How to install DeaDBeeF Music Player on Ubuntu 20.04

DeaDBeeF is a free and open-source modular cross-platform audio player application which runs on GNU/Linux distributions, macOS, Windows, BSD, OpenSolaris, and other UNIX-like systems. This application is written in C, C++, Objective-C, Assembly language.

It plays a variety of audio formats including Mp3, ogg vorbis, flac, ape, wv/iso.wv, wav, m4a/m4b/mp4 etc.., converts between them, lets you customize the User Interface(UI) in almost any way you want, and use many additional plugins which can extend it even more.

DeaDBeeF music player is incredibly modular and highly customisable.

It was first published in August 2009 under GPLv2 license and It has all the features you look for in a music player such as supports unicode tags (both utf8 and ucs2), Ships with several standard plugins, Control playback from command line, last.fm/libre.fm scrobbler etc..

Key Features of DeaDBeeF

• Free and Open-Source
• Supported formats: mp3, flac, vorbis, opus, wav, aac, m3u, cue, alac, wma, wavpack, sid, psf, ffap, tta
• Localized into many languages
• Global hot-keys
• Expandable through plugins
• Album art display in playlist
• HTTP and FTP internet streams, with ICY protocol support
• Minimize to tray, with scrollwheel volume control
• Metadata editor
• Gapless playback
• Radio and Podcast support for ogg vorbis, mp3 and aac streams
• Many More..

This article explains three methods of installing DeaDBeeF Music Player on Ubuntu 20.04.

Choose the installation method that is most appropriate for your environment.

Method 1: Installing DeaDBeeF as a Snap Package

The easiest way to install DeaDBeeF on Ubuntu 20.04 is by using the snap packaging system.

A snap package is a type of universal Linux package that you can enjoy irrespective of the distro. Its an self-contained software packages that include the binary all dependencies needed to run the application.

All you need is the snap service pre-configured, In the case of Ubuntu 20.04, it comes with snap pre-installed.

If snapd package is not already installed then you can install it by running following command.

$ sudo apt install snapd

Note: Snap packages can be installed from either the command-line or via the Ubuntu Software application.

This is actually the Snap version of the DeaDBeeF. It can be used on any Linux distribution that has Snap support.

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following command to install the DeaDBeeF Music Player package.

$ sudo snap install deadbeef-vs

At this step, you have successfully installed DeaDBeeF Music Player on Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Type the following command to update DeaDBeeF package.

$ sudo snap refresh --list

Method 2: Installing DeaDBeeF via PPA Repository

If you want to install the most recent version of DeaDBeeF Music Player, you can use the PPA repository.

Personal Package Archives (PPA) are software repositories designed for Ubuntu users and are easier to install than other third-party repositories. PPAs are often used to distribute pre-release software so that it can be tested.

Step #1

First of all open the terminal from system application launcher and type the following command to add the DeaDBeeF PPA to your system.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:starws-box/deadbeef-player

Step #2

Then, execute the following commands to install DeaDBeeF package on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt install deadbeef

Once installed, launch it from your system application menu.

Method 3: Installing DeaDBeeF using deb package

We’ll download and install the DeaDBeeF Music Player .deb package from Sourceforge.

Step #1

Visit at Sourceforge page to Download the DeaDBeeF .deb package.

Step #2

Now type the following command to install the downloaded package.

$ sudo dpkg -i deadbeef-static_1.8.8-1_amd64.deb && sudo apt-get install -f

That’s it, DeaDBeeF has been installed on your Ubuntu System, and you can start using it.

Starting DeaDBeeF Music Player

In the Activities search bar type “DeaDBeeF” and click on the icon to launch the application.

How to Uninstall DeaDBeeF from Ubuntu 20.04

For some reason, If you want to uninstall DeaDBeeF Music Player, refer following methods.

Method #1

If you have installed DeaDBeeF via Snap type the following command:

$ sudo snap remove deadbeef-vs

Method #2

If you have installed the appication via PPA then uninstall by running the below commands.

Step #1

It’s most likely that you added the PPA using add-apt-repository command. You can use the same command to remove the PPA as well. Just give it --remove option in the command.

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:starws-box/deadbeef-player

Step #2

As of now we removed the PPA. What about the applications installed using these PPAs? Will they be removed as a result of removing the PPA? The answer is NO.

So this is when ppa-purge comes in picture. It not only disables the PPA but also uninstalls all the programs installed by the PPA or revert them to original version provided by your distribution.

So type the following command to install the ppa-purge package and uninstall the DeaDBeeF package.

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:starws-box/deadbeef-player

Method #3

If you have installed the appication using apt then uninstall by running the below command:

$ sudo apt-get remove deadbeef

Conclusion

I hope that now you have a good understanding of How to install DeaDBeeF Music Player on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa.

If anyone does have any questions about what we covered in this guide then feel free to ask in the comment section below and I will do my best to answer those.