The VideoLAN Forums

I have a Motorola Edge (standard not +) running LineageOS.

Why has VLC and most app developers omitted the simple operation of closing the app from the app itself and left it up to Android to do it when we swipe the app away? The app doesn't always close when you swipe it away, and you don't always want it to. How does an app(including VLC) know whether you want to minimize it or close it when you swipe it away? Some programs DO have an Exit menu item, but still sometimes don't close when you use it. What is the world coming to when you developers have to make closing an app so complicated? I know I can go into the OS's settings and kill the program, but I shouldn't have to do that.

Normally, VLC won't close all the way when a song is playing. It will leave the task list but the notification will still be there.

But you can set it so that flicking it away will stop any song that was playing:
Settings > Audio > Stop on application swipe

There's also this, pretty well hidden and I don't know why you'd use it.
Settings > Advanced > Quit and restart application