iTunes Alternatives: Media Monkey and Songbird
I think it's safe to say that most folks who store music digitally use iTunes, and if not, know about it. Some people may even think it's the only digital music option (no joke). I use it myself, but recently I've found a couple of alternatives that I had not heard of before, and maybe you haven't either. Maybe, like me, you've been satisfied with iTunes (or whatever you use) and had no reason to look for alternatives. There are two in particular you should check out: Songbird and Media Monkey. They both have functionality similar to iTunes (like their compatibility with iPods and similar devices), though each has a couple of extra features that might sway you.
Songbird
I stumbled across Songbird a couple of months ago while I was looking for something else (as good finds sometimes happen). I discovered that it has customization features, like skins and layout, and since it's open source, there are all kinds of third party widgets you can add to it to make it your own (no surprise, since it's a Mozilla product). After I downloaded it and began using it, I found out there's just one thing: as of this post, there's no equalizer so the sound quality leaves something to be desired. The last time I checked the issue, a suitable equalizer was in development, so I would keep an eye on this. Head over to the Songbird website to Check it out.
Media Monkey
I haven't tried this one out yet. A buddy of mine told me about it, so I decided to get the info. I'm probably going to end up getting this one. First, there is a free version and a paid (Gold) version. Media Monkey's main draw is that it supports huge music collections. How huge? Try 10,000+ tracks. Reportedly, iTunes becomes very sluggish when you fill it with a large collection like this. Media Monkey is designed for serious collections, and this is reflected in the advance tagging and searching options it offers, both in the free and Gold versions. Interested? Take a look at Media Monkey.
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1 comments:
I was turned onto M.M. by a Chief of Technical for a software developer (friend) in NZ. He manages probably 4 times my 10,865-and-growing MP3 collection with M.M.. It is user friendly and malleable. You can write your file tags to appear as you want (title/artist/album) or whatever combo you prefer. It saves the jpeg (cover art) and can adjust volumes of all media so it plays on your player @ the same level. My iPod sat gathering dust when I thought iTunes was my only option for an interface. Media Monkey can manage pictures and movies as well, but my experience is limited to music. I paid the extra $ for the Gold version which gave me some of the functionality options (e.g.: auto volume leveling). For the (free) price tag, it's more than worth the experiment. If you don't like it, you can always dump it. Like all good interfaces, it will find your media regardless of the drive it's on (at one point I had music on one internal and two external) and transparently play them as if it were grabbing the files all from the same place. Media Monkey gets a big thumbs up from me and the people I've seen turned on to it. Thx, Billy S.
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