List of the Best Free iTunes Alternatives
Most people im sure would probably agree that Apple’s iTunes software isnt a lightweight application. I was wanting to put together a great list of free alternatives to iTunes that are actually worth checking out.
Foobar 2000 – A digital music management program for Windows users. It works with Windows 2000, Windows Vists , Windows XP and Windows XP 64 bit edition. To use this program you will need 32 MB of RAM and a display with at least an 800 X 600 resolution. This program is compatible with MP1-4, MPC, AAC, WAV, SND, WMA, Ogg Valis, WavPack, AIFF, CDDA, FIAC/Ogs FLAC and AU. It also supports full Unicode and Replay Gain. Other great features include third party development potential and keyboard shortcut that are fully customizable.
Froddle Pod – Froddle is not as feature rich as iTunes but it provides access to the main features that iPod owners need: It can copy music and videos from and to an iPod which is definitely the main feature that any iTunes alternative should support. The software can also backup and restore all data that is stored on an iPod. Another feature is music normalization for all or selected music on the iPod.
Songbird – Built on the Firefox platform and works with iPods and other media players. In addition to many great features, Songbird has a plenty of add-ons, and because it’s open source, clever programmers will be adding more as time goes on.
YamiPod An interesting iTunes alternative, because you don’t have to install it on your computer at all. Just copy it to your iPod’s hard disk and then you can manage your songs from any computer running Mac OS X, Windows or Linux.
Winamp – Sometimes called the grandfather of Windows music players, Winamp is a full featured music manager, with integrated iPod support and will even play iTunes protected files if QuickTime is installed.
Amarok – A great iTunes alternative for Linux and Unix users. It works with a wide variety of portable music players including: iPod, Creative Zen players, iRiver iFP and T players, Nomad players, generic MTP players and generic USB players. Some of the features that this program has that you are going to love include: album covers, wikipedia integration, last.fm integration, superior visual effects, lyrics support and music tracking capabilities.
Banshee – Linux users are going to enjoy what Banshee has to offer. This free download allows you to do everything that you want to do with your digital music. You can import music, organize music, play it back, share it and rip it on a CD. This is a great program for people who love their music and who want to actively manage it.
Cog – Most people using Mac OSX feel that iTunes is the best option because it was designed for this platform. However, Cog is worth a look for Mac users, because it addresses many of the limitations that iTunes has. It can be used with the following file types: Ogg vorbis, Monkeys Audio, MP3, Wavpack, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Musepack, AAC and WAV/AIFF. Some of the features that make it a worthy alternative to iTunes include: gapless playback, auto updating, preferences, Growl support, global hot keys, seeking, feedback forms, last.fm support, and smart shuffle.
27 Comments
Foobar is good, very lightweight. Songbird is very buggy, and about as heavy as iTunes is. Until there’s a lot of community support in the vein of Firefox, it’s not worth using if you’re looking for a lightweight alternative.
The problem is that if you use an iPod or iPhone, there really isn’t a good alternative to iTunes if you want complete functionality. There are alternatives, sure, just not good ones. If you don’t use an iPod, though, and you’re not worried about libraries, stick with Winamp.
I dont own an iPod nor an iPhone. So I dont need that functionality. Throw that out and iTunes is a piss poor excuse for a media manager. I come from a PC background, so I am used to being able to find a solution for any issue. But I cannot get around iTunes on a Mac for the following reasons:
1) iTunes doesnt clearly delineate between albums. There is no space between songs listed by album in any view but Filter view which has been conveniently removed. They all run together and its not immediately visually evident which songs are from which album without paying close attention. WMP does this fantastically.
2) You cannot get album art w/o an iTunes store account. I dont have one and will not get one. How lame. WMP does this easily.
3) I cannot play music from another Windows/Linux based server on my network because, first iTunes doesnt support media streaming from anything but another iTunes library, and second, it doesnt play WMA, OGG, FLAC or many other formats natively. Again WMP 12 adds support for managing many alternative file types.
4) I cannot manage all my media types from one application (iTunes) that would apply the same folder/tag management to them all. I have to use Quicktime for movies. WMP handles all media files, including pictures.
5) Just because I am sure I missed something.
I just want one application to manage ALL of my media without discrimination. OSX plays WMA files with flip4mac installed, but none of these players can play nor manage WMA, FLAC, etc.
I dont think I am asking for much and from what Ive found on the web, I am not the first nor even the thousandth to want to be able to do this. All the responses are in the form of “why would you use anything but iTunes?” and frankly I am sick of this smug mentality from Apple supporters while trying to ask a genuine question.
I get it already, Fanbois want me to use what they use, buy what they buy and do what they do. Thanks, but no thanks, I spent 33 years developing a personality all my own. I have no use for herd mentality. I see a problem; I want to solve it. I am going to have to learn Objective C (barf) and Cocoa and all this shit just for a media library app on my Mac? Jeez….
All this and still no way to play over 25,000 songs I have in non-Apple sanctioned formats. Epic Fail OSX community, Epic Fail indeed.
Hi Steven. Personally, I’ve tried Foobar, Winamp and Cog.
Winamp is one of the few applications I can say I have used for over 10 years — perhaps sharing that title with only MS Word.. I’ve been using iTunes + Hamachi for some time to stream my music from home to work, and it works incredibly smoothly – browsing my library is simple, and songs start playing practically instantaneously. With that said, I’m not a huge iTunes fan and would love to switch to something else if they can just get that piece in place with the same ease of use.
there is the new VEVO but it doesn’t work in my country
Another good one to try is GT-iMedia.
Encodes, tags, cd-rips, backs up Audio/Video, Online Radio, lyrics, etc.
They give a trial for around a week, afterward they downgrade you (all the features that iTunes has, so w/out the encoding, tagging, lyrics, and artist info).
Media Monkey is another one too…(Random thoughts
)
Most of the alternative listed do not work with the iPhone and iPod Touch using the latest firmware. My favorite for iPhones and iPod Touch is CopyTrans Manager http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php
I have tried a few of these things to copy tunes from my iPod to my iPhone. The best I have come up with is CopyTrans which is easy to use, and copies tunes to order from my iPod to the Itunes library. From thence, of course, to the iPhone.
To many of them just don’t work, complain about the firmware or some other blah.
song bird isnt that bad nice design good quallity and i think its fast
Songbird has major issues with duplicating songs… which is one of the most frustrating things in the world. Too bad as it seemed good aside from that. There used to be an add on to help isolate them, although it’s outdated and doesn’t work anymore and wasn’t that helpful to begin with.
It gets annoying downloading the latest iTunes executable to install the player on other peep’s PCs/laptops. How on earth did a friggin media player become so huge?? WTF??
I’m seriously gonna have to find another alternative. I run Windows 7 & Linux Mint (Ubuntu based).
My US expat friend down here in Nairobi, Kenya has a 27″ iMac running 10.5.6 and there’s always a bloody iTunes update in Mac OS X software update. Is this software not built properly or what? Well, now she’s running Windows 7 via BootCamp and she’s not going back to OS X since she’s too much of a Windoze addict.
Anyhow, we can’t be wasting time down here in East Africa downloading the latest and greatest 90 Meg iTunes install at the drop of a hat.
I hope SongBird is making a Windows version…soon. Nough said! Time for me to start Googling:
google.com/search?q=itunes+alternatives
- Max “The IT pro”
MaxTheITpro.com
Yamipod is the best for my iPod Nano 5th Gen 16 GB. It is light & no need to install. Thank god there are alternatives to irritating iTunes.
Don’t download and try yamipod unless your ipod is ancient it doesn’t work with newer ipods at least not the os x version.
I was once quoted as saying:
The Top 3 killers: Heart Disease / Stroke / iTunes!
2 years of using iTunes on Windows and it added 10 years to my life, gave me grey hairs, and sleepless nights (kind of)…
Well Free iTunes Alternatives = More stress… As the saying goes “You get’s what ya pay’s for”
My iTunes Exit!
$49 and your problems are over. Trust me and I have no, zero, zip associations with this company. DL’d it about a week ago I love it. Best $49 (£30) I’ve ever spent.
http://www.jriver.com/
Add to comment above. The J. River Media player is free for 30 days for you to try out. I was sold on day 1.
And more apt for this post, they have a totally free option (i think the only difference is no video support).
http://www.mediajukebox.com/
Also see this article for some good info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Center_(software_application)
and this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_media_players
I see that iTunes is very useful for a beginner using an iPod, I just bought an iPod Touch (32GB), I see as if iTunes would be very, very helpful in this instance.
Great Article. thanks.
When I classify an audio file (normally lectures, webcasts and books) as a Audio Book in itunes my ipod will allow me to play it at 1.5x the speed. This saves me so many hours. I have tried many itunes alternatives and none allowed me to designate files as audiobooks. OR, and this is likely, i am a fool and i can not figure it out. Of those listed here I have tried Winamp and Yammipod, but again, I could have missed the feature or had an old version.
Which of these itune alternatives allow for files to be designated aubiobooks and allow the ipod to run at the 1.5x speed?
Thanks,
Pete
I love Songbird and I really want to use it, but it doesn’t work with iPod’s. It used to, a year or so back, but the iPod addon hasn’t been updated since then. I might give Winamp a go.
Best alternative to iTunes is iPhone browser for files and SSH Copy Trans for others download here http://surreystore.com/Forums/tech-help/itunes-alternatives/
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Had my hopes up for winamp. Grew up with it! But It just doesn’t do the job right transferring like 60gb’s of music to my 6 gen. classic 80 gigs. It keeps on giving errors and somehow locks my ipod constantly and fucking up the libs! Had to restore it like 4 times befor I gave it up. Back to itunes, it might be slow, and putting songs twice on the hd, it’s the most stable solution I’m afraid. So Winamp smells like a lama’s ass concerning synching ipod classics 6 gens…To bad it doesn’t run rockbox, would make life easier. For now my only conclusion is that third party apps just don’t cut the deal.
Sharepod works great with my ipod nano though! Used it for many years now!