How to Build a Simple Music Player App using Android Kotlin

Last Updated : 23 Apr, 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.

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 Kotlin 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 4: 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.kt:

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  class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {      // Declare MediaPlayer for audio playback     private lateinit var mediaPlayer: MediaPlayer      // Declare UI elements     private lateinit var seekBar: SeekBar     private lateinit var textCurrentTime: TextView     private lateinit var textTotalTime: TextView     private lateinit var buttonPlay: ImageView     private lateinit var buttonPause: ImageView     private lateinit var buttonStop: ImageView      // Handler to update SeekBar and current time text every second     private val handler = Handler(Looper.getMainLooper())      // Runnable task that updates SeekBar and current playback time     private val updateSeekBar: Runnable = object : Runnable {         override fun run() {             if (::mediaPlayer.isInitialized && mediaPlayer.isPlaying) {                                  // Update SeekBar progress and current time text                 seekBar.progress = mediaPlayer.currentPosition                 textCurrentTime.text = formatTime(mediaPlayer.currentPosition)                  // Repeat this task every 1 second                 handler.postDelayed(this, 1000)             }         }     }      override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)         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 {             seekBar.max = it.duration             textTotalTime.text = formatTime(it.duration)         }          // Play button starts the audio and begins updating UI         buttonPlay.setOnClickListener {             mediaPlayer.start()             handler.post(updateSeekBar)         }          // Pause button pauses the audio playback         buttonPause.setOnClickListener {             mediaPlayer.pause()         }          // Stop button stops playback and resets UI and MediaPlayer         buttonStop.setOnClickListener {             mediaPlayer.stop()             mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.sound)             seekBar.progress = 0             textCurrentTime.text = "0:00"             textTotalTime.text = formatTime(mediaPlayer.duration)         }          // Listen for SeekBar user interaction         seekBar.setOnSeekBarChangeListener(object : SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener {              // Called when progress is changed             override fun onProgressChanged(seekBar: SeekBar?, progress: Int, fromUser: Boolean) {                 if (fromUser) {                     // Seek MediaPlayer to new position and update current time                     mediaPlayer.seekTo(progress)                     textCurrentTime.text = formatTime(progress)                 }             }              // Not used, but required to override             override fun onStartTrackingTouch(seekBar: SeekBar?) {}              // Not used, but required to override             override fun onStopTrackingTouch(seekBar: SeekBar?) {}         })     }      // Format milliseconds into minutes:seconds format (e.g., 1:05)     private fun formatTime(milliseconds: Int): String {         val minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(milliseconds.toLong())         val seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(milliseconds.toLong()) % 60         return String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds)     }      // Clean up MediaPlayer and handler when activity is destroyed     override fun onDestroy() {         super.onDestroy()         handler.removeCallbacks(updateSeekBar)         if (::mediaPlayer.isInitialized) {             mediaPlayer.release()         }     } }

Output:

How to Build a Simple Music Player App Using Android Studio

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