Ncmpcpp: The Ultimate Arch Linux Terminal Audio Player & Visualizer

If you spend your day in the terminal, switching to a web browser or a heavy electron app just to play local music is a waste of resources.

ncmpcpp (NCurses Music Player Client Plus Plus) combined with MPD (Music Player Daemon) is the industry standard for terminal audio. It is lightweight, controllable via keyboard bindings, and features an ultra-smooth ASCII audio visualizer.

1. The Architecture: MPD + ncmpcpp

Unlike regular media players, this setup splits audio handling into two processes:

• —MPD (Music Player Daemon) — a background system service that manages your music library, outputs audio, and maintains playback states.
• —ncmpcpp — the terminal user interface client that connects to MPD and lets you browse, queue, and control playback.

This means you can close the terminal or log out, and your music keeps playing uninterrupted in the background.

2. Installation

On Arch Linux, install the packages along with mpc (a simple CLI helper for controlling MPD from scripts):

sudo pacman -S mpd ncmpcpp mpc

3. Configuring MPD

Create the configuration directories and files in your user home config:

mkdir -p ~/.config/mpd/playlists
touch ~/.config/mpd/{mpd.conf,mpd.db,mpd.log,mpdstate,mpd.pid}

Now open ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf and populate it:

# Files and directories
music_directory    "~/Music"
playlist_directory "~/.config/mpd/playlists"
db_file            "~/.config/mpd/mpd.db"
log_file           "~/.config/mpd/mpd.log"
pid_file           "~/.config/mpd/mpd.pid"
state_file         "~/.config/mpd/mpdstate"

# Network
bind_to_address    "127.0.0.1"
port               "6600"
restore_paused     "yes"

# Audio Output (using PipeWire/PulseAudio)
audio_output {
    type            "pulse"
    name            "Pulse Output"
}

# Visualizer Output (Required for ncmpcpp visualizer)
audio_output {
    type            "fifo"
    name            "Visualizer Feed"
    path            "/tmp/mpd.fifo"
    format          "44100:16:2"
}

Start and enable the user-level MPD service:

systemctl --user enable --now mpd

4. Configuring ncmpcpp & Visualizer

Create the configuration file at ~/.config/ncmpcpp/config:

# MPD Connection
mpd_host = "127.0.0.1"
mpd_port = "6600"
lyrics_directory = "~/.config/ncmpcpp/lyrics"

# Visualizer Settings
visualizer_data_source = "/tmp/mpd.fifo"
visualizer_output_name = "Visualizer Feed"
visualizer_in_stereo = "yes"
visualizer_type = "spectrum"
visualizer_look = "●"

# Look & Feel
song_list_format = "{$4%a - }{%t}|{$8%f$9}"
song_status_format = "{{%a{ - %t}} - %b}|{%f}"
alternative_header_first_line_format = "$b$1$aqqu$/a$9 {%t}|{%f} $1$atqu$/a$9 rules"

# UI Navigation
header_visibility = "no"
statusbar_visibility = "yes"
titles_visibility = "no"
enable_window_title = "yes"

5. Playback & Visualizer Controls

Launch ncmpcpp by typing:

ncmpcpp

Use these numeric keys to switch layouts:

• —1 — Help menu
• —2 — Current playlist queue
• —3 — File browser (navigate folders in ~/Music)
• —4 — Search database
• —5 — Media library (grouped by Artist, Album, etc.)
• —8 — Audio Visualizer screen (press space to toggle visualizer types: wave, spectrum, columns)

Basic Keybindings

• —u — Update MPD music library database
• —enter — Play selected song
• —s — Stop
• —p — Pause / Resume
• —> — Next song
• —< — Previous song
• —r — Toggle repeat mode
• —y — Toggle single play mode

This terminal setup gives you total command of your local audio library with near-zero resource consumption.