10 best music players for Android Auto

Music on Android Auto is a little bit finicky. Some obvious music players don’t work on Android Auto, and we can’t figure out why. Thus, some people still look for a decent way to listen to music. You get better luck with popular music streaming apps. However, support for local media is still a bit sparse and irregular. We can help! Here are the best music players for Android Auto. You can also find the best general Android Auto apps here.

The best music players for Android Auto

AIMP

Price: Free

AIMP is an above-average music player with Android Auto support. This one is a local music player for the files on your device. It supports most major and common file types, including MP3, APE, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MP4, M4A, and MPC. The UI on Android Auto is fairly standard fair. The actual UI on your phone is functional and has a decent layout.

Some additional features include a 29-band equalizer, playback speed controls (for podcasts and audiobooks), and volume normalization. There’s a laundry list of other features as well. This one is completely free, with no in-app purchases or ads.

GoneMAD

Price: Free trial / $5.99

GoneMAD is an excellent local music player. It features a simple but effective UI, plenty of features, and Android Auto support. Some features include lyric support, crossfade, playlists, a custom audio engine, support for many audio formats, and a 16-band EQ. It competes very well with Poweramp, which is good because they also have similar costs. I use this one, and it hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

Musicolet

Price: Free

Musicolet carved out quite a name among the best music players on Android. It also has Android Auto support, making it ideal for this list. The app features no ads, no Internet permissions, most of the usual music player functions, and a few decent extras.

The UI is minimal but simple and effective, and you also get stuff like an equalizer, headphone control support, and home screen widgets. The Android Auto support was as good as we expected, which is as good as every other app. This one rocks a 4.7 rating on the Google Play Store for a reason. The app is also entirely free, with no in-app purchases or advertising.

Pandora

Price: Free / $4.99 to $10.99 monthly

Pandora is a shoo-in for a list like this. It’s available in most infotainment centers in vehicles anyway, and it would feel wrong if it didn’t have Android Auto support. You all know how Pandora works. You start a radio station, listen to music, skip the occasional song, hear the occasional ad, and move on with life.

There are a couple of paid subscription options: Pandora Plus for $4.99 monthly, and Pandora Premium for $10.99 monthly. You can learn more about the Pandora subscriptions here. It’s a rock-solid option in music streaming, but we’re unsure if it usurps the best in the industry, like Spotify.

Poweramp

Price: Free trial / $7.99

Poweramp is one of the most popular music player apps on Android. It has features, a good UI, and plenty of customization. It does support Android Auto, although it was one of the later music players to do so.

The Android Auto UI is pretty typical, with quick access to the music player, playlists, and library. You can also ask Google Assistant to play songs from Poweramp, which usually works. It’s a great all-around player. The free version is a trial, and the full version costs $7.99.

Pulsar

Price: Free / $3.99

Pulsar is another solid option for local media playback. The app is nothing too special. However, it has a simple UI, decent controls, and plays your music. Some features (aside from Android Auto support) include Chromecast support, an equalizer, ReplayGain, gapless playback, playback speed controls, and a home screen widget.

There isn’t much wrong with this one. It won’t blow your mind, but it does the job without complaint. The free version has advertising, and the premium version removes ads. The premium version is also a separate app, and that’s a bit of a rarity nowadays. In any case, Pulsar is a good one.

Tidal

Price: Free trial / $10.99 monthly for the individual plan

Tidal is widely known as the best mainstream music streaming service in terms of audio quality. You can listen to high-fidelity lossless audio at up to 24 bits, at 192 kHz, with HiRes FLAC. It also has a wide music portfolio, with over 110 million tracks.

All that said, this is one of very few apps that has no free option. However, you can get a free 30-day trial. It’s definitely among the best choices if you want to listen to high-quality music.

Warning: A recent update is causing some issues with Android Auto. This should be fixed soon, but the reports are very recent. The good news is that it doesn’t affect everyone, but it is still something to look out for.

Amazon Music

Price: Free / $11.99 monthly for Unlimited individual plan

Amazon Music is a pretty popular music streaming app, mostly because many of you may already have access to it! For starters, you can use it for free with ads. Prime members get it for free as well, without ads, but only in shuffle mode, and with limited access to offline listening. If you want the whole package, Amazon Music Unlimited costs $11.99 monthly, but Prime subscribers can get it for $10.99 monthly.

Pretty confusing, right? If you can jump through all those hoops and pick your right plan, though, you get access to 100 million songs. Not to mention the app has Android Auto support, so you can jam to your favorite tunes on your road trips or commutes.

Spotify

Price: Free / $5.99 to $19.99 monthly

Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming service. In some cases, there’s a reason for it. One good example is that Spotify is usually among the first music streaming apps to support new technologies such as Android Auto.

You all know what Spotify does. You can stream millions of songs, listen to your playlists, play music on-demand, and check out Spotify’s second-to-none discovery features. The Android Auto support is good, and we had no problems jamming out in the car. You can use it for free (with ads) or $11.99 monthly for no ads and extra features on the individual subscription.

YouTube Music

Price: Free / $10.99-$14.99 per month

Being a Google product, we couldn’t forget about YouTube Music on this list of the best Android Auto music players. YouTube Music is a decent overall music streaming service. You can also upload your songs to the service for playback and download songs in case you drive somewhere without great cell service.

The UI on Android Auto is about the same as all the others and works with Google Assistant. The app works well, and it is made straight from Google. You can use it for free, but if you want to get rid of ads you’ll need a YouTube Music subscription. The individual plan costs $10.99 monthly.

If we missed any great Android Auto music players, please let us know in the comments. If you encounter any problems, we also have a guide of the most common Android Auto problems and how to fix them.