Best Music Manager?

[roxbury]

Hey all-

I'm wondering what everyone uses to manage their music.

I'm still looking for the best, so I'm hoping to get an idea from this thread.

I've heard good things about Foobar2000. In my opinion, iTunes is a resource hog, so I don't like it.

What else is out there?

[_ReApEr]

I've used Winamp for many, many years, and I've always been happy with it. I've tried others like Songbird, Foobar, some other opensource ones, but I just didn't like them. Winamp FTW.

[Xpress]

Yeah winamp is the best and most popular ;)

[Invalid]

I jsut use WMP, works fine for me

[Dailow]

Foobar is the top choice among audiophiles since it's free and has a ton of different plug-ins available for it. It's also nice if you're building a FLAC library.

I personally use iTunes since I like the built-in Internet radio and I sync it to my iPod. I'll admit it's annoying converting all of my FLACs to Apple Lossless, but it's a minor inconvenience I suppose.

[zxspectrum]

Winamp for me also, i dont see any decent alternative (maybe foobar but wmp is just better anyway)

[Chinga]

I use iTunes and WinAmp. WinAmp is better IMO.

[nobody]

winamp for me

but nowadays i just use pandora or last.fm

[ohmar]

I use the itunes just because of syncing with the iphone, does any other media managers do that? I wish I didnt have to have it....

[thedrooling]

iTunes because its easy :D
Winamp because its easy and doesn't use up as many resources.

[violinraja]

itunes

[UltraUser]

winamp or foobar

[Vincero]

I've used Winamp for many, many years, and I've always been happy with it.

[jandarma]

i use winamp but i want to try Foobar2000

[uploaddude]

media monkey is very good

[danish007]

Jet audio is best

[ohmar]

I finnaly moved my main system to ubuntu as the main os so now Im using songbird and I love it. Tried amarok and didnt like it at all, might have been better if I was using KDE.

[iOsiris]

Foobar2000 is the definitely the lightest MP3 manager I have used

[ramires]

I use the itunes just because of syncing with the iphone, does any other media managers do that? I wish I didnt have to have it....

yes windows media player does.

[enabled]

Winamp all the way!

[fotteron]

Winamp here too.

[pdttah]

Winamp and Realplayer
there are together make the impossible

[ohmar]

realplayer? I'm guessing its better then the realplayer of 5 years ago :)

[RL123456789]

i like rythmbox

[TheRiddler]

Winamp was pretty good couple of things started to bother me though. I have always liked foobar over winamp but used winamp for internet radio. Then when I found a couple of good internet radio things (slacker,last.fm) I converted over to foobar fully and uninstalled winamp.

[vintage2]

Winamp since 2.0. But then, I don't use winamp for video!

[Andrey]

Windows Media Player 11

[thamotormouth]

itunes is really easy to configure and its consolidation feature is perfect for my needs

[Cal]

foobar2000

[butters]

wm player 11 enough for me

[vaderek]

Aimp :)

[indecisive]

I use the itunes just because of syncing with the iphone, does any other media managers do that? I wish I didnt have to have it....

Same, I'm also looking for an alternative, however I own multiple Apple products.

[kasiapawelek]

winamp :>

[kev3458]

Itunes for my Ipod, hasn't failed me yet.

[fant0mas]

winamp or foobar

[renegatul]

winamp is the best and most popular :D

[kiko123]

I use MediaMonkey.

[p3psi1991]

wm player 11 enough for me

[djprana]

Same, I'm also looking for an alternative, however I own multiple Apple products.

mediamonkey :)

easy to use, less of a hog than i tunes, and it will sync all your apple products

[nGage]

Winamp 5

[Jonhyota]

Winamp ftw :) think foobar is good, but ihavt tested it

[JoeBlue]

Winamp + WMP 10

[Jarkkoo]

Itunes to sync my Ipod. Winamp to listen music but I think I'm going to switch to Foobar because it's lighter.

[Slay]

foobar is very good, it uses low memory

[L45er]

Definately winamp. Haven't had the need to try any others.

From seeing iTunes in operation on other peoples computers it has made me not want it. Winamp does all I need it to, I know how to use it well and it serves me well.

[Tricky]

Winamp it's better for me, especially the older versions (working faster).

[Pudenry]

Been using Winamp for a long time, and will continue to do so.

[Vandal]

i tunes :)

[AlexeyG]

winamp and wmp sometimes

[gwelsh1]

Have you tried Winamps yet! good one m8!

[utmarch]

Winamp & wmp

[G13]

Foobar runs circles around anything else.

[XIMPULSE]

for miusik is Winamp the best client at my opinion

[shaolin2u]

windows media player 11 and winamp

[vendetta]

have u guys tried songbird? Its by mozilla, the maker of firefox. Its still in beta but it works great

[angel_eyes]

what about spotify ? :)

[intjk]

iTunes, but I'm trying to make the switch to Songbird.

[Mitch]

iTunes is my favorite at the moment.

[Jazzy]

I like the powerfull and speed of J River Media Center :)

[shiarua]

I have heard good things about JRiver

From personal use however, Foobar2000 runs circles around everything else.

Very nice skin here as well -> http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64035

For organizing music however, I use Tag & Rename to tag all my albums

[KillerBoy]

Winamp & Foobar for me

[flightsabove]

Windows Media Player... I used to use Jet Audio, but I went back to WMP.

[trapthem]

itunes

[kLeFtHs]

I use MediaMonkey.

[flux]

MediaMonkey Gold. Get the crack off an appz tracker. It's like Itunes minus all the bloatware and bull****.

[Cogliostro]

winamp and itunes

[derfadelic]

I have used winamp since the first day i owned a computer and has never failed me to this day! rock on

[Slav]

Winamp and Foobar. Foobar is great once you've got it customised to your liking. It's small, and has quite a lot of features. It's definitely my first preference for a media player. On the other hand, for those that don't have the time/can't be stuffed doing the customisations and all that, winamp is a great alternative.

[adamjosef]

be couse of Iphone i have itunes, but for my desktop media library im happy with foobar - simple, clean and play anything

[FALC0NR15]

Winamp is great but I am forced to use iTunes by my iPod.

[RobGordon]

I've been using winamp pro for ages. It's really the best.

[turtle]

mediamonkey, itunes keeps crashing on me

[adi1313]

iTunes because its very easy yo use it

[Arsener]

Winamp is the best for . I have been using it for at least 5 years and it's getting better and better everyday . The premium version is not better than the free one , it just adds a few features that are not really needed .

[saevic]

I am and always have been a big fan of foobar2000. If you're a lossless audio buff I would definitely recommend it. It's also pretty neat in the fact that if you get tired of your layout you can go into the UI editor and completely redesign it.

[sceneman]

Winamp and iTunes is all that you need.

[LeBron]

Yeah winamp is the best and most popular

[jose313]

itunes

[sandmeyer]

I stick to wmp .works well enough

[FeLiX420]

I use foobar

[sephex]

I use mediamonkey to tag my music files but itunes manages my collection.

[potential]

itunes because its simple and beautiful

[huntrakafu]

Winamp

[dragontrue]

I use Media Jukebox 12 :D, is a good player.

[GoShenanigansGo]

I use WinAmp, and have tried using FooBar2000. I found FooBar2K way too work intensive to set-up for what you need it to do, but if you're that obsessed with getting a custom user-interface, that it's for you. iTune's is so resource heavy I don't even have it on my computer anymore.

[joke]

winamp rules!!!

[darkflail]

Winamp , spotify is also great but with spotify you can't add music of your own.

[thelonelyone]

kmplayer ;) i like it

[ghettosnatch]

For Linux I use Amarok.
For Windows I use Winamp. I like the look of iTunes but no support for FLAC is a dealbreaker for me.

I've been trying out the new version of Songbird for Windows. The stability has definitely improved over the beta versions but I'm really at a loss as to why Songbird has created such a buzz in the blogging world...I guess because its built on Firefox.

[andey]

to update my ipod classic i use Floola

[Falchion17]

I use windows explorer as my music manager

[metroidman]

pandora

[savit]

Total Command... :)

[aspen23]

Songbird is actually pretty cool. I really hate iTunes.

[Khalil]

well..i loooove using winamp.....
~KhaliL~

[mathias]

I use media player for the ease of use.

[manatee]

foobar on windows and amarok on linux

[istrak666]

Winamp ftw!!

[h00kie]

iTunes.. but considering Winamp :)

[pod42]

I'm using Foobar2000. The best thing about it is that I can customize it myself to the way I want it to be. Also, it doesn't eat up lots of resources like other one I've used.

[maxxtor]

Helium Music Manager.

[jackabuer777]

iTunes .. easy to use .... OS X native :P I've used winamp on windows though

[YOUSEF]

ITunes

[studwo]

itunes and winamp.. hands down ... foobar is just too not user friendly ..

[KingNothing]

I just use wmp 11

[malvavisko]

I've used Winamp for many, many years, and I've always been happy with it. I've tried others like Songbird, Foobar, some other opensource ones, but I just didn't like them. Winamp FTW.

x2 same here

[akshet]

jukebox

[arko]

ITunes

[kako123]

JetAudio in my opinion

[TurdFerguson]

iTunes, I just wish it handled flac so I didn't have to convert songs.

[bitmyej]

Foobar2000 is very nice.. I think its got good music management, very efficient and useful interface and great equalization features.. Oh and also some of their plug-ins are just fantastic.. Best music manager imho. 2nd best for me would probably be Amarok ... only wish they had a stable version on windows.

[Falchion17]

I just have my music organized by artist on my external and play them with Xion.

[dtrik1706]

Itunes is good, but it can be pretty picking if you try to import songs with DRM protection on them, that weren't bought in the itunes store. can be a hassle stripping DRM.

[n0trade]

winamp of course

[PiTzI]

I use king Winamp

[Ecovoltz]

Rather like the Windows Media Player and iTunes

[garefal]

Winamp with no doubt. Just perfect!

[studwo]

i use foobar

[franzbonus]

Windows Media Player does the trick for me.

[decrepdsol]

I use iTunes almost exclusively on my mac, but on my windows machine I use winamp. I *have* iTunes on it, just for iPod syncing, but as others have said it is way too resource hungry. On my mac, though, it's not burning through my RAM... Guess Apple products work better on Apple products then they do on Microsoft products...

[liuweijack]

iTunes is powerful.
But i use Winamp because it is simple and enough.

[TrOy]

winamp is best

[Erooer]

i use winamp ( + media library )

[morx]

Wmp :d

[holden246]

as a mac geek apple controls most of my life so iTunes

[tara]

jetaudio easy and light

[bizarre]

qmp = quintessential media player

great program,if people spent 1/10 time for skinning and developing plugin for qmp instead of they spent for foobar,qmp would be 100 times better than foobar...

qmp is stabil,open source and still better than foobar to me,but foobar is popular after searching winamp,wmp,itunes alternative then everybody uses it

[Balkan_Baller]

Winamp is my fav

[sky]

I prefer iTunes

[uat88]

I use iTunes.

[razor19]

I use Winamp... It's the best ;)
It's simple and skinable. Perfect for me :)

[Aldo]

Long time Itunes user

[_147258369_]

Winamp, i love this Music Manager
But somtimes i use Itunes because i have a iPod

[darks1de]

Winamp

[Gladiator]

iTunes
windows media player
real 1 player

[hichemdz]

i'm using winamp

[blackholemix]

of course Winamp

[yoyoyo]

Amarok if you're using Linux

[Psyhousefan]

I use the BS player

For videos and music

The great player

[MyLove]

Winamp and Windows Media Player 11

[Silviu13]

Wmp

[davien]

vlc the best

[mrfenix]

I use itunes beacause I own an IPOD and cant be bothered skewing around with another program.

[snake2007]

winamp for me

[savasansn06]

Winamp because İts uses are very easy

[kacraj]

I am using winamp from winamp 1.96 for music

[kildogler]

wmp,kmplayer

[Addicted]

Winamp

[masterofsoft]

KMplayer

[merojuve]

Wmp!!! :d

[Paul.McCartney]

Winamp is good for me.

[clement.andre]

no one uses window smedia player?
jhaha i use that i love the interface

[flowdeep]

Itunes is my choice

[GoldBlade]

I use Winamp.

[Mentor]

I use foobar. Generally is the best music player for me...

[masterofsoft]

Kmplayer

[theman]

Even if itunes is a resource hog, its the only thing that will sync with ipod touch and iphone so I'm stuck with it

[dazzlingstar]

still using WMP v9

[Insane8]

I love iTunes..... I guess I've gotten so used to it, its hard to change. I DL'd Media Monkey and it seems very capable, perhaps even more powerful... just haven't had the time to learn a new program.

[SB-087]

songbird is so nice, it is like itunes and firefox and winamp together
getsongbird.com/
http://www.songbirdnest.com/files/images/songbird-odeo-20051111_3.jpg

[NoLove]

winamp for me...

[Insane8]

songbird is so nice, it is like itunes and firefox and winamp together
getsongbird.com/

Looks interesting - Thanks, I'm going to check it out!

[dogyutz]

i guess VLC media player all formats is supported, video and audio simple and easy to use...

[Aznplayer]

I tried a lot of music media player but in the end I still use itunes.

[M.T.99]

Media Monkey rockzz !!

[tudotut]

winamp is the best

[AriSuper]

well I tried them all,and iTunes suck the most. For me,its 1:Winamp,2:Foobar,3:Songbird,4:Jetaudio
.

[headcase]

Explorer.exe

:-)

[lesamit_123]

I use Aimp.. Befor that I used winamp until I discovered this great free music manager

[SB-087]

I use Aimp.. Befor that I used winamp until I discovered this great free music manager

what manager? are you talking about

[jack18]

Yep... Explorer.exe :D

[Miki]

windows media player

[drummer]

I use winamp...a lot of plugins!!! :)

[myon]

foobar and aimp2

[yellow_mouse]

mediamonkey gold. good if you have 1000's of mp3s like i do. more advanced organizing options than itunes.
takes bit more time to learn how to use it well than itunes.
but stick with itunes if you want to organize songs but stil simple to use

[The Punisher]

iTunes because its simple and beautiful!!!

[hesham]

i like km player

[bran]

foobar2000

[chuck]

I like iTunes :)

[balalika]

iTunes is the best for sure

[sebynarcis]

Winamp is the best and most popular, but AIMP2 its not bad

[sangeet]

Of Course iTune Its Look Nice & Easy Setup

[Shorory]

Mediamonkey. I have tried a few music managers, but for me few close to being as good as Mediamonkey. The podcast support is a little bit iffy.
Winamp is probably in second for me. Better podcast support than Mediamonkey.

[NuKid]

I used Foobar 2000, now I use J RIver Jukebox. IT has all the oohhs and aahhs of Media Center but not as bloated, sounds great with ASIO too!

[ohhh me]

Always used Winamp, never had any problems and doesn't drain resources :)

[Ozzy001]

Foobar2000 mostly but I also like MediaMonkey.

[erosmy]

I jsut use WMP and winamp ---------WMP goood

[Quick]

I use AIMP , best of the best .

[HEROES]

I Think Winamp

[beagle17]

Winamp is the best

[rover]

If you want a media player then there are tonnes of great ones. For a media manager Media Monkey is one of the best. iTunes is stone age by comparison.

I also use jinzora for my music server so I can stream.

For tag corrections I use Jaikoz which is awesome!

[GoodMaN]

Winamp is the best

[2mic]

I'm using Aimp, is the best for me. ;]

[Med]

winamp is vrey Good

[Aslan]

Winamp and Aimp

[iLove]

windows media player is the best!

[SHIBBY888]

itunes fo life

[adnan_yma]

I use a little program called Aimp

[Mbrando]

Media monkey is a top software that's getting good reviews all over. Support all ipods and can manage a large library.

[pacman]

foobar

[tomer981]

alsong

[damit3]

itunes

[arttw]

itunes!!!
:)

[The Punisher]

itunes because its simple and beautiful

[Mr-Alligator]

winamp

[AmAlIdNiO]

Itunes, Winamp, AIMP

[Hobo pimp]

Unfortunately I still am using iTunes. The only thing that makes it bearable is the guide I found showing how to easily remove the most of the extra crap iTunes installs. Here's the article. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=554

I removed quicktime, used that guide, to get the iTunes.msi. Once I've installed iTunes, I install quicktime lite (found here: http://www.codecguide.com/qt_lite.htm) and the iTunes quicktime addon (found here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Plugins/QuickTime-Alternative-iTunes-Add-on.shtml). The iTunes qt addon just shows iTunes where qt lite is. This solution stops both iTunes and quicktime from running tons of crap I don't want.

I am keeping an eye on SongBird though. I believe it has a lot of potential but just isn't quite there yet. They've been dragging their feet on the stable releases for a while but recently released a new one. It will definitely remind you of Firefox with all the add-ons.

[cosminn93]

winamp is the best and most popular

[hgelpke]

+1 for MediaMonkey. I've gone through Winamp, Foobar, Itunes (ack!) and Songbird. I keep going back to MM.

[cerezye]

winamp and aimp2.

[bringe]

WMP always..never cared to install any additional software.

[haiz2]

Kmplayer because it easy . and VLC player because it small

[salfuman]

Foobar. It's light and don't need plug-in to reproduce almost anything. Very quick media library management.

[kheverett]

Winamp for me...

[fab313]

foobar or mediamonkey

[daniyl]

foobar 2000 is the most simply and best player in my opinion

[superbob]

I use foobar, indexes music from many format (mp3, aac, FLAC) and sorts by genre.
Also syncs my ipod, transcoding on the fly...

[utjduo]

Foobar2000 is the best!!! fuzz the rest :P

[DarkKnight]

Foobar but I personally use iTunes, easier to sync with ipod :P

[iuli80]

vlc player

[sniper5406]

winamp for me is the best

[jsmoke]

I use Itunes, but mainly to sync with my iPods and iPhone. For quick listening on the pc, I still use Winamp classic. I have foobar 2000 installed, but I admit I rarely use it.

[pintoblanko]

I'm using winamp right now, but jetaudio is better.

[MehdiR]

JetAudio

[zumzumzum]

I use windows media player11, gom player good, and also use the real player

[Hobo pimp]

Unfortunately I still am using iTunes. The only thing that makes it bearable is the guide I found showing how to easily remove the most of the extra crap iTunes installs. Here's the article. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=554

I removed quicktime, used that guide, to get the iTunes.msi. Once I've installed iTunes, I install quicktime lite (found here: http://www.codecguide.com/qt_lite.htm) and the iTunes quicktime addon (found here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Plugins/QuickTime-Alternative-iTunes-Add-on.shtml). The iTunes qt addon just shows iTunes where qt lite is. This solution stops both iTunes and quicktime from running tons of crap I don't want.

I am keeping an eye on SongBird though. I believe it has a lot of potential but just isn't quite there yet. They've been dragging their feet on the stable releases for a while but recently released a new one. It will definitely remind you of Firefox with all the add-ons.


It has come to my attention that a user recently had difficulty when they tried out this method with the most recent version of iTunes. I am currently downloading the newest version and will verify that it does or does not work.

Please note if you do not install iTunes.msi in passive mode using the command prompt method it will ask you for quicktime and then fail regardless of whether you install the qtlite and addon 1st. Please see the link I referenced above for info on the passive install. If you have trouble don't hesitate to pm me.

[hgelpke]

Has anybody had trouble with Itunes not recognizing all of their library? I don't hate the software, but it doesn't find half of my files. No other program has this problem

[Hobo pimp]

Has anybody had trouble with Itunes not recognizing all of their library? I don't hate the software, but it doesn't find half of my files. No other program has this problem

I haven't had that issue but I have a couple suggestions. Check and see if there is a pattern (like it's a specific type of file that isn't being recognized). Maybe try standardizing the id3 tags with a program like TagScanner. It may be possible it's a DRM issue too in which case I have no idea what to do.

[Phazar]

I use mediamonkey, it's great for large music collections

[Rex]

Foobar of course :)

[NuKid]

I haven't had that issue but I have a couple suggestions. Check and see if there is a pattern (like it's a specific type of file that isn't being recognized). Maybe try standardizing the id3 tags with a program like TagScanner. It may be possible it's a DRM issue too in which case I have no idea what to do.

Was able to get it working now... nice to have itunes without quicktime :D but I am only using as a quick fix because JRiver updated and my crack no longer works :( I am currently looking for a new music manager... guess a stripped down itunes will have to do atm... :|

[Hobo pimp]

Was able to get it working now... nice to have itunes without quicktime :D but I am only using as a quick fix because JRiver updated and my crack no longer works :( I am currently looking for a new music manager... guess a stripped down itunes will have to do atm... :|

Yeah, I absolutely view iTunes as temporary. The fix I offered is just a way to make it a little more bearable. Unfortunately I'm a little more tied down because I have an iPod and I need a solution that can manage my music library AND sync with my iPod well. I should have never bought a piece of Apple hardware :wall::wall::wall:

[jbardsley]

itunes for syncing ipod, but i like to use vlc as a player

[CarpeDiem]

Latest winamp version!:)

[The Captin]

windows media player

[oakeY]

Winamp. was using foobar for a while.

[syhpx6]

I use a mix of a few different music players for different purposes. When I want a no-frills, fast music playlist, then I turned to WinAmp. I find iTunes is my favorite for listening and syncing podcasts and the iTunes DJ works really well for general listening. foobar can be awesome if you take the time to customize it. I also have tried out mediamonkey and songbird and am happy to see where Songbird is going. On Ubuntu, I prefer Rhythmbox over Amarok.

[KiKer]

For me Winamp because is very easy to use

[finisher]

winamp or foobar ...

[outbrack]

I'm using iTunes :)

[s2]

Mediamonkey is the best, but it doesn't work well with the ipod

[KTKing]

Itunes ...although it has some irritating aspects like double the music up in the library

[IPT]

itunes
..............................

[pvtmw]

MediaMonkey ftw!!!

[roeeitz]

Winamp, I always used it, and I will keep using it.
I tried some parallelly to the Winamp but I figure out that it is the BEST!

[arceus]

I use itunes.It is good program.

[tripl_ecks]

itunes for me. love it.

[RiThePirate]

I manage all of my music manually. I have it all in a folder thats pinned to my taskbar and use VLC to play it all.

[Verna]

Winamp and Realplayer
there are together make the impossible

[iceboy2010]

aimp 2 and media player