What is cmus music player?
Cmus is a Command Line Music Player for Linux Operating System. Though it looks a bit geeky (and cool at the same time ;) ), it can perform almost all basic operations that a GUI Music Player can. It's default keys (called "keybindings", which can be changed according to the convenience of the user) are similar to those used in Vim, our beloved text editor. Click here to know more about Vim.
Let us take a look at the basic commands in Cmus. Remember, it is not a complete list of commands, but is aimed at getting you acquainted with the player.
First of all, to install cmus, type the following command:
sudo apt-get install cmus
Then launch cmus by typing cmus in the terminal. The default view of cmus is similar to this:

By default, no music files are shown.
- To add a file/folder to it's library, type:
:add ~/Music/
Where ~/Music is the path of folder to be added to the library.
- To store the added items permanently in the library,
type :w in view 2. - To add a song to the playlist,
press y.
The cursor will move to the next song, which means that the song was added to the playlist. To view playlist, press 3.

- To delete a song from library or playlist,
select it and press D. (Remember, commands are case sensitive)
Cmus has a total of seven views, which can be toggled by pressing the keys 1 to 7.
- The default view is 1, the Library view, which shows the list of artists and their albums on the left side, whereas the track names are displayed on the right side. Use the keys j and k to move one artist down or up respectively. To view the album names, press Space. To toggle between the two tabs, press Tab key.
To play a track, select it and press Enter.
- Press h to move 5 seconds backwards and l to move 5 seconds forward.
Similarly, press , and . to move one minute forward and backwards respectively. - The default play key is x and pause key is c. To stop playing the track, press v.
- Keys z and v can be used to play previous and next tracks.
- To go to the song which is currently being played, press i. To quit at any time, press qy or :q
Want to search for a song? In views 1 or 2, press /name_of_the_song and press enter. To search for the next song that matches the given word, press n.
One of the coolest features of cmus is the ability to change the color scheme. Type :colorscheme and press Tab key several times. It will display all the available color schemes. Try all of them and pick one that you like. ;)

Want to change the player's volume? Press - or = keys to adjust the volume.
Want to play a song by browsing to the folder? Press 5 to go to the browser view. Then browse to the desired file and press Enter.


To view a complete list of commands, go to view 7. For more information on how to use cmus, type man cmus in the command prompt. Or, visit the github page.
Want to tell us something else about the player? We would be happy to hear from you in the comments section!
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