Media players

There are many of them.
Some feature rich, some extremely minimalist.
The major ones are Windows Media Player (WMP) and iTunes.
Both offer good functionality and a good GUI.
If you are new to computer based audio, they are a good starting point.

One might also argue that their functionality is limited.
The average user is often struggling using these applications.

Apple and Microsoft like to keep it simple as more functionality introduces more complexity than some can handle.

I tried a couple of media players.
Important for me:

• A good GUI, must be able to browse and search my collection in a flexible way. All those minimalist interfaces like browsing a file structure only, are wasted on me. I don’t have a computer to emulate a rack of CD’s.

• Cover art, the easiest way for me to recognize an album is by the cover rather than by title

• Support for the composer tag and custom tags
• Searching, often more convenient than browsing endless navigation tree's
• Audio driver support, I want bit perfect output or at least bypassing the Win mixer.
• Support for different audio formats including FLAC.

• Gapless playback. Nothing as irritating as a gap in a live concert or between two movements played as one.