Since Android smartphones come with a default music play, one would ask why there is a need for an alternative music app. Waste of storage space? I think not. Yes, I do acknowledge the default apps, say, Google Play Music that most smartphones come with is a good choice. It does its job well enough and gives you good sound. But let’s be honest, default music apps can be a little boring. This is due to their lack of exciting features, dull interface and sometimes, an unsatisfactory equalizer. So this list is for those who wish to personalize their playlists to their very exact preferences. I have been looking for the best performing music apps, which has not been easy but finally, I bumped into the perfect list of those you can download and check out how fitting they are to your tastes. This is to note the list is in no particular order.

With whatever listeners you use, I believe this list will improve your listening experience.

Musicolet

This is a free, light-weight and ad-free app that claims quite a number of exciting features. It has an intuitive user interface, a powerful equalizer that also allows you to control the music using the earpiece button. The interface contains easy-access tabs for folders, artists, albums and artists. It also claims to be the first app with multi-playing queues. Other than that, it has a sleep timer, lyrics support, widgets and a tag editor.

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I prefer it on Telegram

With just a size of 2.6MB, this app has proved to be among the best that had no downsides for me. Hope it does the same for you. 

BlackPlayer

This 7.8MB app is another gift that keeps on giving and may be one of the best I have used so far. With an exciting interface that you can customize literally with swipes and gestures, it allows you to alter the font and UI colour with custom values. Personalization at its best.  It also has widgets, Gapless playback, changeable themes, a tag editor and supports MP3, WAV and OGG file formats. But what I found to be exciting was the ability to access artists’ information once connected to the internet and have a brief read of their previous music and life. How cool is that?

Other special features include:

• 5-band equalizer with Bass Boost, 3D surround Virtualizer and Amplifier
• Supports Android Auto and WearOS
• View and edit embedded lyrics
• Support for synchronized lrc files

Musixmatch

For those who love to sing along to songs as they play, this app may be best suited for you. This app (5.1MB on Play Store) proves to give a world-class listening experience with a floating lyrics widget that lets you have lyrics that co-occur in real time. An even better feature is the ability to view lyrics as you are using other music players like YouTube, Spotify, Sound Cloud or Google Play & Apple Music. With Musixmatch, you can search for a song by title, artist or just a single line of lyrics. Despite the ads that may pop up, you can get rid of them by purchasing the premium version of the app. Some of its other special features are:

• Translation of lyrics in real time
• Identify lyrics of songs playing in your surroundings
• Lyrics Card feature for sharing lyrics of songs
• Supports Chromecast and WearOS

Pulsar Music Player

Many users have actually been approving and preferring this player for some time now that is light-weight (2.9MB on Android). It actually turns out to be among the best as it is completely free, ad-free and an absolutely vibrant user interface with animations. The interface is customizable with various theme colours. It moreover offers a library view that is sorted by artist, genre or folders. A gapless playback, tag editor, home-screen widget and last.fm are other features that continue to make more interesting. Despite how small it may be, its special features don’t get limited as they include:

• Crossfade support
• Android Auto and Chromecast support
• The option of creating smart playlists according to most played recently played and newly added songs
• Speedy search across albums, artists and songs 

MediaMonkey

For those searching for a ton of features in a music player, go no further. With a folder view that is available for a 15-day trial period, its search algorithm is fairly fast and displays both track and artist. It has a library that can be sorted into albums, audiobooks, genres, tracks, artists, tracks, podcasts and even composers. Now that’s what I call variety. The music player, that is, in fact, 8.6MB also downloads your missing album art and lyrics. Through the settings, one can also view the search bar at the Notification panel. A sleep timer, tag editor and home-screen widget are also contained in the player. But that isn’t the limit as other features still come with it like:

• Five-band equalizer with stereo balance
• Support for Android Auto and Chromecast/UPnP/DLNA devices
• Option to bookmark large files like audiobooks and videos
• Compatible with third-party scrobblers including Last.fm and Scrobble Droid 

Pi Music Player

A pretty decent, well-crafted music player is the first impression I got from this app. It is not as heavy being 5.1MB on Android but is surprisingly loaded with features that may be appealing to a lot of users. On the first start, it lets you select a theme among four choices but which you can later change. A beautiful interface that makes navigation easy is featured in it. The free music player also features various library views, sleep timer, tag editor, Widget support and Ringtone Cutter. However, the app contains ads that can be expelled by additional purchases.  Its special features include:

• 5-band built-in equalizer presets like Bass Boost, 3D Reverb Effects, Virtualizer and more
• Pi Power Share feature for sharing tracks, albums, genres, and playlists
• Enhanced folder view for managing audio files
• Audiobooks and podcasts support

I am sure there is a lot of offers when it comes to music players with the functionality of playback for already downloaded music. But if you are searching for the ultimate experience when it comes to what you listen to, be sure to pick from any on this list. After all, when it comes to offline playback, most music players have become almost outmoded.

Enjoy your playlist.