FFXIV: Bard Music Player Replacements
Posted on August 24, 2026 by Aywren
As of August 17, 2026, the original Bard Music Player (BMP) program has been retired. I first wrote a guide about the original BMP back in 2018. I do believe that has been one of the most popular posts on my blog, especially back in the day. So, I feel like I need to follow up on the retirement of this program and provide some alternatives to it.
Here’s the official Discord announcement about the retirement:
Following that, here are the replacement suggestions:
Both LightAmp and Midi Bard are on the original Bard Music Player website, where you can find the GitHub links to download them.
You’ll find the how-to manuals linked on that page, too. This post is not intended to be a guide on how to use or install these programs as their documentation is far better than what I can provide.
I’m also only going to talk about the programs that do not require the third-party launcher, Dalamud, to use – this then excludes Midi Bard which does require it. Dalamud is the gateway to a number of mods and third-party stuff, which leaves me a bit antsy to discuss. If you already use it and are familiar with it, that’s fine. But for those who are not, I’d much rather highlight the programs that work without it.
LightAmp
This program looks and feels the most like the original Bard Music Player.
I admit that I’d already installed it prior to the retirement of BMP because I wanted to try out a few of the features it had that the original did not. So, while I’m sad to see the original music player retired, I understand as I was already migrating away from it myself.
If you’re looking for something that’s a stand-alone and supports multi-player features, this is going to be my suggestion.
Debra Midi Player
I’d not heard of the Debra Midi Player until now.
This was developed for both FFXIV and Where Winds Meet (WWM). You do need to toggle between the two games in the top bar in order to ensure it’s trying to detect FFXIV instead of WWM.
This one is fancy looking with different themes for the different games.
I tested it out and found it works fine without Dalamud. I didn’t spend a huge amount of time fiddling with it to check all the different functions and features, however I was able to import my midis and get them to play. Keep in mind that this is a SOLO ONLY option, and won’t work for bard bands.
I messed with the playlist feature a little, and need to check into it further, as I didn’t see a way to import a folder into the playlist on initial try. I could drag and drop individual midi files from the open list to the playlist, but I really need something that imports and saves from my big ole folder of midis.
I will say that I’m not familiar with this player or the developer of this program. It seems like the initial release was for WWM alone, back in June. Support for FFXIV was just released last week. So, this is a fairly new player to explore – take that as you will.
As far as I’m aware, these are the only programs out there that function as a replacement for the now retired Bard Music Player. I hope this post helped to direct you to one that will work for you – may you continue to Bard On!