How about more avid xmms users in this discussion give bmp a try and see if its good enough replacement.
I'd characterize myself as a "resigned" XMMS user rather than an "avid" XMMS user, but I do use it. I think its UI sucks, but I find that it works.
So I tried out BMP, and got nowhere.
1) The fact that it does not have a "double size" option is pretty much a showstopper, because I can't read a damned thing on that sub-postage-stamp-sized window.
2) Perhaps I could fix this by wasting hours finding a less horrid theme to use but A) in five minutes of clicking and googling, I didn't see any easy-to-find collection of BMP themes, and B) I'd really really rather claw out my eyes than dig through those anyway. (Can someone recommend one that isn't totally 'l33t and awful?)
3) and this may be related to "1: can't read the window", I couldn't figure out how to play an Icecast stream at all. xmms has "Play Location" on the menu, BMP does not. Perhaps if I could read the window, the answer would be obvious, but I can't so it's not.
4) "BMP" is a monumentally stupid name (hey, let's name the MP3 player "JPEG"!) and "beep-media-player" is both dumb and too much typing.
So then I tried Totem, and it suffers from the canonical Red Hat braindamage of "oh, you haven't installed the mystery secret MP3 plugin, and no, I won't even hint to you where to find it." Frankly, I can't be bothered to go on this snark hunt again, I've done that enough times.
So, I'd be thrilled to try out an alternative MP3 player to XMMS, just as soon as someone can point me to one that actually plays MP3s!