MusicBee

Pros: I at first liked that there was a lot of options for potentially putting together a bunch of things for the themes, the setup and plugins. Though I don't know if there's much else to say regarding that.

Cons: When it comes to setting up the folder locations, it will not accept a subfolder specifically on the desktop. Also if you have something that isn't an .mp3, .flac, .wav, or .ogg and you have a video editor which will create specific files to just make it so that way it will read it, it will straight up error in trying to read it.

And upon deleting even those files, and moving my folders specifically to the music folder, it flat out wouldn't even boot.

Overall: Frustrating, disappointing. Not recommended if you're somebody who wants an ease of access if you're not just some audiophile who doesn't do anything else with their music aside from just listening to it. I'm very sure in the right hands that this is a great experience, but it's just not for me. Don't download this if you're a video editor who enjoys making videos using your favorite music. Download this if you're willing to just listen to your music, and beyond that don't want to do anything else with it. It didn't even last me an hour. The program stopped working when I deleted my sfk files from the folder, hoping that it could actually help the file reading, which, surprise, surprise, it didn't.

I didn't even want to bother anymore.

Open source tends to be a major selling point for many programs and products, but for this, I think it's best to just set your windows to a dark mode, and just use your default media player. But that's just me. Maybe I'm crazy for doing that, but it's way less frustrating, and I don't think I care to read a user manual to work with this. It just flat out, wasn't worth it to me. As much as I would genuinely and personally prefer to have a much better media player than the default. This just isn't it.

Also if you're a video editor, this setup will frustrate you if you like to keep your music on a specific folder on your desktop for the ease of access. This is flat out, so poorly executed. But if it's just me being bad at this kind of thing, that's okay. I'm fine to admit that and just accept that too. Take my review for what it is. I just don't like it. And I'd only recommend it to people who straight up don't care about an ease of access and would prefer it all to be handled by one application and basically turn their mind off for it. So, not many people.

Pros: I love MusicBee. And it is free - incredible. You can use it for music, podcasts, radio. There are many tools for ripping and converting music and they are easy to use. There is excellent help online in videos and user forums.

Cons: The only criticism is that it takes a while to get the hang of it - but that is because it can do so much and is so configurable.

Overall: HIGHLY recommended. I love MusicBee. And it is free - incredible. You can use it for music, podcasts, radio. There are many tools for ripping and converting music and they are easy to use,

Pros: It plays music, if that's one of the pros!!!
But that is less than the minimum expected from a music player.

Cons: I have tried MusicBee many times over several years.
Unfortunately, every time I installed a new version, I'd uninstall it shortly after.
The user interface is absolutely the worst I have ever seen among the dozens of music players that I have used.
At the very minimum, I wish there was a "Go to the containing folder" option when I right-click on a tune and want to see in which folder it is.
I wish the prompt had an option to look for a tune when I try to play a tune and the player doesn't find it, instead of just telling me it was not found.
I'm going to see if there is a way to delete the library. It really sucks, and the library from previous versions does not get deleted when I uninstall the player, which is another negative!

Overall: Very disappointed.
As I mentioned above, the user interface (as well as the top WEIRD menu items), the program's flexibility, and the missing basic but essential menu options are my main issues.
Apparently, someone is looking at other reputable players and their interfaces and options.