept an enviable collection of music locally stored on their calculator, a good music role player is essential.

Unfortunately, well-nigh music players tend to be heavy and chaotic with features that no one really uses. These extra features eat into your computer's resource, resulting in sluggish performance.

But, there are some music players that are feature-laden while being extremely lightweight. So, here are the best lightweight media players for Windows 10.

1. PotPlayer

PotPlayer home screen

Even though PotPlayer has hardware acceleration, it doesn't take a toll on your system'southward resource.

The UI makes navigating through your music library a breeze. The boxy pattern reminds one of Winamp. All audio-related features can be found nether one section, eliminating the need to spend fourth dimension looking for them in different menus.

PotPlayer too packs advanced features including the choice to switch between audio cards, nose reduction, and support for Winamp DSP plugins.

Download: Windows (Complimentary)

2. Audacious

Audacious music player home screen
Image credits: Audacious

Adventurous checks all the boxes when it comes to choosing a functional and lightweight music player for Windows.

The installation file size is less than 1MB. In add-on, Audacious is open source and frequent updates ensure users have a bug-free experience.

Don't let the small size fool you, Audacious comes equipped with an equalizer and audio furnishings. Furthermore, there are a plethora of plugins that can fetch lyrics for the current vocal, and display a VU meter amongst other things.

Users can create custom playlists and search for specific songs in their music library using the Audacious media browser.

Download: Windows (Gratis) | Linux (Free)

iii. Foobar2000

Foobar2000 home screen

Foobar2000 is i of the nearly popular free music players for Windows. And non without skilful reason.

The UI, which is easy on the eyes, is completely customizable. Foobar2000 has an in-built equalizer, and a media direction tool to hands organize your music library. Users tin likewise create their own playlists and sort music based on the artist.

The music player supports all popular audio formats ranging from .mp3 to .AIFF.

Due to its open-source nature, users can extend the functionality of foobar2000 using third-political party plugins.

Download: Windows (Complimentary)

iv. MusicBee

MusicBee home screen

Another popular service, MusicBee is the well-nigh visually appealing music histrion on this list.

In improver to its visual appeal, the service as well packs a lot of features. These include the power to sync your music across multiple devices, Groove Music support, and final.fm scrobbling support. There are plugins available that add even more features to the service, too.

The Groove Music integration is especially useful as it allows users to add their existing playlists to MusicBee. Additionally, y'all can also preview songs earlier buying them.

Surprisingly, MusicBee provides all these features while consuming only 25-70MB of RAM.

MusicBee also comes with a portable bundle that lets you relish the application without installing it.

Download: Windows (Gratis)

MediaMonkey music player home screen.

MediaMonkey is a music player that has largely been under the radar. But it does deserve a mention because it is easy to use and lightweight.

Unlike other music players in this list, MediaMonkey has an actress focus on organizing your music library. The application can look for missing album art, tags, and anthology names for a more complete media library. Users can create and edit automatic playlists as well.

When it comes to playback, MediaMonkey supports all pop audio formats.

In addition to this, MediaMonkey comes with a handy statistics feature that allows you to view and export data about your music library.

The paid version of the characteristic contains extra features such every bit unlimited MP3 encoding and an automatic library organizer.

Download: Windows (Gratuitous) ($24.95 for MediaMonkey Gold)

vi. Dopamine

Dopamine music playback screen
Paradigm credits: Digimezzo

Looking at Dopamine's UI, it tin almost be mistaken for Groove Music.

But backside the modern-looking UI, lies a simplistic, open up-source music player. Fifty-fifty though information technology isn't as feature-packed as the rest of the entries in this list, Dopamine gets the job washed.

Y'all can use it to organize your music library and play your favorite just don't expect advanced audio features from Dopamine. The lack of advanced features makes information technology one of the lightest music players available for Windows.

The application comes with a portable release equally well.

Download: Windows (Costless)

seven. XMPlay

XMPlay Now playing screen

XMPlay is past far the lightest music player bachelor for Windows.

This is due to its no-nonsense UI along with a file size of 380 KB. Impressively, the developers have managed to include an equalizer and a library management service in the music histrion.

In addition to this, XMPlay supports all major audio formats along with gapless playback. The media player also supports sound streaming from the net. In fact, you can use XMPlay to browse specific webpages for playable files.

Using plugins, you tin too add visualizations and other features to the media player.

Download: Windows (Gratuitous)

Media Player Classic Home Cinema main screen

Media Thespian Archetype Home Movie house (MPC-HC) is a much-loved media histrion that was widely used in older versions of Windows.

Even though its development stopped back in 2017, it yet remains one of the best lightweight media players for Windows. It doesn't compromise on features as well.

MPC-HC supports all popular media formats and has a media browser.

The media player is specially useful for users who own an old computer as it allows them to watch movies on older CPUs. Additionally, RAM usage is commonly less than twenty MB when playing sound.

Download: Windows (Free)

Conclusion

When it comes to music players, more features doesn't necessarily hateful a amend experience.

Additional features eat into your computer's memory and CPU. The boilerplate user doesn't require those features in the beginning place. That'south why a lightweight music player is always recommended over traditional ones.

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