Itunes alternatives

3card

I am sure i saw a few peeps recommending altenatives to itunes on this forum recently but cant find them.
Can anyone recommend any other programmes??

Many thanks,

Mick

robt_2

Alternatives for what exactly though?

Transferring music to an iPod? Buying Music? Playing media?

BigBouncyBall

Mac or PC?

PC - there is WinAmp or even Windows Media Player

Mac - i'm not sure there's much to choose from.

People have rather stopped developing new Media Players; WinAmp, iTunes and WMP seem to have all the bases covered. iTunes in incredibly good at what it does. I can't see why anyone wouldn't be using iTunes.

fermi

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

I can't see why anyone wouldn't be using iTunes.

Because it doesn't run on Linux.:p (not without going to a great deal of hassle anyway).

wolfman

fermi wrote: »

Because it doesn't run on Linux.:p (not without going to a great deal of hassle anyway).

I think the question is why would you run iTunes when there are far better players for Linux

Rhythmbox and Amarok are great. I prefer the former (I use Gnome). Things they have that iTunes doesn't have:

- Numerous plugins
- Skinnable
- ReplayGain (this is a feature I now can't live without)
- Lighter on resources (not sure about Amarok)
- Can handle all sorts of portable players easily, and multiple formats (such as Ogg, or Flac etc...)
- They won't screw around with your music, or do things without you knowing.

For Windows, Winamp and Media Monkey are very good. I used to like Winamp a lot but have gone off it a bit. foobar2000 if you're really into hacking about with things, it's great, but requires so much time and patience.

SongBird looks good (google it). But it's still pre v1.0.

isofa

Assuming the OP has windows, MediaMonkey is excellent, as mentioned by wolfman.

Cricri

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

I can't see why anyone wouldn't be using iTunes.

For one, it's bloated. It will refuse to run if you uninstall QuickTime even if you only have a MP3 player that has nothing to do with videos, such as a Shuffle.
I use Yamipod myself.

BigBouncyBall

But Quicktime is probably the most important application on a mac. In fact i'll go as far to say it is the most important. It is joined at the hip to virtually every single Apple application, and many 3rd party applications. If you've uninstalled it, i fear for the stability of your computer.

Cricri

I guess that if you are a technophobe, then Macs are best for you, that QuickTime might be the most straightforward way to watch videos, and that similarly iTunes is the most straightforward way to nmanage your iPod.
Personally, I prefer to take control of my computer, have it doing what I want the way I want, and thus use a PC without iTunes
But then we still don't know whether the OP uses a Mac or a PC. Statistically, I'd say a PC and stick to my Yamipod suggestion

isofa

Cricri wrote: »

I guess that if you are a technophobe, then Macs are best for you,<snip>

Sweeping generalisation alert... :rolleyes:

My office must all be technophobes then, hang on, no they are all degree (or higher) educated in technical subjects, IT consultants, developers etc.

Personally I've been a consultant and developer, and IT director for more than 10 years, I use both Macs and PCs equally - daily.

You can do very advanced things with OS X, after all it has a Unix kernal - which is incredibly powerful.

Or you can just use it without tinkering. The majority of users, want things that just work, they want to plug in their MP3 player, rip their music etc. In some cases (not all), the Mac beats Windows in these areas.

Mac OS X media players and other free software listed at: http://web.mac.com/simon_elliott/simon_elliott%40mac.com/Software.html

Cricri

Backward reasoning alert.
I said that if I was a technophobe, a Mac would make more sense to me, I never stated that all Mac users were technophobes.
Besides, degrees mean nothing: I've got degrees, it doesn't make me more clever or capable than everyone who hasn't. In fact, I know a lot of inapt IT people (if they have diplomas, this only further proves my point).
Back to Macs, I find it a pity that:
* Macs are very expensive considering that hardware wise they are nothing extraordinary
* Apple products are consistently designed so has to make them a black box to users, while Woz originally created the Apple as a machine with which users could (and were encouraged to) tinkle with. No wonder Woz left.