A nudge in the right direction (MP3 player app)

[lphilpot]

New here to the forum, but I've been using Android since 2011. I've also been using Rocket Player (paid) for a long time but since JRT sold to ZipoApps / Muma four years ago the quality seems to be slipping. So, I'm looking for a new music player and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time finding one I like.

All my music is local and manually arranged in hierarchical directories by artist then album, e.g., ../music/Return to Forever/Romantic Warrior/Medieval Overture.mp3, etc. In a nutshell, what I want is an app to ...

• Play local MP3 files.
• Respect my directory structure (don't flatten it). I.e., I want to see / browse all the subdirectories individually, not just the flattened top level.
• Sort the directories alphabetically but the MP3 files themselves by track number.
• Create playlists (export / import / backup would be nice).
• Ideally no ads. If that means a paid version, no problem as long as it's not a subscription.
• A non-cartoonish UI would be a big plus.

I'm not interested in podcasts nor streaming, video, album art, lyrics, etc. I just want to play my local MP3s in track order, with their relative directory structure presented by the app. Rocket Player does that ... sorta ... but it's getting increasingly unreliable.

Not that it really matters, but I'm on a Samsung S23 FE (A16) and a cheap ONN Pro 11 (A14). I'm definitely not asking anyone to do my research, just wondering if I've triggered any thoughts, because I'm finding very little. Any recommendations?

Thanks!!

 

[gomezz]

VLC is my go to player.

 

[B. Diddy]

I haven't tried it, but what about Foldplay? It looks like it's ad-free and doesn't share any data. Looks like one of those apps that a dev decided to make for the sake of making it, which is so rare these days. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pnhdroid.foldplay&pcampaignid=web_share

 

[lphilpot]

VLC is my go to player.

I've run VLC on Windows and Linux a few times but never on Android. My recollection is one of complexity when digging into it. Complexity is fine but I'll have to see how it is on Android.

 

[lphilpot]

I haven't tried it, but what about Foldplay?

Foldplay is basic but looks pretty good. Clean, functional and checks my requirements. I'll have to give it some time. Thanks for mentioning it.

I also installed GoneMAD. It's more full featured, but apparently sorts files alpha by name only, despite prefixing the displayed name with the track number. As a result they're clearly out of order. But maybe I've missed something.

One thing I forgot to include as a virtually mandatory item is Android Auto compatibility. My phone is how I play music on the road. I bought my truck two years ago and I think I turned the radio itself on once just to confirm it worked. LOL