Playing and controlling mp3 files in Python?

Question

First things first, I am a Python beginner, with a typical C++/Java background for object oriented stuff.

I was convinced to try Python for this current endeavor I am working on, and so far I like it. One issue I am having though is finding a good mp3 module.

I have tried TkSnack, which installed and ran fine with no errors(as long as my audio device wasn't busy) but it could never actually produce a sound, it just did nothing... I went online for help, and was disappointed with the amount of documentation.

So I decided to switch. I tried PyMad because it is in the standard repositories for Ubuntu as well. There was even less documentation on this, but I could make it play a sound. The only problem is that it requires a loop to constantly write/play the audio buffer. This makes it particularly hairy to handle playback control(in my opinion) cause I would have to run this in a separate thread or process, and somehow control the seek position for pause and such. This is a little too low level for why I am using Python. I liked the simplicity of TkSnack for its easy commands like "mysound.play()" or "mysound.pause()" rather than controlling a loop.

I also looked at pyMedia, which looks like it is the most up to date with documentation, but I can't get it to install on my machine. I get a "gcc exited with value 1" error or something like that when running the "python setup.py build" command.

So I am looking for any suggestions or help on one of these modules, or a completely different one, that is high level and easy to use for mp3s(and preferably other formats too) I am trying to have basic playback control(pause, stop, skip, seek) and I may also be streaming files too eventually(if I ever get there).

EDIT: I like the python bindings for Gstreamer, but is this a cross-platform solution?? I forgot to mention that as a requirement. But I always just associated GStreamer with Linux, would this work on other OSs?

EDIT: Wikipedia says yes.

Answer 1

I just had to deal with this, and from my research I think your best bets are pyglet and pygame. They're interface packages with built-in a/v support.

Answer 2

Sorry I can't help you with PyMad or pyMedia, but I have other suggestions.

Existing music players written in Python:

• Exaile
• FUPlayer
• Listen

All of the above use the Python bindings for the GStreamer multimedia framework. Docs for the bindings are scarce, but check here, here, here, and examples from the source distribution here.