JRiver Media Center vs Quod Libet

JRiver Media Center is a media player for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with network playback and support for audio and disc formats. Its listed formats include WAV, AIFF, FLAC, APE, WMA Lossless, Apple Lossless, WavPack, DVD, and Blu-ray, giving listeners a way to play those files and discs across its supported desktop platforms. JRiver is paid software, with a listed starting price of $79.98 and a 30-day trial; there is no free plan. Pricing details describe a one-time license model, but the individual plan terms vary. The Master License is $124.98 a month for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is valid for a single major version. The Windows-only plan is $99.98 as a one-time purchase, while the Mac-only plan is $99.98 a month and the Linux-only plan is $79.98 a month. The platform-specific options list one operating system each, whereas the Master License lists all three.

Quod Libet is a free audio player for Linux, macOS and Windows, built with GTK+ and written in Python. It handles libraries with tens of thousands of songs and supports formats including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Opus, FLAC, Musepack, MOD, XM, IT, WavPack, MPEG-4 AAC, WMA, MIDI and Monkey’s Audio. Users can browse by tags or directories and search with regular expressions, structured boolean logic or Python expressions. Its tag editor supports Unicode, batch changes and renaming files based on tags. Playback features include Replay Gain, shuffle, a configurable queue, podcasts, Internet radio and playlist import and export in XSPF, M3U and PLS formats. Plugins include integrations for MusicBrainz, CDDB, Last.fm, Sonos and Logitech Squeezebox; the feature page lists more than 80 contributed plugins. Podcast feeds are checked every two hours, and episodes can be downloaded. Radio streams support MP3 and Ogg Vorbis; other formats may need additional GStreamer plugins, and stations cannot be added to playlists or the play queue. Playback requires GStreamer or xine-lib. Quod Libet is free software under GNU GPL version 2 or later, though alternate terms may apply to some files or modules. The listed macOS 4.6.1 disk image is marked unofficial.