Best Music Software!

[SlappyMcGee]

What do you use? iTunes? Songbird? Let us know how great it is and why.

[Amadeus]

I use iTunes, but am looking for a better one. MediaMonkey seems to have some cool features (.5 ratings and autofills missing track information) but it looks atrocious.

[Vyacheslav]

Winamp, tons of features and plugins. I like Songbird too, but I've been using winamp for over a decade, so...

[T3chno]

I've used so many in the past few weeks. So here are my thoughts: (Just for reference, my library consists of ~3800 songs, mostly .mp3. Syncing capabilities were tested with an iPod Video 5.5G)

iTunes - Probably the best with iPod syncing capabilities, but the actual handling of your library is slow and clunky. Known for consuming many resources, and it does. The interface is clean (though I preferred the older gray one as opposed to the v9 one). If you have an iPod Touch / iPhone, this is probably the best option for you, however.

Songbird - I tried this when its beta came out. It was slow, laggy, crashed often, and quite honestly, tried to copy off the look off iTunes too much. However, the new Songbird (released recently) offers a dark purple theme, refreshing to someone who's used iTunes for a long while. It has the ability for extensions (always a plus) and themes as well. iPod syncing capabilities are completely amiss in the new Songbird. I assume this feature will be updated soon.

Mediamonkey - From the website, it's advertised as this amazing media player. I found it anything but. The interface is horrible messy, the default skin looks like it should go back to 2001 (custom skins aren't that amazing either). The better part about this comes in the performance, though. It consumed much fewer resources compared to Songbird or iTunes, so for that, it's a good reason to use it.

Winamp - First off, I love the skin options on this one, the default one, with various color options, looks great. The playback performance is fantastic, and iPod syncing, although lacking options, is functional. This would be my default media player, if not for one bug - my library disappears every five days or so. I'm sure this is a problem on my side, but it's still annoying. Top notch software, though.

Foobar2000 - Clearly the most customizable of the bunch. Out of the box, it's very simple, which some may prefer for its minimalism (I do). It has lots of extensions you can get off the Foobar site and many amazing themes you can get from places like DeviantArt. The best part about this - the performance. It's incredibly lightweight (used 1/9 the resources compared to iTunes) and quick. It has the ability to hold large libraries well and never has it crashed for me. My preferred media player.


No way is my thoughts the final say. Media players work different for everyone and it's based on your computers. For some of you, Songbird might not crash as much and be quicker, so it'll be a better experience for you. But whatever, my two cents.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Banshee has always treated me well. I don't really look for much in a music player besides easy usability, though. It helps that it automagically rips CD's to ogg's, too, which I prefer to mp3's. It's Linux-only.

mpg123 and ogg123 are underrated, but aren't for most people. Since playlists are just plaintext lists of files, I like being able to use UNIX's vast text editing capabilities to manage them.

[Leaff]

I use MediaMonkey. A few of the skins are bad, yeah, but there are a bunch of good ones if you just look around. I love the interface, too.

[Tunco]

iTunes or Winamp.

[乳头的早餐谷物]

Foobar2000 is the best. Lightweight and customisable.

[Tunco]

This thread needs a poll, imo.

[Tanner]

Foobar2000 is the best. Lightweight and customisable.

QFE. Are you on Windows and want to listen to music? Use foobar2000.

[Vyacheslav]

Foobar2000 is the best. Lightweight and customisable.

QFE. Are you on Windows and want to listen to music? Use foobar2000.

Too bad it doesn't work on 9x/NT4.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Too bad it doesn't work on 9x/NT4.

Good thing the only demographic that affects is you, underfunded local businesses, and third-world countries.

[SlappyMcGee]

Too bad it doesn't work on 9x/NT4.

Good thing the only demographic that affects is you, underfunded local businesses, and third-world countries.

A local business that cannot afford to steal XP is not going to make it in this industry.

Edit: Besides, why step down to NT4 when they can probably get abacuses for free.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Besides, why step down to NT4 when they can probably get abacuses for free.

Step 1: Go outside and grab a handful of rocks.
Step 2: Line them up in rows on the ground.
Conglaturation, you now have an abacus.

[Kablizzy]

Pandora and nothing else.

[otters~1]

Pandora and nothing else.

What do you do after your hours are up every month? Pine?

[Vyacheslav]

Besides, why step down to NT4 when they can probably get abacuses for free.

Step 1: Go outside and grab a handful of rocks.
Step 2: Line them up in rows on the ground.
Conglaturation, you now have an abacus.

NT4 is, coincidentally, stable as a rock.

[heatwave]

Songbird! with iTunes for iPod syncing
I've been a of supporter of Songbird since version 0.6 or something, (now 1.4.3) and it's definitely changed for the better. I've worked for them as a pseudo-employee, (for which I received some awesome, employee-exclusive swag) and I am currently a champ on Songbird's Get Satisfaction community support website. I've suggested numerous ideas, some of which have been implemented into Songbird. I even convinced them to change the icon to what it is now!

I used to use iTunes exclusively, but then I switched to Songbird. I can't remember why, but I'm glad I did. First of all, I love being able to choose my own feather (theme), along with other extensions and add-ons. Currently, my bird looks like this:



My add-ons are as follows:
Ne+ feather, LyricsMaster, Mashtape, Concerts, FocusTrack, Chatzilla, and The Exorcist.

Techno: Incorrect. They're dropping iPod syncing in favor of iTunes library syncing. Also, you forgot to mention one of the most unique things about Songbird. Songbird is a music player but it's also a web browser, and as such, Songbird can create a playlist out of, for example, an indie music blog:



As long as the mp3 files themselves are present as hyperlinks. This also works with audio search engines. (I recommend skreemr.com)

[T3chno]

Techno: Incorrect. They're dropping iPod syncing in favor of iTunes library syncing.

So I need to have iTunes /and/ Songbird? :/

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Besides, why step down to NT4 when they can probably get abacuses for free.

Step 1: Go outside and grab a handful of rocks.
Step 2: Line them up in rows on the ground.
Conglaturation, you now have an abacus.

NT4 is, coincidentally, stable as a rock.

So are abaci!

[heatwave]

Techno: Incorrect. They're dropping iPod syncing in favor of iTunes library syncing.

So I need to have iTunes /and/ Songbird? :/

Well, the iPod Support extension exists, but isn't being developed by Songbird anymore, but it has been "open-sourced". No one has stepped up to the plate to develop it and keep it up to date though.

[Vyacheslav]

NT4 has TCP/IP support.

[乳头的早餐谷物]

NT4 has TCP/IP support.

So do abaci!

[Lenny]

Personally, iTunes, because I really like the way it manages playlists (and links in really nicely with my iPod, of course).

VLC for videos, mostly; Windows Media Player if I'm totally desperate and nothing else will work short of actually writing the binary code of my CDs down and reading it aloud.

----------------
Now playing: Hasselmans, Alphonse - La Source
via FoxyTunes

[Tanner]

NT4 has TCP/IP support.

So do abaci!

Abaci do not support UDP, however. The data does need to be stacked.