I'm using VLC only because it can correct wrong-timed subs (Tools -> Track Synchronization -> Subtitle Track Synchronization and adjust it as needed, instead of having manually editing subtitle file).
most of the time i use vlc because it support variety of codec and it have a lot of feature . i mostly use vlc for my video player but the problem with vlc it is lag on slow computer it will stutter a lot on slow computer so for slow computer i recomend mpchc or media player clasic home cinema and what great about mpchc it is run without lag on even a old slow computer and it is also have an ffmpeg setting that you can play with and its fun to play with it but for some reason i prefer to use vlc .
so the consclucsion . if you have a decent pc use vlc but if you have old slow ass pc or wnat to play with a really fun ffmpeg setting then use mpchc . if you are lazy to install both use windows media player
for music player.... i play music on spotify this day but i use windows media player for playing music files .