Ideal Player

In a world increasingly focused on productivity and efficiency, unwinding after a busy workday can be a necessity that takes the form of watching movies, interacting with friends or listening to music. For the latter relaxation method, a lightweight audio playback app known as Ideal Player can come in handy thanks to its ability to play songs randomly in your custom queues, while also looping the tracks of your choice for an inspiration boost in your creative endeavors.

When launching the app, users are greeted to a straightforward interface that displays all available functions into one easily accessible and resizable window, thus avoiding the need for extra drop-down menus or pop-ups to make full use of its capabilities. To avoid manually choosing a track for playing each time, a queue section placed on the right side lets you automatically load the following songs while leaving the program running in the background.

Moreover, given its portable format, the program can be easily added to on-the-go USB flash drive-powered setups for those who tend to switch between their work and personal devices without having to worry about synchronizing specific application settings over the cloud. Since its source code is openly available, those with programming experience can make suggestions or fork the repository to create custom versions featuring changes that fit their preferences.

The app’s built-in volume slider lets you adjust the playback intensity compared to other system sounds, thus giving you the opportunity to overlay instrumental background music on top of video gameplay footage for a custom viewing experience. Finally, in terms of improvements, a seek-bar for skipping to certain parts of a song, alongside a more traditional, bottom-placed playback control scheme resembling popular music players’ interfaces may enhance the app’s usability.

If Windows’ built-in Media Player’s adaptation of the Fluent Design language does not suit your tastes, and you are looking for an open-source alternative with a straightforward and distraction-free layout, Ideal Player could be an option, as long as the limited functionality fits your particular style of workflow and music listening habits.