Plexamp

Review by eFreeware

Plexamp is a music player built by Plex, Inc. for people who already keep their music on a Plex Media Server. It is a free download from the same team behind the main Plex app, and it exists to do one job: play the music in your own library, and play it well. If your collection lives on a server at home, this is the piece that turns it into something you want to open on your phone.

The reason to consider it is focus. Where the general Plex app handles video, photos and everything else, Plexamp is only about audio, and the developer has packed it with the sort of playback controls music fans appreciate. It has been on Google Play since April 2020 and carries a 4.5 average from more than 23,000 ratings, which suggests the approach has landed with the people it was built for.

There is a catch worth stating at the top, because the developer puts it there too: the app needs a Plex Media Server and a Plex account. Without a server holding your music, there is nothing for Plexamp to play. That single requirement shapes everything else in this review.

A player built around your own library

The core experience is browsing and playing the music you already own. The developer describes radios that are generated from your library as well as from collections shared by other Plex users, so the app can suggest something to play rather than leaving you to scroll. You can also travel through time by era, pick a style or a mood, or work through your collection album by album if that is how you prefer to listen.

The Mix Builder is the part I find most interesting in principle. It lets you explore and assemble a blend of tracks rather than accepting a single preset station, which is the kind of tool that rewards people who actually enjoy curating. Alongside it, personal charts show what you were listening to in a given season or which albums dominated a particular decade of your collection.

Search is described as powerful, and the app keeps a playback activity history, so you can look back at what you played and when. A swipe-up gesture reveals the play queue without leaving what you are doing. None of this is unusual in isolation, but together it points to an app that assumes you have a large, organized library and want quicker ways through it.

Playback tools for careful listeners

The audio side is where Plexamp makes its strongest case. It also levels loudness, plays tracks without gaps, and includes a preamp and a 7-band EQ. Sweet Fades and soft transitions handle the joins between tracks, so a playlist does not lurch from one song to the next. These are the features that matter if you listen to full albums or live recordings where a gap or a volume jump is jarring.

The developer pitches this side of the app at audiophile purists, and the language around it is enthusiastic, but the tools themselves are ordinary and useful rather than exotic. A 7-band EQ gives you room to adjust for your headphones, and loudness leveling keeps quiet tracks audible without constant fiddling. Pre-caching is the practical one: the app prepares upcoming tracks so playback continues when your connection drops, which the developer frames around driving through tunnels.

Recent updates touch some of the finer points. Smart playlist downloads have been corrected in a few cases, and DSD files now play gaplessly when strict sample rate matching is enabled. That last item is a small signal about who this app is for. If you know what DSD is, you are in the intended audience.

Visuals, offline listening and small conveniences

Plexamp takes appearance seriously. UltraBlur backgrounds, more than a dozen visualizers and four visual themes give you something to look at while the music plays. This is decoration rather than function, but it is the sort of decoration that makes a player feel like a place you want to spend time, and the variety means you can settle on a look that suits your taste.

Offline listening is handled directly. You can download a playlist or a station in a few taps, or save a custom mix or artist radio before a flight. It is aimed at listening in the woods or when cellular data runs out, and the recent changelog shows the team has been tightening how downloads behave for smart playlists and shared lists.

Smaller touches round things out: fun artist explorations, a long list of settings and tweaks, and Android Auto support that received attention in a recent update. The app is free to install and shows no ads, though it does offer in-app purchases.

What you need before you start

The app is a client for music you have already collected and stored, so if you do not run a server it has nothing to work with. It is not a streaming service and it does not come with a catalog of its own.

That narrowness is deliberate, and it explains most of the design decisions. The radios draw on your library and on collections shared by other Plex users rather than on a licensed catalog. The charts and history only mean something once you have listening data built up. The audio tools reward a collection with variety in its mastering. Everything here assumes an existing library.

The app is free with in-app purchases available, and there are no ads. It carries an Everyone content rating and sits in the Music & Audio category. It was last updated in July 2025, so it is an actively maintained project rather than something abandoned after launch.

Who gets the most from it

The clearest fit is someone who has already invested in a Plex Media Server and keeps a substantial music library on it. For that person, Plexamp is the audio front end the general Plex app never quite was, with playback controls and browsing tools aimed squarely at music rather than video. The 4.5 average from over 23,000 ratings suggests that audience has responded well.

Within that group, the app splits into two appeals. Careful listeners get loudness leveling, gapless playback, the EQ and the preamp. Casual listeners get radios, the Mix Builder, the visualizers and simple offline downloads. The two do not conflict, and the app does not force you to choose between them.

If you do not keep your own music on a server, none of this applies to you, and no amount of visual polish changes that. Plexamp is a tool for a specific setup, and it is honest about that.

The case for installing it

Plexamp is a well-considered player for a specific situation, and it handles that situation thoroughly. The playback tools are the real substance: gapless playback, loudness leveling, a 7-band EQ, a configurable preamp and pre-caching that keeps music going when the signal drops. The radios, Mix Builder and personal charts give you ways to rediscover a library you already know well, and offline downloads mean a flight or a dead zone does not end the listening.

It is free to install with in-app purchases offered and no ads, and it has been updated recently enough that the team is clearly still working on it.

If you run a Plex server and want a music player that treats your collection as the main event, this is an easy recommendation. If you stream your music from a subscription service, Plexamp was not built with you in mind, and that is fine. For server owners, it is the player worth installing.

What's new in version 4.12.4

*Fixed* - When creating smart playlist, clarify that we're doing so. - In some cases, downloaded items could end up displaying as empty. - Downloading shared smart playlists with some filters could result in no tracks being downloaded. - When downloading smart playlists under 5 hours of duration, only an hour at most would be downloaded. - Android Auto: Don't reload screen when going offline/online. - DSD files weren't playing gaplessly with strict sample rate matching.