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.
5 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.