How to Build a Simple Music Player App Using Android Studio

Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025

This is a very simple app suitable for beginners to learn the concepts. The following things you will learn in this article:

Implementing MediaPlayer class and using its methods like pause, play and stop.
Using external files ( images, audio, etc ) in our project.
Building the interface of our Music Player Android App.

How-to-Build-a--Simple-Music--Player-App_

Step By Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Android Project

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio.

Note: Select Java as the programming language.

Step 2: Designing the User Interface of the app

In this app, we have used 4 components:

ImageView - to display the album cover of the song
3 ImageViews (used as buttons) :
- a play button to play our song
- a pause button to pause our song
- a stop button to stop our song
A SeekBar - to keep track of the progress of the music
2 TextViews
- to show current time
- to show total time of the song

Note: if we press play after pressing the pause then our song will continue playing immediately after where it was paused but if we press play button after stop then our song will play from the beginning

These components are implemented on the below two layouts:

Vertical LinearLayout
Horizontal LinearLayout

activity_main.xml

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"  xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"  android:id="@+id/activity_main"  android:layout_width="match_parent"  android:layout_height="match_parent"  android:background="@color/white"  android:gravity="center"  android:orientation="vertical"  android:padding="16dp"  tools:context=".MainActivity">  <ImageView  android:id="@+id/imageView"  android:layout_width="250dp"  android:layout_height="250dp"  android:scaleType="centerCrop"  android:src="@drawable/album_cover" />  <SeekBar  android:id="@+id/seekBar"  android:layout_width="280dp"  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  android:layout_marginTop="24dp"  android:layout_marginBottom="8dp"  android:progress="33"  android:progressTint="@color/darker_grey"  android:thumbTint="@color/darker_grey" />  <LinearLayout  android:layout_width="250dp"  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  android:orientation="horizontal"  android:weightSum="2">  <TextView  android:id="@+id/textCurrentTime"  android:layout_width="match_parent"  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  android:layout_weight="1"  android:gravity="start"  android:text="0:00" />  <TextView  android:id="@+id/textTotalTime"  android:layout_width="match_parent"  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  android:layout_weight="1"  android:gravity="end"  android:text="0:00" />  </LinearLayout>  <LinearLayout  android:layout_width="250dp"  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  android:layout_marginTop="32dp"  android:orientation="horizontal"  android:weightSum="3">  <ImageView  android:id="@+id/buttonPause"  android:layout_width="0dp"  android:layout_height="40dp"  android:layout_weight="1"  android:clickable="true"  android:src="@drawable/pause"  app:tint="@color/darker_grey" />  <ImageView  android:id="@+id/buttonPlay"  android:layout_width="0dp"  android:layout_height="40dp"  android:layout_weight="1"  android:src="@drawable/play"  app:tint="@color/darker_grey" />  <ImageView  android:id="@+id/buttonStop"  android:layout_width="0dp"  android:layout_height="40dp"  android:layout_weight="1"  android:src="@drawable/stop"  app:tint="@color/darker_grey" />  </LinearLayout> </LinearLayout>

Step 3: Adding the music file to our app

Add the mp3 file to the raw folder. You can reach there by:

app > res > raw

If there is no raw folder, then create it by right-clicking on res directory then:

res > new > Android Resource Directory

Name the newly created directory as raw and add all the audio files in this folder. Make sure that the new name contains all small alphabets. The only valid characters are (a-z and 0-9 and _ )

Step 4: Adding drawable

Navigate to app > res > drawable, right click on the folder and choose New > Drawable Resource File and create 3 such files and name them play.xml, pause.xml and stop.xml

play.xml

<vector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  android:width="24dp"  android:height="24dp"  android:viewportWidth="960"  android:viewportHeight="960">  <path  android:pathData="M320,760v-560l440,280 -440,280ZM400,480ZM400,614 L610,480 400,346v268Z"  android:fillColor="#e8eaed"/> </vector>

pause.xml

<vector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  android:width="24dp"  android:height="24dp"  android:viewportWidth="960"  android:viewportHeight="960">  <path  android:pathData="M520,760v-560h240v560L520,760ZM200,760v-560h240v560L200,760ZM600,680h80v-400h-80v400ZM280,680h80v-400h-80v400ZM280,280v400,-400ZM600,280v400,-400Z"  android:fillColor="#e8eaed"/> </vector>

stop.xml

<vector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  android:width="24dp"  android:height="24dp"  android:viewportWidth="960"  android:viewportHeight="960">  <path  android:pathData="M320,320v320,-320ZM240,720v-480h480v480L240,720ZM320,640h320v-320L320,320v320Z"  android:fillColor="#e8eaed"/> </vector>

Step 5: Let's code the functionality of our App

Make a object of MediaPlayer class named music. It is an inbuilt class in android package. All the properties of the MediaPlayer class can be used by this music object:

MediaPlayer music

We will add our music file to this newly created object by using create function :

music = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.sound);

Note: that there is no need to add .mp3 or .wav or whatever filetype you are using. Just add the name of the file. (I have named my file as sound.mp3 so used R.raw.sound)

MediaPlayer class has an inbuilt function called start we will use this function for play button. It will start the song.

public void playSong(View v){
 music.start(); 
}

For pause button we will use the inbuilt function pause. This will pause the song.

public void pauseSong(View v) {
 mp.pause(); }

For stop button we will use the inbuilt stop function. This function also deletes the object (music), so we create a new object with the same name.

public void stopSong(View v) {
 mp.stop(); 
} 

music = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.sound);

MainActivity.java:

MainActivity.java

package org.geeksforgeeks.demo; import android.media.MediaPlayer; import android.os.Bundle; import android.os.Handler; import android.os.Looper; import android.widget.ImageView; import android.widget.SeekBar; import android.widget.TextView; import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity; import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit; public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {  // Declare MediaPlayer for audio playback  private MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;  // Declare UI elements  private SeekBar seekBar;  private TextView textCurrentTime;  private TextView textTotalTime;  private ImageView buttonPlay;  private ImageView buttonPause;  private ImageView buttonStop;  // Handler to update SeekBar and current time text every second  private final Handler handler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());  // Runnable task that updates SeekBar and current playback time  private final Runnable updateSeekBar = new Runnable() {  @Override  public void run() {  if (mediaPlayer != null && mediaPlayer.isPlaying()) {  // Update SeekBar progress and current time text  seekBar.setProgress(mediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition());  textCurrentTime.setText(formatTime(mediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition()));  // Repeat this task every 1 second  handler.postDelayed(this, 1000);  }  }  };  @Override  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);  // Set layout for the activity  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);  // Initialize views from layout  seekBar = findViewById(R.id.seekBar);  textCurrentTime = findViewById(R.id.textCurrentTime);  textTotalTime = findViewById(R.id.textTotalTime);  buttonPlay = findViewById(R.id.buttonPlay);  buttonPause = findViewById(R.id.buttonPause);  buttonStop = findViewById(R.id.buttonStop);  // Create MediaPlayer instance with a raw audio resource  mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.sound);  // Set listener to configure SeekBar and total time after MediaPlayer is ready  mediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(mp -> {  seekBar.setMax(mp.getDuration());  textTotalTime.setText(formatTime(mp.getDuration()));  });  // Play button starts the audio and begins updating UI  buttonPlay.setOnClickListener(v -> {  mediaPlayer.start();  handler.post(updateSeekBar);  });  // Pause button pauses the audio playback  buttonPause.setOnClickListener(v -> mediaPlayer.pause());  // Stop button stops playback and resets UI and MediaPlayer  buttonStop.setOnClickListener(v -> {  mediaPlayer.stop();  mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.sound);  seekBar.setProgress(0);  textCurrentTime.setText("0:00");  textTotalTime.setText(formatTime(mediaPlayer.getDuration()));  });  // Listen for SeekBar user interaction  seekBar.setOnSeekBarChangeListener(new SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener() {  // Called when progress is changed  @Override  public void onProgressChanged(SeekBar seekBar, int progress, boolean fromUser) {  if (fromUser && mediaPlayer != null) {  // Seek MediaPlayer to new position and update current time  mediaPlayer.seekTo(progress);  textCurrentTime.setText(formatTime(progress));  }  }  // Not used, but required to override  @Override  public void onStartTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) {}  // Not used, but required to override  @Override  public void onStopTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) {}  });  }  // Format milliseconds into minutes:seconds format (e.g., 1:05)  private String formatTime(int milliseconds) {  long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(milliseconds);  long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(milliseconds) % 60;  return String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds);  }  // Clean up MediaPlayer and handler when activity is destroyed  @Override  protected void onDestroy() {  super.onDestroy();  handler.removeCallbacks(updateSeekBar);  if (mediaPlayer != null) {  mediaPlayer.release();  }  } }