Top 10 Free Programs to make the most out of your MP3 Collection
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Ok, you’ve got loads of music on your computer - but is that all cluttered, unorganized, unmanaged and simply not easy to access? May be you need to do something. Literally hundreds of free software let you play, organize, burn and do lots more with your digital MP3 music collection. Have a well tagged, sortable music collection that you can be proud of!
Here comes a carefully chosen list of free programs that might help you squeeze the best out of your MP3 collection.
Part I - Audio Players
The default audio player software on your Windows is probably not enough, when it comes to extensive features and customizability. Here’s a pick of the best media players that can let you sort through and efficiently play most audio formats on your Windows computer:
VLC Player - It’s more light on resources that you would imagine. VLC is a very versatile player - throw any odd format, and it plays them for you instantly (FLV included).
Winamp - Winamp has its own fans, it’s customizable to a large extent and can come as a great saver. If you listen to music every other day, you need to have Winamp installed. A similar player is Jet Audio.
Songbird - A feature rich application that has great looks, go for it if your Windows computer has got some memory to spare, it’s reviewed here. You can customize it by adding extensions (similar to Firefox).
Part II - Organizers/Taggers/Jukeboxes
Jukeboxes are music software that come with amazing capabilities. Go for them if you have huge music collections scattered all around - not just in your computer, but also in audio CDs.
Media Monkey - The best piece of software out there that you’ll love using. Tag editor, format converter, CD recording, iPod support, you name it - it’s got all the tools that squeeze the best from your tracks.
J River Media Jukebox - Very pretty, has good features. And might serve as a good jukebox.
>> I missed out Foobar, thanks for the heads up Ashwin!
MP3 Tagger - The best ID3 tagger out there in the market, that’s free as well.
Magic MP3 Tagger - Update: Oops, sorry guys this is not freeware.
Part III- Rippers, Converters
Audio Grabber - Fantastic audio ripping software, with FreeDB tagging support included. Another similar ripper is FreeRip. Another one a few commenters have mentioned is Exact Audio Copy
Part IV - Audio Editors
Trust me, as far as I know, there’s no free editor as much capable as the professional ones out there. But still if you’d like to do some basic recording and effects, you could try these:
Audacity - Open Source, and is very light weight.
Wavosaur - Comes with no installer, and is a single exe file that does the job. Supports WAV format
Part V - Other
Last.fm - A social networking site for audiophiles out there. Listen, get interesting tracks based on what you’ve played, and add friends! More such music sites here.
Tunatic - A song is playing on your head, but you just can’t get it’s title right? Then download this, install, hum the song through your mic and let Tunatic locate info on the song for you! Quite cool for show off as well 
Audio Files GDS Indexer - Google Desktop Plugin - Install this one if you have got Google Desktop installed. Adds a bunch of functionality to the Desktop Spider to make it more friendlier towards Audio files.
That’s it. What else do you know? Share with us in the comments.
140 Comments, Comment or Ping
Echo
What Winamp skin is that? :O I need it!
Feb 18th, 2008
Nirmal
Nice post, Winamp and VLC player sis my all time fav. Dugg.
Feb 18th, 2008
Andrew
Cdex! A great ripping program — clean, simple, effective.
And Exact Audio Copy for ripping scratched and dented disks. It’s not as simple as others, but nothing else can recover music from a damaged disk the way this can.
Feb 18th, 2008
Shankar Ganesh
@Echo: That’s ‘Bento’, the default skin in the latest Winamp Version.
@Nirmal: Thank You. VLC is my all time favourite.
@Andrew: Thanks for the info. I’ll update the post later with those programs. Thanks for sharing.
Feb 18th, 2008
Manoj
Any media player that actually plays all audio formats, including Real Media files?
Feb 18th, 2008
Shankar Ganesh
@Manoj: VLC should, incase it doesn’t get the ‘Real Alternative’ Player.
Feb 18th, 2008
Mark
iTunes doesn’t even rank a mention?
Feb 18th, 2008
Joel
VLC is great as its not just a media player….Its just more than that….and that too open source…it just rules…But maybe they should work on the interface to kill all the other applications…
Feb 18th, 2008
mike
i really love Eaxact Audio Copy, definitely should be on the list. good list though, found a few programs that I could use.
Feb 18th, 2008
BullDozer
@Manoj: try KMPlayer it can play all file types including real media files and there is a portable version too
http://www.kmplayer.com/
Feb 18th, 2008
Shankar Ganesh
@Mark: Yes, I haven’t included it here because it’s only too slow and takes ages to start up (I’m talking about the Windows version)
@Joel: Yeah it’s good, but we do have skins to style the interface, isn’t it
@Mike: Sure, I’ll include it.
@BullDozer: Thanks for sharing.
Feb 18th, 2008
Ashwin
Great article.
Why is there no Part IV?
By the way, 3 things about VLC:
1. It’s NOT light on resource (non issue if you have a fast PC).
2. It CAN’T play Real Media files.
3. It’s a Video media player basically, but you can play audio as well. Music management is not there.
Surprised not to see iTunes. How are you going to manage your iPod without iTunes (sure you can but….)? Yeah iTunes in Windows is not the same as iTunes in a Mac (more features, OS X integration and slicker).
Another surprise is Foobar2000! That was one of the program I missed when I switched from Windows. It plays almost all the audio formats and very light on the resource.
Feb 18th, 2008
Shankar Ganesh
@Ashwin: Yes, I missed out Foobar
I’ve updated the post now.
And if you’re looking for using iPod without iTunes, you could still try these - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/1.....od-better/ They’re not perfect, but quite handy sometimes nonetheless.
Feb 18th, 2008
Alastair
You missed out XMPlay as a media player!
It’s very lightweight, can load WinAMP DSP plugins, supports shoutcast, and has plugins for just about everything under the sun (MP3, FLAC, OGG, dozens of obscure tracker formats, can even play audio formats from game rips like the Sony Playstation, and can load media straight out of many types of archive (ZIP, RAR, CAB, ARJ, LHA, you name it - there’s a plugin).
Feb 19th, 2008
Ian Wood
WinAMP? That’s from… like… the 1980’s… like.
Oh and EAC is mandatory and 10x better than any other audio ripper, nuff said.
Feb 19th, 2008
Yoshman
Mp3tag is a great tagger. Really useful and free!
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
Feb 19th, 2008
eric
You do know that iTunes is free right? Seems silly not to put it on your “list”.
Feb 19th, 2008
Shankar Ganesh
@Alastair: My bad, I’ve never heard of it. Thanks for sharing.
@Ian: LOL, Winamp is still not that bad, a lot of people use it.
@Yoshman: I have used it before, but I couldn’t remember from where I got it when I wrote the post. Included. Thank you.
@Eric: Yep, I know it’s free. But these tools are much more popular than iTunes, and I wanted the list to be minimal. That’s why I didn’t include it.
Feb 19th, 2008
Simon
So, if iTunes is slow and hogs memory, why did you include Songbird? Songbird is, and I’m speaking from experience here, easily the worst memory hog since the Mango jabber client. Incidently, they both use XUL.
And by the way, you forgot MusicBrainz, best tagger ever.
Feb 19th, 2008
Shankar Ganesh
@Simon: Personal opinions vary. Thanks for the add on the tagging side.
Feb 19th, 2008
Daryl
What?? No mention for MusikCube?? That’s outrageous! Have been using MusikCube combined with CDArtDisplay as a replacement for Winamp for Months now and it’s far superior!
(Although some might say it’s not as ‘pretty’ as others - but then I don’t want to spend a long time looking at it I just want to listen to music!)
Feb 19th, 2008
4ALL2ALL
A great article. Thanks for sharing.
Feb 19th, 2008
Greenie
for my mp3 tagging, i use The Godfather:
http://users.forthnet.gr/the/jtclipper/
its a really great program, supports custom scripts and definitely makes my life easier
Feb 19th, 2008
Neon
If you use the WinAmp Media Library you can pretty much organise, tag and manage your files inside WinAmp. Plus the newer version has iPod support built in, so you can even tinker with your media player at the same time!
Feb 19th, 2008
Bruce
It’ a wonderful info and I will review what I’ve got. Your review is fair enough. Thanks.
Feb 19th, 2008
Tom
Where’s iTunes?
Feb 19th, 2008
nicalex
iTunes sucks ass, it makes good audio files sound bad! And only sounds perceptually better because it’s louder than other players, and we as humans think louder is better. To do this added loudness, it has some form of digital amplification within the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the volume bar, that adds around 10dB of gain when set to maximum.
To put this in persepective, when you do this in the analogue domain, add 10db or so of gain, it’s fine, as amps (solid state and tube) have this kind of head room for sharp transients and such, and when they do distort it sounds kinda nice, even harmonics, etc… But in the digital domain when you hit 0dBFS (0dB Full Scale), you can’t go any further, and if you try to, you only end up getting the worst kind of distortion in the world, clipping, nasty nasty digital clipping, ugh and thats what all sound engineers try to avoid, and what you should aswell!
As far as sounding good and features, i’d go with winamp without a shadow of a doubt.
Feb 19th, 2008
Dagonet
For Tagging I’d recommend Musicbrainz.
Feb 19th, 2008
Kalpik
Hi!
Also have a look at SMplayer ( http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/ ). Its an amazing player which plays EVERYTHING
The quality is awesome too!
Feb 19th, 2008
brandon
for a lightweight mp3 player i highly recommend Billy
Feb 19th, 2008
RobinC
Media Monkey is the killer media player for sure, but you forgot MusicBrainz Picard for tagging, thats easily the best on the market, and Songbird (my old favourite) is still VERY beta, i got tired of it crashing 10 times a day.
Feb 19th, 2008
Goldie
Amarok is my favorite media player on any platform. It’s currently Linux only, but it’s hopefully coming to Windows soon.
http://amarok.kde.org/
Feb 19th, 2008
Bruce
UberView is a very small app for browsing your collection, really simple and useful
http://www.uberview.org
Feb 19th, 2008
unruled
CDex is a great free cd ripper btw. been using it for like, 10 yrs.
Feb 19th, 2008
max - witze blog
very useful mp3 software-collection!
Feb 19th, 2008
ReK_
You missed a few of my favourites. foobar2k fills the jukebox/tagger area amazingly and is the best audio player around (I do use vlc, but only for video).
The best ripper by far is Exact Audio Copy (www.exactaudiocopy.de). I will get you a flawless rip of any CD, barring gigantic gouges. It can be a little daunting for beginners, however, because you must configure it for your specific CD drive to get full quality. I would suggest this guide: http://jiggafellz.50g.com/eac/
Two more great programs are MusicIP (not free, there is a trial: http://www.musicip.com) and, for those who run a server box plus multiple machines and networked stereos/TVs, definitely check out SlimServer, the GPLed server software that goes with Logitech’s SlimDevices (http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html)
Feb 19th, 2008
Tomer
Oh man. You got it totally wrong.
It’s foobar for playing and managing your library.
It’s Tag&Rename for (obviously) tagging and renaming your new music before you add it to your library, and it’s MediaCoder for encoding and converting your audio (or video).
Feb 19th, 2008
ReK_
Just reading the comments and someone mentioned iTunes because you need it for iPods, and implied that it’s hard to manage your iPod otherwise.
This is a GPL program that runs on Linux, Windows and Mac. The best part is it can sit on your iPod itself (read: no installation, simply plug into ANY comp that has a USB port),
http://www.yamipod.com
Feb 19th, 2008
Hummer
I was excited when you told me about Tunatic, but after visiting the site, it specifically states you *cannot* simply hum or sing the song, it has to be the actual recorded music. Doh !
Great list though.. I’d love to see a similar one for linux software.
Feb 19th, 2008
davidnottingham
Just wait until Amarok ports to windows. This list will be down from 10 to just 3, Amarok, and the two audio editors.
Feb 19th, 2008
Silence7
SUPER, Converts tons of audio formats back and forth, requires no extra codecs etc. Also does video, and it’s 100% free.
http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html
Feb 19th, 2008
DavidGPreston
I like Mediamonkey but found it monkeyed up my media settings for recording purposes so had to get rid, vlc is a darling and winamp not bad though a little pokey and not the friendliest on CPU.
Nice post.
Feb 19th, 2008
Jorge
Second on the EAC man. EAC is all I use to rip.
Feb 19th, 2008
_god
As far as free editors are concerned, buzz
http://www.buzzmachines.com
is pretty damn fully featured. Granted, the learning curve is a bit steep, but I ‘grew up’ programming the hell out of that software and it taught me a great deal about audio editing.
Enjoi!
Feb 19th, 2008
nix
I agree with most of your recommendations, but for mp3 tagging, I recommend another tool, Mp3/Tag Studio.
http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/
(the only thing it’s really missing is freedb access)
…and last.fm is not for audiophiles, because it’s not about the quality, but the huge amount of music waiting to be discovered, so I’d rather call it a music-lover’s paradise.
Feb 19th, 2008
Jizzle
I’ve spent years looking for a good free audio editor, and so far my favorite is magix music maker, the free trial version. Its pretty good, but not as good as if you dish out $70 for sony acid.
Feb 19th, 2008
tom
Can someone sell mediamonkey and foobar to me? I’ve always found them a bit complex. Itunes is nice and easy and you can get it to play oggs if you tinker with it a little.
DBPowerAMP has always been a great ripper for me and good for converting files (but slow - does anyone know a quick one).
For tagging I use TagScanner and it seems to work well. MusicBrainz picard scares the crap outta me as it seems to override your own preferences.
Feb 19th, 2008
fux
you forgot pandora.com, a newer music site than last.fm that i enjoy better, has a better GUI and usability.
however i dont think it has quite the same social networking as last.fm, but could give a fuck about that. I want to listen to music, not talk about it with strangers.
SUPER as mentioned before, is the end all for converting any video/audio formats into any other format, and is completely free. Check that out if you deal with weird formats.
To the faggots BAWWWWWWWing about itunes:
itunes sucks. its better than windows media player, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t belong on this list. Cry more.
Feb 19th, 2008
anthony
I’m glad you left iTunes out.
There are so many nice alternate players coming out. I’m using Winamp 5.5 mostly at present. iTunes is great for those with fairly basic music playing needs and those with iPods.
If you need more powerful features, especially for keeping large shared libraries and tweaking sound, iTunes just doesn’t cut it. For example, trying to load a 25,000 file library locks up iTunes for a few minutes while it loads (between two Core Duo PCs on a Gigabit network). Ugh.
Feb 19th, 2008
urmom
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@@@@@11111!!!!!!111!!!!!!!
i can’t believe you didn’t add media player classic!!!!!!!111!!!!!!11111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is by FAR the best music player on the planet.
Feb 19th, 2008
B
What about foobar ?!
Feb 19th, 2008
Peter
Player: Foobar2k (the most customizable player ever made)
Tagger: Musicbrainz Picard and MP3tag
quit edits: Audacity
Ripping and converting: an older copy of DBpowerAMP if you can find it (A copy with LAME for free, not the crap thats out now)
Feb 19th, 2008
Jma
Good Yaar. I liked it.
Feb 19th, 2008
Syahid A.
I love MediaMonkey. The way it levels up a song volume deserves some praise.
Feb 19th, 2008
Leon
AIMP 2 (Player):
http://aimp.softonic.com/
Feb 19th, 2008
evillawngnome
I can’t believe you pick audiograbber over EAC. EAC is the audiophiles choice, and if set up properly, will produce bit for bit copies of the audio data on a CD.
Feb 19th, 2008
lefty.crupps
Why all these Windows programs?
Top 5:
Amarok - juk box, ipodder, id3 tagger, last.fm integration, more! Best player EVER.
KAudioCreator - cd ripper
KID3 - ID3 tagger
VLC - yeah ok
Audacity - ok
Feb 19th, 2008
TechPavan
Hey, I should mention u one important mp3 convertor, dB Power Amp, for a high speed convertion. I don’t know abt newer versions, but I use the version 10… its very gud to convert d dnldd 320kbps into my favorite n handy 96kbps…
Do u know any music convertor from .ram to .mp3.. plz tel me…better mail me or new post.. u hav not provided option to subscribe for post comments/ replies….
Feb 19th, 2008
Leon
CDex (Ripper):
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
Feb 19th, 2008
Christian Kirchhoff
For tagging, I prefer ID3-TagIT: http://id3-tagit.pluemper.name/
Feb 19th, 2008
Biggles
Another essential part of audio management is a good file renamer that can batch rename your mp3s so they look the way you want them to. I use a program called Flash Renamer daily and can highly recommend it! I found it at http://www.rlvision.com
Feb 19th, 2008
Fabien
My fave tagger is Dr.Tag… it’s latest version is quite old now, but it works very well (and it’s not free)
Feb 19th, 2008
Leon
Free Mp3 Wma Converter:
http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.htm
(Ogg, Aac, M4a, Ac3, Ape, Flac, Wav)
Feb 19th, 2008
Daniel
Might want to add CDex to the rippers. Rips into various MP3 formats and supports FLAC. Its open source and has tagging.
Feb 19th, 2008
EAB
MediaMonkey is good, but if you’re looking to tag songs without any information at all, then Musicbrainz’s Picard Tagger is the only real solution that I’ve found so far. It actually scans the song and compares the results to an online database of songs to find a match.
Feb 19th, 2008
Howard Beale
What? No Reaper? http://www.reaper.fm/download.php
Feb 19th, 2008
Jason
Huh, you forgot foobar2000…
Feb 19th, 2008
Chris
“Trust me, as far as I know, there’s no free editor as much capable as the professional ones out there.”
http://www.ardour.org
It may not be the best, but it’s at least better than ProTools.
Feb 19th, 2008
Brent
What about doubleTwist?
Feb 19th, 2008
Caleb
That’s a shitty list.
“Audiophiles” use EAC + FLAC + foobar2000.
And for those that do Vinyl or DVD-A rips there are a few extra programs required.
Feb 19th, 2008
Unknown
What about Goldwave?
http://www.goldwave.com
Great peice of freeware.
Feb 19th, 2008
DavidE
Media Monkey is very nice, but the organizer aspect needs work. If you have files with long names, it doesn’t do automatic renaming very well. If anyone knows of a better organizer, I’d love to hear about it.
Feb 19th, 2008
Missy
check out super mp3 recorder, it’s a recorder, editor and player. great for podcasting development, nice to set up automatic recordings of games, npr, et. al. supermp3recorder.com
Feb 19th, 2008
James allen
OK….I’ll be the black sheep of the family here. I still find Windows Media Player as my go to program. I’ve tried a lot of others and they all seem to be more trouble than they are worth. WMP along with MP3tag works just the way I want it.
Feb 19th, 2008
Meh
Meh, shocking list. No Foobar2000? No EAC?.
Feb 19th, 2008
tinyhands
Yet another article (and comments) claiming that one thing is better than another with no evidence to support either claim. Just because a media player is skinable doesn’t make it better. This other one is customizable. HOW AND WHY SHOULD I CUSTOMIZE IT?! Show me something that proves it uses less system resources, provides higher-fidelity feedback, or reduces global warming and I’ll switch from WMP. Otherwise, all you’ve done is show me a list of a few programs you downloaded and installed on your machine. *yawn*
Hey, look at this calculator program I downloaded: It does addition AND subtraction! I can also make the numbers green! w00t!
Feb 19th, 2008
aworthyeffort
As free audio editors go, I can’t think of a better program than Reaper. It kicks Audacity’s butt.
Feb 19th, 2008
tokm
http://www.killertechtips.com/.....ollection/
Feb 19th, 2008
Aaron
Ardour is another audio editor, and is WAY more powerful than Audacity. It’s basically like a free ProTools for Mac and Linux
http://www.ardour.org
Feb 19th, 2008
Dave Nofmeister
Very cool! I particularly like that Rippers and Converters. This is much better than trial and error on your own!
Feb 19th, 2008
Dave
uh..where’s ITunes??
Feb 19th, 2008
Dude
wtf, foobar2000 can do all those functions, most of them without a plugin. and it’s the best at doing all of them
Feb 19th, 2008
SomeAudioGuy
audio editors/recording suites
Traverso Multitrack recorder:
http://www.traverso-daw.org/
Ardour DAW:
http://ardour.org/
Rosegarden MIDI and Sequencer:
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
Feb 19th, 2008
Ben
You only added foobar to Organizers/Taggers/Jukeboxes. foobar should be #1 on on Part 1 (Audio Players).
Feb 19th, 2008
oscar
…i love winamp , i used to use foobar, but something in winamp, made me go back to him
Feb 19th, 2008
Apollyon
Foobar2k is the best quality program for audio by far (winamp does not have a chance). And if we talk about lossless compression FLAC also bests anything else.
Please correct your list!
Feb 19th, 2008
Adam
Yea, that new winamp skin is real hot. That’s actually the one I use on my old 2.79 version. It’s really light weight compared to the new versions. I had no idea that its the new default skin for the current version.
Feb 19th, 2008
Jamin
Tagging and Organizing:
The best program, although not free is Tag&Rename.
http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm
Player:
I use MediaMonkey for finding and playing my collection. Although if you can find the music you want there are better players out there.
Conversion:
dbPowerAmp is the easiest and the most comprehensive.
Feb 19th, 2008
Parker
I agree with Apollyon, Foobar2k is the best quality audio program out there. With the ability to play from archived files, FLAC support, and 100% customization, how can the other players compete.
And as for Ripping CDs and such, what about Exact Audio Copy?
Feb 19th, 2008
Foobar FTW
iTunes? Are you people kidding me? Why not just add Windows Media Player as well and make the list completely meaningless. This was to be a “carefully chosen” list, not a list of “every subpar audio program everyone already knows about.”
Feb 19th, 2008
projectmanagement
how about free midi apps, or are these not considered ‘audio’ apps?
Feb 19th, 2008
Peach1200
Part III- Rippers, Converters
…you missed CDex!!
Feb 19th, 2008
Seb
To everyone bitching about iTunes, the title of the article is “Top 10 Free Programs to make the most out of your MP3 Collection”. This isn’t an audiophiles-only zone. For the average PC or Mac user - and let’s face it, most will have an iPod - iTunes does a great job, it’s quick enough and is incredibly easy to use. And it’s free. Plus I subscribe to numerous podcasts through it which, correct me if I’m wrong, Foobar2K can’t do.
For ripping tracks I go with EAC and LAME.
Feb 19th, 2008
howie
this is brilliant, i suppose now im content with myself that i use the bulk of this software!
Feb 19th, 2008
Tristan
Gonna have to add my vote for CdEX in the Rippers section… four commenters above me have links, or just google it.
Feb 19th, 2008
egg bone
Anyone know an easy to use, possible free program that can transfer my reel to reel musi to digital theought my pc?
Feb 19th, 2008
Foobar FTW
@Seb - I understand that iTunes–bloated as it is–is really all the average user needs. That doesn’t make it good. Whether the average user finds it acceptable or not is a pretty low bar for judging software, and I could come up with a litany of complaints for iTunes simply based on regular, average use. The bottom line is that only the most pointless of lists would tell people about software they already know about. If people who love iTunes read this list and complain because they don’t see what they like, I believe they have missed the point: how to do it better if you feel like giving it more than half a second of thought.
Feb 19th, 2008
bambleweeny57
Someone mentioned this above already but The Godfather is simply astonishing for MP3 tagging/renaming.
It thoroughly deserves the top spot on the list above,… shame that it got no mention at all!
Feb 19th, 2008
the truth
foobar2000 ftw
Feb 19th, 2008
Tom Buckner
Buzzmachines doesn’t fit in this subject. It’s a kind of software synth for musicians, no use at all for herding your MP3’s about. I tried it. The demo songs sounded as good as Reason, but it was TOOO HARD TO USE! I don’t know how anyone gets a sound out of it. If it had MIDI recording and decent notation, Buzz would rule.
Ardour, I’ve heard, is great stuff. However, you need Linux or Apple to use it. I don’t have a computer with either of those types of OS. If you were starting from scratch, you could get Ubuntu Studio, a Linux distro bundled with Ardour, Jack, and much besides.
Feb 19th, 2008
kambikutta
Does anybody know any mp3 tagging software for linux. I use Amarok as my music player on my Ubuntu machine. Haven’t seen any mp3 tagging plugins on Amarok. Can somebody suggest.
Feb 19th, 2008
DarkWolf
*clap* I’m elated to see a list like this without iTunes on it. I think the few people that have mentioned iTunes have forgot a few things:
1. Not everybody with an MP3 Player, or even every music enthusiast, has an iPod or even wants one. I prefer the Creative Zen.
2. Songbird can manage an iPod just as well as iTunes can.
3. iTunes takes up more memory than anything should.
Feb 19th, 2008
Alex
You list a lot of Apps.
iTunes fits in every single category you list, especially other where you can buy music legally, discover new artists, read reviews, listen to streaming radio stations, sample songs before buying, etc.
Really you need two or three of anything else mentioned to even cover the features, let alone the ease of use.
Feb 19th, 2008
James - DigitalKeyToInfo
I went for a year or so without WinAmp but it is just too easy to use and works so well.
As for iTunes, why does it need to have 3 processes running all the time when I do not have an iPod and I never use it. I do plan to get an iPod eventually, but can’t iTunes keep itself off till then?
Feb 19th, 2008
nyls
There is nothing wrong with Reaper as an non-pro audio editor - but it is not free …..
You can find a complete list of free audio recording, mixing and editing programs on http://www.software4free.org/recording.html. Audacity is only one of the eight recommendations there.
Feb 19th, 2008
nyls
The full stop at the end of the link above prevents it from working properly. Here it is again:
http://www.software4free.org/recording.html
Feb 19th, 2008
L K
Quite simply You are mistaken there is a FREE High Quality Audio Editor aout there its ARDOUR, but it runs on LINUX
Feb 19th, 2008
axl
iTunes does alot of the stuff mentioned and is the best music app I ever tested. All other is just nerdstuff.
Feb 20th, 2008
sta
I’m missing MusicMagic Mixer (http://www.predixis.com/Predixis_Mixer.htm)! I couldn’t live without it! Moodlogic used to be great too, but is now a scam… stay away.
For tagging I recommend Musicbrainz (http://musicbrainz.org/).
Both are free.
Feb 20th, 2008
anglictina
nice set, thankx
Feb 21st, 2008
Seb
@FoobarFTW - I’m pro iTunes because I acquired my first iPod 2 weeks ago (gift). Until then I was very anti-iPod/iTunes. I’d find lists like this and try everything out, constantly tweaking my setup and never quite happy. I pretty much settled on EAC+LAME, mp3tag, mp3gain and VLC to manage my music but now… F that. I can’t believe how easy iTunes makes everything and compared to separate apps or real bloatware (Songbird), it’s great. It’s an app that does everything well; in that sense it’s the top of its class (WMP, Songbird, etc).
My point being maybe it should be on a list like this. If it was I might have tried it sooner.
Feb 21st, 2008
sam
Or just use Itunes, its free and it replaces all but last.fm and the audio editors. =D
Feb 23rd, 2008
handchop
Re taggers:Have you looked at Picard, this uses Musicbrainz but is free and much better than Mp3 Tagger. Alternatively Jaikoz (www.jthink.net) is very good at fixing your data including album art and gives you more control than Picard. Its not free but they donate some of the money to musicbrainz
Feb 26th, 2008
EvillMonkey
When on my Windows box I use Quintessential as my music player/tag editor/converter. It converts to .ogg natively (which I use) and will convert to .mp3 with a plugin downloadable from the site (as well as other formats).
http://www.quinnware.com/
Feb 26th, 2008
FrankZA
I would not use VLC to play music, I quite like it and also KMPlayer - which handles unrivaled number of formats for a free player (check out Wikipedia’s media player comparison) - and GOM Player. All three are awesome.
Two MP3 apps I cannot live without that have been left out (besides iTunes or Amarok if you’re on linux) are MP3Gain and mp3DirectCut.
MP3Gain is the best software available that allows you to normalize the volume of your mp3s. It is far better than the built in normalizers that some players (such as iTunes) include. Furthermore, it is easy to use and allows you to change the volume back to the original if you so wish. The volume change does not affect the quality of your mp3 and may in fact enhance it if clipping occurs.
mp3DirectCut is a fantastic program that allows you to edit an mp3 file without having to uncompress and recompress it. I used it to remove those annoying “chatty” parts of some songs, where someone is talking before/after the song has completed.
The bonus is, all these programs are free.
Shankar Ganesh, I seriously suggest you add these to the list.
Feb 27th, 2008
JMcHugh
I recommend (and use)
MP3directcut for audio editing
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/mp3dc.html
STPmp3 (plays both mp3 and audio CDs)
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/stpmp3.html
and
1by1 player (every bit as good as foobar for playing mp3s)
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html
Mar 3rd, 2008
Norumu
I’d like to give a thumbs up for Winamp. I’ve been using it for years, and it’s never let me down. A particular favorite is the ability to output to an MP3 writer instead of speakers, thus being able to rip any song Winamp can play (CDs, iTunes, iPod, any other DRM sort of thing, other audio files), with necessary input plugins for any odd format out there.
I saved my sister a trip for a CD she made for our grandfather, but forgot at home, a few states away. I was able to plug in her iPod, and just play the music to the MP3 encoder with Winamp. Got all her files, and burned her CD no problem.
Winamp is love. Has some sexy skins too.
Mar 6th, 2008
Jeff
This post needs…
1. Musicbrainz
2. G-Force
3. VolumeLogic plugin (but it’s discountinued =\)
4. Mention of Amarok as it is hand down the best player out there, but sadly currenly only for Linux
Mar 6th, 2008
Bill Vincent
Surprised at all the complaining about not seeing iTunes. iTunes is a horrible resource hog, installs hidden apps, and has tons of features most of you will never use, while at the same time, does not have features that you have no idea you’re missing, but should. As is usual from Apple, they’re all about presentation, to hell with function and engineering. But, with people who don’t know any better, that’s what it takes to grab market share. Doesn’t matter if it sucks, if you can convince them it DOESN’T suck….you win. Marketing genius, engineering FAIL.
Mar 10th, 2008
cgpandey
nice article…….thx 4 guiding us.
Mar 18th, 2008
Mark S.
Thanks a lot. I very much appreciate the work.
Mar 30th, 2008
Abhijeet Pathak
There’s another program that’s a lot superior than other audio players, called as ‘Billy’.
Can be downloaded from http://www.sheepfriends.com/?page=billy
It is the most lightweight player i’ve ever seen. It’s fast and uses very less resources. Plus it requires no installation, just unzip and run. can play mp3, ogg, flac, wav etc..
Apr 21st, 2008
Kyle Judkins
For Other, you should check out http://www.pandora.com.
Apr 23rd, 2008
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