Cantata For Linux

Cantata is an open source application that provides users with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) front-end for the Music Player Daemon (MPD) command-line program. It supports the GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

On Linux, the application has been designed for the KDE desktop environment and it’s available for download only as a source archive, which allows users to configure, compile and install the application on any Linux distribution. It can also be used on other open source desktop environments, as long as all requirements are installed.

The software will require users to set up the application from the get-go, through a straightforward wizard-based interface where they will have to add the host, port, password and music folder. It is important to mention here that the MPD program should run in background if you want to use this application. Once the connection has been established, you will be able to continue setting up the program.

The application offers several view modes, including Library, Albums, Folders, Playlists, Dynamic, Streams, Online, and Devices. The sidebar includes a context menu, which lets users to control the program's style and what items are displayed.

Under the hood, we can report that the application’s user interface is written with the Qt GUI toolkit and has been designed from the ground up to be used under the KDE desktop environment, which means that it requires the KDE runtime libraries and supports both Qt4 and Qt5 toolkits.

Cantata is a nice, cross-platform and stable application that allows users to play music files distributed by MPD (Music Player Daemon). It comes with a simple tag editor, a file organizer, support for MTP and USB-Mass-Storage devices, and many other attractive features.

Too bad that one needs to install the some core KDE components to use the program on other open source desktop environments, such as GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE or LXDE.