diff --git a/src/music/extmidi.cpp b/src/music/extmidi.cpp
--- a/src/music/extmidi.cpp
+++ b/src/music/extmidi.cpp
@@ -49,37 +49,25 @@ const char *MusicDriver_ExtMidi::Start(c
 	if (StrEmpty(command)) command = EXTERNAL_PLAYER " " MIDI_ARG;
 #endif
 
-	/* Count number of arguments, but include 3 extra slots: 1st for command, 2nd for song title, and 3rd for terminating nullptr. */
-	uint num_args = 3;
-	for (const char *t = command; *t != '\0'; t++) if (*t == ' ') num_args++;
-
-	this->params = CallocT<char *>(num_args);
-	this->params[0] = stredup(command);
+	this->command_tokens.clear();
 
-	/* Replace space with \0 and add next arg to params */
-	uint p = 1;
-	while (true) {
-		this->params[p] = strchr(this->params[p - 1], ' ');
-		if (this->params[p] == nullptr) break;
+	std::string_view view = command;
+	for (;;) {
+		auto pos = view.find(' ');
+		this->command_tokens.emplace_back(view.substr(0, pos));
 
-		this->params[p][0] = '\0';
-		this->params[p]++;
-		p++;
+		if (pos == std::string_view::npos) break;
+		view.remove_prefix(pos + 1);
 	}
 
-	/* Last parameter is the song file. */
-	this->params[p] = this->song;
-
-	this->song[0] = '\0';
+	this->song.clear();
 	this->pid = -1;
 	return nullptr;
 }
 
 void MusicDriver_ExtMidi::Stop()
 {
-	free(params[0]);
-	free(params);
-	this->song[0] = '\0';
+	this->song.clear();
 	this->DoStop();
 }
 
@@ -87,14 +75,14 @@ void MusicDriver_ExtMidi::PlaySong(const
 {
 	std::string filename = MidiFile::GetSMFFile(song);
 	if (!filename.empty()) {
-		strecpy(this->song, filename.c_str(), lastof(this->song));
+		this->song = std::move(filename);
 		this->DoStop();
 	}
 }
 
 void MusicDriver_ExtMidi::StopSong()
 {
-	this->song[0] = '\0';
+	this->song.clear();
 	this->DoStop();
 }
 
@@ -103,7 +91,7 @@ bool MusicDriver_ExtMidi::IsSongPlaying(
 	if (this->pid != -1 && waitpid(this->pid, nullptr, WNOHANG) == this->pid) {
 		this->pid = -1;
 	}
-	if (this->pid == -1 && this->song[0] != '\0') this->DoPlay();
+	if (this->pid == -1 && !this->song.empty()) this->DoPlay();
 	return this->pid != -1;
 }
 
@@ -120,7 +108,14 @@ void MusicDriver_ExtMidi::DoPlay()
 			close(0);
 			int d = open("/dev/null", O_RDONLY);
 			if (d != -1 && dup2(d, 1) != -1 && dup2(d, 2) != -1) {
-				execvp(this->params[0], this->params);
+				/* execvp is nasty as it *allows* the passed parameters to be written
+				 * for backward compatibility, however we are a fork so do not care. */
+				std::vector<char *> parameters;
+				for (auto &token : this->command_tokens) parameters.emplace_back(token.data());
+				parameters.emplace_back(this->song.data());
+				parameters.emplace_back(nullptr);
+
+				execvp(parameters[0], parameters.data());
 			}
 			_exit(1);
 		}
diff --git a/src/music/extmidi.h b/src/music/extmidi.h
--- a/src/music/extmidi.h
+++ b/src/music/extmidi.h
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@
 
 class MusicDriver_ExtMidi : public MusicDriver {
 private:
-	char **params;
-	char song[MAX_PATH];
+	std::vector<std::string> command_tokens;
+	std::string song;
 	pid_t pid;
 
 	void DoPlay();