I tested dozens of music players, and this is the only one I kept

No matter what streaming service you use, you run a high risk of listening to AI-generated music without knowing it.

From Tidal to Spotify, it’s a growing problem that has listeners frustrated, as they’re left in the dark about how the music they’re listening to was created.

Third-party tools exist that filter out AI-generated music from the web version of Spotify, but if you’re using the app, there’s no way to easily tell where music is coming from.

Whether you want to vote with your wallets, take control over your music, or support artists directly, buying your own music remains the best way to listen.

But after you’ve collected MP3s from Bandcamp or a similar service, where do you put them? Searching for “MP3 music player” on the Play Store brings up an unhelpful list of identical-looking apps.

Fortunately, I unearthed the perfect app for the music I actually own.

Choosing the right music app

How I establish the ‘best’ music app

Before I dive into why I love Oto Music, I want to establish the criteria I used to select an app.

The “best” music app is an entirely subjective judgment, but there are core features a music app needs to offer to at least be considered.

So here are the features I think are essential to a good music app:

• No AI-powered tools
• No algorithms
• The fewest number of steps between opening the app and playing the music I want
• Equalizer
• Casting option
• Customizable tabs

It’s also worth pointing out that these are not the same criteria I use to evaluate streaming apps.

The point here is that when it comes to playing the music I own, I also want to have complete control over how I play it. So, with these criteria in mind, I settled on Oto Music.

Oto Music feels like a Google app without the baggage

No AI in sight

Material You theming certainly isn’t a mandatory feature when I choose apps. It’s nice to break the theming to remind myself that UIs can be more than clean, minimalistic blocks.

But when it comes to an app that I consider a tool, I like it to be as clean and uncomplicated as possible.

Oto Music is Material You to the core, with a variety of visual customization options akin to the wallpaper theming on Android. However, customization is far more than aesthetic.

When I open my music app, I want to find the music I want in as few taps as possible. Oto Music, unlike most apps, lets you fill the bottom tabs with only the ones you want.

Best of all, you can choose which tab you want as the default when you open the app. This was a godsend to me, as I can open the app directly into my albums page.

You can also add tabs by genres and phone folders. The former is a nifty option if you want the equivalent of the song radio feature found on many streaming apps.

Oto Music is packed with all the features I could want

I’m seriously impressed

Tidal’s app size is 157 MB. Spotify’s is 156 MB. Oto Music, in a glorious expression of minimalism, takes up 7.09 MB. It’s an astonishingly small app, but don’t think that means fewer features.

I’ve already touched on the equalizer in the app, but there’s a lot more going on.

I’m especially a fan of small details like data on the music quality or the option to save playing queues as playlists. There’s a metadata editor, and best of all, a lyrics editor.

Most of the music I buy isn’t popular enough to have widely available lyrics, but with Oto Music, I can write them in as I listen. Unfortunately, there’s no way to sync lyrics manually, but you can download them if they’re available online.

There’s a sleep timer, liked songs list, share file option, seven customizable widgets, Chromecast support, and more.

Oto Music genuinely has everything I want from a music app, and it could certainly teach the big streaming apps a lesson or two (let me save my Tidal queues as playlists!).

A good music app lives alongside your streaming app

I don’t plan on giving up my streaming app any time soon. Whether I continue to use Tidal or switch to an alternative, the value is incredible.

Nevertheless, it’s important that I own music, whether as digital copies, vinyl records, or CDs. But with so many poor-quality music players on the Play Store, finding the best way to play my music is a chore.

There are plenty of alternative music players that are equally good. Poweramp is the classic choice and offers a staggering array of features best suited for handling large music libraries. Musicolet offers innovative features and a stunning UI.

But for the best compromise between features, style, and user experience, Oto Music is my player of choice.