Media Player

Listening to music on your computer doesn’t necessarily have to involve a web browser, or even an Internet connection at all. With a playlist configured, songs can automatically play and change, so you can attend to other tasks. In case you haven’t already found an audio player, maybe Media Player can convince you to keep it for more than a trial run.

It takes only a little while before you get to enjoy all the application has to offer. However, before this becomes available, you need to make sure that Java Runtime Environment is installed on the computer you want to use it on, because it’s a required component for functionality.

On the visual side of things, the application doesn’t quite make the impression you’re probably expecting, but good enough to convince you to give it a shot. Playback controls are easy to identify, a volume slider lets you adjust the level of decibels, and a progress bar shows how far into the song you are.

If you only want to listen to a single song, then hitting the play button brings up a browse dialog so you can select a file. Unfortunately, the application is only capable of reading MP3 files. What’s more, drag and drop is not supported, and the browse window is configured to show all files, making identification slightly difficult.

There’s also the chance you want to try it on the long run, case in which the built-in playlist editor comes in handy. It shows up as a separate window, with controls to repeat, or shuffle playback. However, playlist files can’t be saved, or imported, and the application discards all songs you load as soon as you press the close button.

Media Player wants to offer just the right means for a clean playback, for those days where you just want to play a song or two, without stumbling over too many features, or keeping PC resources busy. It manages to achieve this in terms of simplicity, but the lack of an option to save playlists is a big step behind.