How to Change the Music Player on Your Android Device (Video)

Here we have another part of my series on getting the mort out of customizing Android (since it seems a lot of people don’t realize just how much you can change the Android OS). This time I’m going to show you how to change the default music player in Android so you don’t have to be stuck with the one the manufacturer (or Google) decided you should use.

Just like changing the home screen, the keyboard, or the camera as I showed you before, there are a ton of music players out there to choose from when thinking of making the switch. Some of them are entire services in themselves like Spotify, for example, and others are just better music players that can help organize your music (from where ever you downloaded it from) in a way that might be more to your liking. For the music player, it’s just as easy as with changing those other parts of the Android ecosystem I mentioned –download the new player and begin setting it as your default whenever prompted.

Here’s how to find a music player that you might like, some popular options that others use, and how to make sure it’s what Android uses for all your available tunes.

I. Download the New Music Player

1. Open the Play Store.

2. Search for “music player”.

3. Choose from the plethora of options and install one to try out.

II. Set it as the New Default Music Player

Like with the camera, there is no way to set it as the default app to handle music right away, you have to replace the app icon you usually use for music (and the widget if you use one) and tap it instead of the old music icon for now and then whenever you use an action (i.e. a gesture to launch the music app, plug in the headphones to launch a music app, etc.) you’ll be prompted by Android to choose what music application to use for that action and if you want it to be the new default app for that.

You can also always uninstall the new music player to revert back to the old one and undo the defaults you set.

There you go! Let me, and others, know what your favorite music players are and why in comments below!

Head to the Android How To’s section and pick your device for more how to’s for that device.

6 thoughts on “How to Change the Music Player on Your Android Device (Video)”

  1. You don’t need to uninstall it to go back to your defaults, simply go to the Info’s app and clear the defaults.

    Best regards

    1. Correct. I just assumed if you didn’t want it as the default, since that’s what I’m showing you how to do, then you didn’t want it at all so uninstalling it made sense. But you are correct, if you want to keep the music player but just not have it be default, then you can do just that.

        1. That’s because Spotify isn’t a music player in that it can’t play other songs on your phone besides ones that you get from within the Spotify library. I use Spotify myself though and just don’t use a music player (since I don’t download any music outside of Spotify).

  2. When I get in my car (2015 Jeep) and I press “media” on my stereo – which connects to my phone (Galaxy 6) via blue tooth it starts playing Spotify … I want to change it to start playing Pandora – HELP

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