simple basic mp3 player software

[cliffski]

I've got both media player and itunes on my PC, but when I have graphics software, email software, visual studio, excel and other crap running I could do with a SIMPLE mp3 player than starts up quickly, doesn't hog ram or cpu*, doesn't crash and doesn't want to update itself each week or run services in the background all the time.

I don't need 'visualisations', album art, fancy sound equalisers, plug-ins or integration with anything whatsoever. I don't even need volume, my keyboard controls that.

I want the most stripped down free mp3 player that has playlist support.
What do people recommend? I don't want to buy anything, because I already have those 2 free ones so it would seem silly. I'm just sick of bloatware. Windows media player seems to take a minute to go from clicking its icon to being able to play anything...

*obviously the decoding of mp3s eats CPU, but I'd prefer not to add to that with anything whizz-bang.

[Freezer-TPF-]

I'd suggest an old version2 of Winamp, maybe Winamp 2.95. Or maybe try Winamp 5 Lite.

[rei]

I use Media Player Classic Homecinema.

[John Many Jars]

I used WinAmp 2.81 for a long time because of startup time, but it started giving me very insistent messages about updating implying it wasn't safe to keep using it (?). Haven't found a substitute I really like.

[tromik]

Foobar and MusikCube are both insanely light. Foobar you might have to do some tinkering to get it looking/working the way you want it to. MusikCube is crazy fast and light with some pretty advanced features.

If you just want to play a single file, go with MPC Homecinema. I use it when I'm listening to podcasts - you can stretch out the player to get a nice long seek bar and it has a bookmarking feature.

[krayzkrok]

While it may not have the smallest footprint, I use VLC media player - it starts up in less than a second, and importantly you can simply drag files or entire folders to the desktop icon and it opens, sets the playlist, and plays instantly.

[edit] oh yes, and it'll play absolutely anything you throw at it.

[nKoan]

mpg123? :p

[Perco]

Seconding tromik on foobar2k. It's quite feature-rich but very speedy.

[chequers]

If you really care THAT MUCH about performance, foobar2k. If you don't, winamp has far more features and still fits in a (these days) laughably small amount of ram.

[jabroni]

I've used Quintessential Player for like 8 years now. It takes up about 4 megs of ram and doesn't seem to use the CPU enough to get even 01 percent in the Task Manager on my computer. Startup is about as instant as it gets.

Just a disclaimer: they do seem to have a new version now. I am on 4.51 and have been for years.

[charmtrap]

Third or fourthed on foobar2k. Very very fast and light.

[Daly]

Another for foobar2k. I use it with no add-ons and it just pops-up, plays and goes away on demand. No loading times, no resource hogging, and this is on an old 1.7 pentium.