explaingit

strawberrymusicplayer/strawberry

Analysis updated 2026-07-03

★ 3,719C++Audience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A desktop music player and library manager built for audiophiles and large collections, with bit-perfect playback, metadata lookup, and streaming service support.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((strawberry))
    Playback
      Bit-perfect Linux
      Wide format support
      Equalizer and analyzer
    Library
      Large collections
      Tag editing
      MusicBrainz lookup
    Online
      Last.fm scrobbling
      Subsonic streaming
      Album art sources
    Platforms
      Linux free
      macOS Windows Patreon
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Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Play your local FLAC and lossless music collection with bit-perfect output on Linux for the most accurate audio reproduction.

USE CASE 2

Automatically fetch missing album art and fix incomplete track tags across a large music library using MusicBrainz.

USE CASE 3

Scrobble your listening history to Last.fm or ListenBrainz while streaming music from a home Subsonic server.

USE CASE 4

Transfer music to an iPod Classic or MTP device directly from the player's library manager.

What is it built with?

C++LinuxmacOSWindows

How does it compare?

strawberrymusicplayer/strawberrylovebabbar/codehelp-dsa-busted-seriesdanielkrupinski/osiris
Stars3,7193,7193,718
LanguageC++C++C++
Setup difficultyeasyeasyhard
Complexity2/52/54/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

macOS and Windows builds require a monthly Patreon sponsorship, Linux builds are free.

GPL license: you can use and modify it freely, but any software you distribute that includes this code must also be open source under the GPL.

In plain English

Strawberry is a desktop music player and music library manager, originally forked from another open-source player called Clementine in 2018. It is aimed at people who care deeply about audio quality, sometimes called audiophiles, and at those who maintain large music collections. On Linux it supports bit-perfect playback, which means audio data is sent to the sound hardware with no changes to the signal, which matters to listeners who want the most accurate reproduction possible. The list of supported audio formats is broad, covering WAV, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AIFF, MP4, and several others. Beyond playing music, Strawberry can fetch missing album artwork from services like Last.fm, MusicBrainz, Discogs, Deezer, Tidal, and Qobuz. It can also display lyrics by pulling from over a dozen lyrics sources. The player includes an equalizer, audio analyzer, and a loudness normalization feature that follows a standard called EBU R128, which tries to keep volumes consistent across tracks. For managing a collection, Strawberry can edit track tags and look up missing metadata automatically using MusicBrainz, a public music database. Playlists can be built manually or generated automatically based on rules. Music can be transferred to portable devices including USB drives, MTP devices, and older iPod Classic models. The player connects to online services in a few ways. It can scrobble your listening history to Last.fm and ListenBrainz, which are services that track what you play. It supports streaming from home music servers that use the Subsonic protocol, and it has unofficial integrations with Tidal, Spotify, and Qobuz, though the README does not elaborate on what those integrations cover. Strawberry runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD. Linux builds are freely available, but macOS and Windows releases currently require a monthly sponsorship through Patreon. The software is released under the GPL license. The project is maintained by a single developer who accepts donations through several platforms.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I want to set up Strawberry on Linux for bit-perfect FLAC playback. Walk me through installing it and configuring the audio output to bypass any resampling or processing.
Prompt 2
How do I use Strawberry to automatically fetch album art and fill in missing metadata for a large local music collection? What sources does it pull from?
Prompt 3
I have a Subsonic home music server and want to stream from it in Strawberry. How do I add the server and browse its library from the player?
Prompt 4
Show me how to configure EBU R128 loudness normalization in Strawberry so volume stays consistent when shuffling across tracks from different albums.

Frequently asked questions

What is strawberry?

A desktop music player and library manager built for audiophiles and large collections, with bit-perfect playback, metadata lookup, and streaming service support.

What language is strawberry written in?

Mainly C++. The stack also includes C++, Linux, macOS.

What license does strawberry use?

GPL license: you can use and modify it freely, but any software you distribute that includes this code must also be open source under the GPL.

How hard is strawberry to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is strawberry for?

Mainly general.

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