[Closed] Alternatives to iTunes?

If you've got an iPod, then iTunes is the only real option IMHO

DoubleTwist?

I haven't really found anything that beats the simplicity of iTunes for importing music and managing iPods. I can just about run it on my netbook. The only caveat is that for actually listening to music I use Foobar2000, which reads the folder structure of my iTunes library and is much more lightweight.

i dont own any apple stuff myself so i use foobar2000 and a sansa zip clip with rockbox for all my musical needs, lots of configuration and plugin possibilities including one for the ipod which i occasionally use with my gf ipod.

Will look into Doubletwist & foobar2000; cheers.

I did wonder whether the iPod would tie me in. It's only an 8Gb one and doesn't hold all my music, so perhaps it's time to look for an alternative. I did consider the a Sandisk one - might have been the Sansa Clip with a 32Gb card.....hmmm.

I thought Winamp might do it (used to use it over 10yrs ago at uni), but I looked into it a while ago and don't think it does....

I think the main issues with iTunes slowing things down tends to occur when it's used on Windows machines, for whatever reason they don't seem to play well together. I've never had an issue, except for once when I tried something dumb and lost my entire library.
Fortunately my iPod had my entire library on it, (nearly 80Gb), and I was able to get 'ware that allowed me to copy back off of the Pod.
Now got over 112Gb in iTunes, and on my Pod, so I'm gonna be stuffed when it reaches it's 153Gb capacity... 🙁
Can't really be doing with swapping memory cards around; too easy to lose, even though 32Gb cards are cheap now.

Hmmm. Looks like they'll both do what I want to do, as will a program called Songbird......just need to see which one will do the best job, or perhaps revert back to using iTunes.

Doubletwist might be the sensible one as I currently have an Android phone which I'll probably replace with another one in the not to distant future....

Hasn't google music realised their version yet? They are making it their business to challange iTunes (and I'm starting to dislike apple due to their crap customer service)

Don't get sucked into Appledom!

Amazon MP£ store is my favourite. You click 'buy' and you download MP3s. No DRM, no proprietary formats, no shite software clogging up your PC, just downloaded clean MP3s. Lovely 🙂 There's also an Android app.

For ripping, I use Windows Media player. It rips to a folder, end of. Simple and lightweight.

Your MP3s just sit there in a folder, ready for any app to do anything you want.

[url= http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/29716/heres-five-alternatives-to-itunes-10-for-easily-managing-your-ipod/ ]Some here[/url] and [url= http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/07/08/10-alternatives-to-itunes-for-managing-your-ipod/ ] some more here[/url]

Like Molgrips I just use Windows Media Player for ripping duties.
WinAmp is annoying, really don't like the new versions - rubbish user interface, etc.

Doubletwist is good for the Android, etc. Sadly I think you need to pay for it to get the best from it (i.e. syncing music over wifi, etc.)
You could just use that phone as your MP3 player? Granted the music s/w is spartan but the DoubleTwist app is ok.

Apart from ripping does Spotify do what you need?

For putting music on the iPhones and daughters iPod we just use CopyTrans Manager > http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php
Simply a case of drag and drop and it copies the files over, can be used for pictures/pdf's etc.
There's a version on the download page that doesn't need installing, which is the one we use.

Windows Media Player for ripping duties, seems perfectly adaquete to me.

How often do you buy music? It's not a daily thing for me, so I just sync whenever I buy. Windows handles the syncing. I'm very much in favour of not installing third party software to do things that Windows already does.

I have 2 sony MP3 players and an android phone with music on, WMP works fine for ripping and syncing, never been able to get iTunes to work properly and I dont like giving money to Bono.

Another foobar2000 user here, superlight weight in terms of ram and cpu usage and totally customizable.

Take a look at MediaMonkey too for synch to iPod without the pain of iTunes.

Woah. Cheers for the replies...

Mikewsmith - cheers for the links. Not sure if spotify does what I need. Will investigate.

Molgrips - good point. I kinda discounted Windows media player. And not really bothered about specifically getting my music from iTunes. My oh buys her Kindle books from Amazon & that's painless enough, so music should be too, I guess.
As i said in my op, I hardly ever download music. I normally just buy the cd and rip it. I occasionally buy singles and odd songs that I think of.

RDL-82, yeah copytransmanager does look very lightweight. It's on the list of things to investigate.

Countzero - I only have about 15gb of music, perhaps more once I get it all on mp3. Hence why a cheap player with a card slot appeals. 32gb should do me for a few more yrs.

Dave-rudabar - considered using my phone as my mp3 player, but my ipod battery lasts ages and I just leave it in my bag without worrying about whether it has any juice. Could probably used my phone, but I appear to be a luddite who keeps things separate...

Disco_stu & hunta...ta. I'm definitely gonna look into them further...

Stumpy- I had an MP3 stolen and wanted a new phone so got a cheaper HTC with big SD card, very good for playing music, can use headphones about or AUX in the car.

The battery doesn't last that long in my Android in general, but I gave up trying to conserve it early on, bought a bedside charging stand and treat it as an alarm clock. So I can do whatever I want with it in the day and it's always got enough charge to last til bedtime.

molgrips, yeah I get the reasoning. I've got a car charger for my Desire, and I use that to top it up during the day plugged into my computer at work too.

But, my ipod just gets left in the house, in a bag, wherever & it always has power. I charge it pretty rarely & it's got a strong plastic case so can be slung in a bag, used in the garden, garage etc with speakers and it doesn't matter if I drop it or spill stuff on it.

If I lose it, it's no big deal as it must be 5yrs old now so has done it's time...

I know if I used my phone instead, it wouldn't get used as much as a music device.

[quote=hunta said]Take a look at MediaMonkey too for synch to iPod without the pain of iTunes.

I liked mediamonkey when I was using windows, also worth a look is Songbird which I believe allows you buy music from various stores from within the app itself.

My reasoning is that I always have my phone with me anyway, so using is as a music player is even easier than using an ipod. No (extra) charging or chargers required at all.

This thread prompted me to look into this further as I hate iTunes too. No auto-update watchlist folder, I mean... Come on!

Anyway, the big stumbling block seems to be that you do need to install iTunes if only to set your iPod up as an external drive. Many then need to have it, or bits at least, remain installed to detect the iPod as a sync device, including MediaMonkey. Songbird is unable to work with later iPods due to Apple restrictions (I.e. Apple being Apple).

I'm an Android fan for everything else, but the fact remains that if you have a large library ripped at high quality the 160GB iPod is the only game in town, and I've not yet found a way not having to install iTunes.

I manage a 3TB media library through iTunes on my mac and it's never missed a beat - no crashes, no error messages, no hangups. Streams music and Bluray rips to my apple tv with absolutely no drama at all.

I never understood why everybody bitches about iTunes.... until I tried to install it on my girlfriend's windows laptop - it was bloody awful. All I wanted to do was use it to setup her iPad, and I nearly threw the thing out the window.

Is it cynical to suspect that apple make it so dire on purpose in order to drive people towards apple computers?

Woah...I never said I hated iTunes. It has always worked for me, but just seems a little slow & clunky. Which is weird, given how slick Apple stuff is supposed to be. Perhaps it is just that it doesn't work great on Windows machines.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was purposefully not quite as 'polished' on Windows...but there's no way it would be the sole reason to switch to an Apple computer.

As hunta has said, if you want a larger capacity mp3 player, you are pretty much tied to Apple. Everyone else seems to have given up on that part of the market. Which is a bit lame.

Not turned my laptop on for a couple of days so not really any closer to sorting this out. Although I am thinking of upgrading my phone soon & wonder whether I should try using it as a music device as molgrips suggested. I think the ones I am looking at have plenty of memory & if I did get on with sorting that out, I could perhaps ditch my ipod...hmmm.

For putting music on the iPhones and daughters iPod we just use CopyTrans Manager > http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php
Simply a case of drag and drop and it copies the files over, can be used for pictures/pdf's etc.
There's a version on the download page that doesn't need installing, which is the one we use.
Windows Media Player for ripping duties, seems perfectly adaquete to me.

So. Let me get this straight. Just so I understand, cos I am a bit thick:

You use one program to rip the CD, then go to another and drag and drop the files?

Whereas I inset my CD, wait a couple of seconds, click 'import' and some time soon the music appears both on the computer and iPhone without any other input at all.

Please tell me what I'm missing. 🙂

Ahh sorry. Didn't read the whole thread. (told you I was thick)
My fault for having an iMac I guess...? 😉

Peter mostly I do neither. Just load spotify saves ripping and loading. Failing that I just drop my music folder over once in a while from a file browser. The benefits of not having an ipod

Something else that's worth a shout is Banshee, it's a Linux media player that also works on Windows. It works with apple stuff on Linux so should do on Windows also (itunes doesnt even work on linux without wine).

PeterPoddy - Member
So. Let me get this straight. Just so I understand, cos I am a bit thick:
You use one program to rip the CD, then go to another and drag and drop the files?
Whereas I inset my CD, wait a couple of seconds, click 'import' and some time soon the music appears both on the computer and iPhone without any other input at all.
Please tell me what I'm missing.

Crazy, isn't it? Next they'll be telling us that to use a program on their phones they have to find the icon for the program in question & select it to use it, rather than have the program available & working already on the screen....whatever is the world coming to?

Chvck, I looked up Banshee & it is available for Windows but as a development package & apparently by their own admission it's very buggy.

Chvck, I looked up Banshee & it is available for Windows but as a development package & apparently by their own admission it's very buggy.

Ah, hadn't realised that. It could worth having a look at a couple of other linux ones that are also on windows but I suspect that there's a good chance that they'd suffer from the same problem.

[s]I've been signed up to [url= http://emusic.com ]emusic.com[/url] for a few years now.

You don't get much pop on there as non of the majors will sign up to but for indie stuff and finding good new music it's excellent.

The mp3 inport into itunes then are uploaded to itunes match, from there to my phone/ipad etc. But you can put them wherever you want and there's no DRM either.[/s]
[b]
Sorry I thought you were after buying music not just organising it. 😳 *must read the full post before offering my tuppence worth in future.*[/b]

itunes is god's own work. If you look at the number of services, processes and programs it installs, you can understand

I can just about run it on my netbook.

MediaMonkey is my preferred alternative as an all-in-one ripping/ library management package. It has numerous options for ripping and encoding, library management is fantastic, and it can sync with all manner of devices. It's lightweight (relative to itunes) and free, too.

My problem with itunes is not using it. Its the huge amount of stuff it loads every time you boot your PC,not justwhen you use itunes

So mac users. Are you sure that itunes isn't loading loads of stuff in the back ground?

My problem with itunes is not using it. Its the huge amount of stuff it loads every time you boot your PC,not justwhen you use itunes

Exactly. QuickTime is a prime example.

I've seen articles on installing just the components required by CopyTrans, MediaMonkey etc. That might be the way to go, and ditch iTunes altogether.

So mac users. Are you sure that itunes isn't loading loads of stuff in the back ground?

I have absolutely no idea if it is or not..... but thats exactly the point. I have no interest in what my computer is doing, beyond the fact that it is performing to my expectations and I don't have to get involved 😀