best music software to manage my mp3's

[haggisinlondon]

Hi

I have always used windows media player to play my music. But I was wondering if there was a better media player that could organise my music better in terms of albums, or if I could rate songs and it plays those, random mixes, etc.

Just need something to better organise my music. Any suggestions?

Many thanks

Haggis

[rjfvillarosa]

I always used Winamp but about six months ago I became aware of a little distortion on playback and at the same time noticed what appeared to be spyware and bloat associated with it. I then switched over to jetaudio and have never looked back, there is no distortion, the interface is easy to use and as far as I can tell there is no spyware, about once a week it seems to flash up a small advert but I just instantly close the window and never look at it. (small price to pay for a free mp3 player). I will never use windows media player, it is obtrusive, overbearing, and gaudy, it has security issues, and is just generaly annoying.

[Force Flow]

I've been using winamp and musicmatch for a while, and I definately prefer musicmatch for managing my library.

[SonicVanguard]

I've recently been playing around with JR Media Center. I'm very happy with it's features and playback quality thus far. Until this, I've been using iTunes, which I also think is very good. But I am very enamored with Media Center's ability to have different playlists playing from different outputs on my system - I have a Delta 1010LT and Audigy on this system at home which gives me numerous stereo outputs. I've already got most of this house wired, so I can have different playlists going all over the house. Quite nice for parties and the like.

Dave.

[bot]

Originally Posted by haggisinlondon Hi I have always used windows media player to play my music. But I was wondering if there was a better media player that could organise my music better in terms of albums, or if I could rate songs and it plays those, random mixes, etc. Just need something to better organise my music. Any suggestions?

are you kidding? itunes man! http://www.apple.com/itunes/

free, organizes, rate music, random playback, and many more... it's flawless

[JW_LEES]

Originally Posted by haggisinlondon Hi I have always used windows media player to play my music. But I was wondering if there was a better media player that could organise my music better in terms of albums, or if I could rate songs and it plays those, random mixes, etc. Just need something to better organise my music. Any suggestions? Many thanks Haggis

I have been using MusicMatch Jukebox for several years & I have yet to find something better

[thefultonhow]

I use MusicMatch for ripping, tagging, and file renaming, and iTunes for playback, Shared Music and iPod sync. When I was up at college, everyone in my dorm was listening to my iTunes Shared Music.

[tim1477]

iTunes hands down. all it does is audio files, how could you go wrong?

[LA22]

I use windows Media Player. I have no problems with it except I do find it hard to sort, add or anything else with the songs. So i have a folder with all my music. I open it start a song, but leave the folder open, when the song is over I just click on the folder and choose another.
Pretty convinent for me.

[Force Flow]

I admit that iTunes has its uses (yes, that music sharing feature is handy), but for what haggisinlondon is asking, musicmatch, or possibly what SonicVanguard suggested, may fit the bill the best.

Musicmatch has a nearly full-featured unlimited trial version, so you can see if you like it or not.

[mjkovis]

I second, third and fourth on the MusicMatch option. I love MM Jukebox. I have had it for a few years now and have had virtually no problems. The newest version which is 10 is a little shakey, but I believe the update I downloaded for it has solved that problem. It would shut down for no reason in the middle of compiling music to listen to or to burn. Even with this I would vote over and over for MusicMatch.

AK

[Moose on the Loose]

I use iTunes most of the time. I have the feature on that when you open an MP3, iTunes renames it and places it in an artis/album/ folder, which saves me the pain of renaming MP3's. I'm not the tidiest person in the world, and iTunes keeps my MP3 library organized for me

[Haloforce]

iTunes, handsdown IMO.

Iif all your looking for is music, that is.

It has a burning program in it as well.

Never had any real problems with it.

[Mac Medic]

and itunes is free (including full speed burning), MM is crippled until you pay the $20 fee.

[haggisinlondon]

I got iTunes working and it does the trick quite well, organised my music and the rating system is very handy.

And here I was thinking it was only for buying music!!

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by oem_guy_2002 MM is crippled until you pay the $20 fee.

Yes a big downfall to 'owning' MM Jukebox and using it to its full extent is paying for the 'full' install version. I gave them my $20 without a flinch and been very happy. You can download the freeware version of MM Jukebox at no charge and try it out and see what you like better between the few other programs that have been mentioned elsewhere within this thread. I would definately suggest you try that. Download each one you feel you want to try and do exactly that, try them out! It is pretty much the only way you can really tell what will fit your needs the best.

AK

[spyder003]

Sorry to 'jack this, but is MM 10 worth buying? I just started using it after reading this thread and it's great. I'm almost tempted to buy it just to stop the popups...

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by spyder003 Sorry to 'jack this, but is MM 10 worth buying? I just started using it after reading this thread and it's great. I'm almost tempted to buy it just to stop the popups...

If you really like it, GO FOR IT!!! No harm spending $20.00 on MM Jukebox. That should be change in your pocket...

AK

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by Acid-Klutch If you really like it, GO FOR IT!!! No harm spending $20.00 on MM Jukebox. That should be change in your pocket...

I broke down and bought Musicmatch Jukebox 8.2 last fall after using the free version forever... SuperTagging is a really nice feature. I couldn't live without it now.

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow I broke down and bought Musicmatch Jukebox 8.2 last fall after using the free version forever... SuperTagging is a really nice feature. I couldn't live without it now.

Oh yes! Supertagging is definately a must to have! I totally agree. Glad you brought that up with MM Jukebox. This is a great option that I have not really found on anything else. Dont know if iTunes has something like it though.

AK

[Hi Ho]

Hagg, have you tried WMP 10? It is much improved over previous versions and does everything you asked for. I haven't found anything I like better.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by Acid-Klutch Oh yes! Supertagging is definately a must to have! I totally agree. Glad you brought that up with MM Jukebox. This is a great option that I have not really found on anything else. Dont know if iTunes has something like it though.

iTunes has the "Keep my music folder organized" option, but it's not nearly as flexible as SuperTagging, and it doesnt look up song info from CDDB. Also, there have been times when I get MP3s tagged with this in the title field: Artist - Album - 01 - Song Name. It's easier in those cases just to rename the file and then tag from the name.