{"id":9347,"date":"2022-02-03T13:31:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/03\/how-to-play-your-music-collection-from-the-linux-command-line\/"},"modified":"2022-02-03T13:31:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:31:55","slug":"how-to-play-your-music-collection-from-the-linux-command-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/03\/how-to-play-your-music-collection-from-the-linux-command-line\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Play Your Music Collection From the Linux Command Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"A
fatmawati achmad zaenuri\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Need a way to play your collection of MP3<\/a>, OGG, and FLAC music files<\/a> right from the Linux command line? Here\u2019s how to do it with a competent, lightweight terminal<\/a>-based player.<\/p>\n

Music on Console<\/h2>\n

Even in these days of cloud-based streaming music platforms<\/a> like Amazon Music and Spotify, the chances are you\u2019ll still want to play something from your local collection of audio files from time to time. Perhaps you have something so obscure the streaming services don\u2019t have it. Or you ask for a particular track and they keep playing you the live version, or the extended remix, or any of the other variations when all you really want is the plain old as-first-released album track.<\/p>\n

Of course, Linux is well served with music players.\u00a0Rhythmbox<\/a>,\u00a0Clementine<\/a>, and\u00a0Strawberry<\/a>\u00a0are fully-featured, sophisticated, and polished applications for managing your music collections<\/a>. As well as playing your music they\u2019ll do things like search for and download missing album art, play podcasts and internet radio, and edit the meta-data in the files themselves.<\/p>\n

But what if you want to access your music collection from a terminal window, without the overhead of a fully-loaded music player? Music on Console, or MOC, is a program that allows you to do just that. It loads in the blink of an eye, lets you search your music collection, find what you want to play, and just play it.<\/p>\n

It supports multiple sound file formats<\/a>, playlists, and even basic themes. If you\u2019re a keyboard junkie and tend to hang around in terminal windows, MOC is a natural fit for you. It is fully keyboard-controlled. Once the keybindings burn themselves into your muscle memory you can control MOC without having to take your hands off your keyboard.<\/p>\n

When you have a long-running process in a terminal window there\u2019s always the chance that you close the terminal window by accident. But even if you do, MOC\u2019s got a neat trick to deal with that too.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> What Are the Differences Between MP3, FLAC, and Other Audio Formats?<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Installing MOC<\/h2>\n

Installing MOC on Ubuntu is straightforward:<\/p>\n

sudo apt install moc<\/pre>\n
\"Command<\/p>\n
To install MOC on Manjaro is just as easy:<\/p>\n
sudo pacman -Sy moc<\/pre>\n
\"Command<\/p>\n
To install MOC on Fedora takes a few extra steps.<\/p>\n
First, we use wget<\/code> to download the details of the RPM Fusion repository. We were using Fedora 34. If you\u2019re using a different version such as 35<\/a>, substitute the version you\u2019re using for the \u201c34\u201d in the command.<\/p>\n
wget http:\/\/download1.rpmfusion.org\/free\/fedora\/rpmfusion-free-release-34.noarch.rpm<\/pre>\n
\"Downloading<\/p>\n
Then we install the details of that repository.<\/p>\n
rpm -Uvh rpmfusion-free-release-34.noarch.rpm<\/pre>\n
\"Installing<\/p>\n
With that done, we can go ahead and install MOC:<\/p>\n
sudo dnf install moc<\/pre>\n
\"Installing<\/p>\n
The MOC Config File<\/h2>\n
On Ubuntu and Manjaro, MOC started straight away. On Fedora, we had to edit the MOC configuration file first. It\u2019s a good idea to edit the MOC configuration file anyway, to add the location of your music directory. The configuration file is called \u201cconfig\u201d and is located in the \u201c.moc\u201d directory in your home directory.<\/p>\n
Open a terminal window and make sure you\u2019re in your home directory<\/a>. Open the configuration file in an editor. We used gedit<\/code>:<\/p>\n
gedit .moc\/config<\/pre>\n
Find and edit, or add these two lines. Replace \u201cdave\u201d in these lines with the name of your own user account:<\/p>\n
mocdir = \/home\/dave\/.moc 
\nMusicDir = \"\/home\/dave\/Music\"<\/pre>\n
On Fedora, we also had to add this line:<\/p>\n
TiMidity_Config = \/etc\/timidity.cfg<\/pre>\n
\"Editing<\/p>\n
TiMidity is a MIDI library used by MOC.<\/p>\n
For security reasons, we need to make sure the configuration file is only writable by the owner. We\u2019ll use the chmod<\/code> command<\/a> with the read-write\/read\/read mask of 644.<\/p>\n
chmod 644 .moc\/config<\/pre>\n
\"Setting<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019re ready to start MOC.<\/p>\n
First Steps with MOC<\/h2>\n
The command to start MOC is\u00a0mocp<\/em><\/code>. Note the added \u201cp\u201d that stands for \u201cplayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
mocp<\/pre>\n
\"Starting<\/p>\n
The default view has a directory listing on the left and a playlist on the right. If you\u2019ve configured your music directory in your \u201c.moc\/config\u201d configuration file, MOC will open with your music directory displayed in the left-hand pane.<\/p>\n
\"The<\/p>\n
If you navigate away from your music directory, you can quickly return to it by pressing the \u201cm\u201d key.<\/p>\n
You can move the highlight bar with the \u201cUp\u201d and \u201cDown\u201d arrow keys, and the \u201cHome\u201d, \u201cEnd\u201d, \u201cPgUp\u201d and \u201cPgDn\u201d keys. Hitting \u201cEnter\u201d will select the highlighted item.<\/p>\n