For the first year or so I was running Ubuntu I used Amarok for my music player. It’s simple, integrates with last.fm really well, and has a clean interface. When Ubuntu 8.04 came out a problem arose. Whenever I ran Amarok for a decent amount of time my computer would overheat and/or slow down to a crawl. Not wanting to burn out my computer or deal with lag, I decided to check out other music players for Ubuntu. Here is a quick look at them:

Rythmbox’s interface was probably my favorite, similar to iTunes, and easiest to use. However, there was a big problem: while I found it pleasing that Rythmbox automatically updated my library when I added or subtracted files, it did not pick up newly retagged files. In other words, you needed to get it right the first time or make sure everything is tagged before you add them. Bogus.
Songbird seems to be very popular but I found the version I used to be buggy and prone to crashing. Once I stop groaning at the newest version being code named “Fugazi” I might look into it again.
I am satisfied with using Banshee on a day to day basis. The newest version, 1.2, has a nice library based interface that integrates with last.fm and radio stations/podcasts really well. I use this player on a daily basis. While it does not incorporate automatic updates for your library, I am content to remove and readd once in awhile for now until they do add that feature.