CLI Magic: Playing music from the command line with mp3blaster

There are instances where being able to play your favorite mp3s from a command line would make a lot of sense. Sure, those reasons are not coming to me right now, but rest assure that they are vast and infinite nonetheless…

Ever since my first Linux install 10 years ago, I have been hooked on the command line. The Bourne Again Shell (BASH) has been my first choice for moving or copying files, writing text, browsing through my home folder, and lately, even for reading email. When I realized I was depending on graphical players to listen to my MP3 collection, I searched for a command-line MP3 player — and found mp3blaster.

In addition to MP3 files, mp3blaster can play Ogg and WAV files. The most intriguing things about mp3blaster are its user interface and its ability to make groups within playlists.

Getting started

mp3blaster’s highly customizable UI is designed in ncurses, a programming library that allows developers to create text-based interfaces for command-line programs. The ncurses-based interface makes mp3blaster similar to graphical music players, in that there are play, stop, forward, and other buttons. The screen is divided into well-marked boxes. At the top of the screen is a box that lists all the program’s keybindings. To browse through all the keybindings, press the plus (+) key to move from page to page.

The box on the right lists the buttons to do routine tasks such as pause, forward, rewind, and play previous track. Each button also has a symbol above it that makes it easier to deduce what the button does what. For example, pressing 6 (>|) makes mp3blaster jump to the next track in your playlist, while pressing 3 (>>) fast-forwards the track. Source: Linux.com

[tags]linux,ogg,wav,bourne again shell,mp3blaster[/tags]