No more iTunes!

October 6, 2006 9:03 PM

I really dislike iTunes. What else can I use?

I have a new iMac and I really hate the iTunes interface. I was using Media Monkey on my PC and I really liked that way that worked. (Easy to scroll through artists and albums, easier tag lookup, etc.)

Is there a similar program for OSX? As long as it works with my iPod video, I'll be happy.

posted by youcancallmeal to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Also: I've downloaded Songbird and am giving it a shot. I'd also like integration with iChat status messages...anyone know if this is doable?
posted by youcancallmeal at 9:08 PM on October 6, 2006

Ok, so you don't like the iTunes interface. What is it about the interface that you don't like?
posted by bshort at 9:11 PM on October 6, 2006

If you search you'll find plenty of threads and alternatives.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:12 PM on October 6, 2006

I have searched and found plenty of info, but nothing about this. The other threads are about the music store or iPod managers. I'm asking about a player.

I don't like how every song is listed in the same list at all the same time. I have 100Gigs+ of music and don't want to scroll through every song to discover something interesting that I may not think of immediately. The album flipping thing in iTunes 7 helps with this, but not enough.
posted by youcancallmeal at 9:16 PM on October 6, 2006

A friend of mine hated iTunes because she wanted to easily scroll through artist and album names, and it wasn't until I pointed out the Browse button (the eyeball) that she realized it was what she was looking for the entire time. I don't know why Apple leaves that feature turned off by default.
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:26 PM on October 6, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Three things:

1. You can just scroll through your artists and your albums.

2. You can create playlists (smart playlists, even) to help organize your tunes. For instance, I have playlists built that pull songs that I've highly rated, but which I haven't listened to recently, and which aren't podcasts.

3. There's a "search" field in the upper-right-hand corner of the application. It's very handy.

I realize you're looking for other applications, so these suggestions might not help, but it sounds like you might not know about all the features that iTunes has.


But to answer your question: have you tried WinAmp? The people I know that don't like iTunes usually swear by WinAmp.
posted by bshort at 9:27 PM on October 6, 2006

Winamp is for windows, bshort.
posted by Jimbob at 9:29 PM on October 6, 2006

So, how does Media Monkey do things differently? Looking at the screenshots on their website, it looks like it's trying really hard to be an iTunes clone.
If you told us what you liked about it and what, specifically, you hate about iTunes, people can better point you to somethng you might like. I'm not clear about your objection to the master list of music in iTunes. All players are going to have, at a minimum, this master list of everything in your collection.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:30 PM on October 6, 2006

Problem solved. For some reason, I had never clicked on that damned eye. Robot Johnny is my hero.
posted by youcancallmeal at 9:32 PM on October 6, 2006

Well, there's MacAmp.
posted by bshort at 9:34 PM on October 6, 2006

There used to be more of them but once iTunes came out, the market for Macintosh players (both free and commercial) pretty much collapsed.
posted by chairface at 10:51 PM on October 6, 2006

Hehe.. yeah, that browse button made me like iTunes finally as well. I still prefer amaroK, but that's a pain to get running on a mac.
posted by Ikazuchi at 6:54 AM on October 7, 2006

I knew the eye was the beholder of all knowledge! Johnny, you just saved the day!
posted by booticon at 1:05 PM on October 7, 2006

You can always install and run Amarok...

It's pretty awesome. I used these directions. It took quite a while to download and compile, but worked perfectly. fink is your friend.

I'm running it in X11. I used XDroplets to make a clickable (and drag-and-droppable) launch icon.
posted by defenestration at 2:56 PM on October 7, 2006