Python execute playsound in separate thread

Question

I need to play a sound in my Python program so I used playsound module for that:

def playy():
    playsound('beep.mp3')

How can I modify this to run inside main method as a new thread? I need to run this method inside the main method if a condition is true. When it is false the thread needs to stop.

Teofilateosinte

Answer 1

Use threading library :

from threading import Thread
T = Thread(target=playy) # create thread
T.start() # Launch created thread

Newberry

Answer 2

You may not have to worry about using a thread. You can simply call playsound as follows:

def playy():  
    playsound('beep.mp3', block = False)

This will allow the program to keep running without waiting for the sound play to finish.

Iconostasis

Not supported yet on all platforms, e.g. not supported on Linux – Pamphylia

Answer 3

As python multi-threading is not really multi-threading (more on this here), I would suggest using a multi-process for it:

from multiprocessing import Process

def playy():
    playsound('beep.mp3')


P = Process(name="playsound",target=playy)
P.start() # Inititialize Process

can be terminated at will with P.terminate()

Sweetener

You don't want to call the run() method directly. That gets called by the start(). For example see here. – Curnin

Your right. it was not in my original answer, it was edited in there. removed it. – Sweetener

I think it depends on the version of python you have and the operating system used. When I use start(), the function is initialized, but not executed. – Newberry

for me terminate doesn't stop it from running, I have to end it from system monitor – Brick

Answer 4

If you don't want to get confused by threading stuff Nava could be a better option for you. You can just do

from nava import play
play("beep.wav", async_mode=True)

Up until now it supports mp3 only for MacOS (but supports wav for other OSs). You can always convert your mp3 to wav.

Checked