Itunes SUCKS, any alternatives?

I am a new mac user longtime pc user and one thing that has really frustrated me so far is the lack of a decent mp3 playing program.

Before anyone says just use itunes, please don't, i really do find it awful.

For starters the first time copied over my 70gig mp3 collection that is already nicely sorted into A-Z/Artist/Album i load up itunes and import them and it screwed up because it thought it was "tidying" them up, ok maybe some of the tags are wrong but it should be able to realise they were all organised in folders....

I disabled that "feature" and copied over all 70gig AGAIN.

Now i try itunes again and find the way it does playlists is just bizzare, and navigating music?!

I am also going to be importing music the mac from my PC from time to time but itunes doesnt seem to realise that i do and doesnt autoupdate the database like winamps media library would.

i dont want to have to type in the band name, i just want to point and click ALA winamp.

simply r-click on a file in finder/explorer in windows, and add the playlist.

Is that too much to ask?

I have tried audion which looked like it was on the right track but it isnt optimized for intel macbook pro and its not being developed anymore?

I also tried xmms but gave up at trying to get it to work after i finally got it installed.

Any suggestions please?

itunes does everything you want to do for you, i dont see why you wouldnt use it, i think it is the more elite audio playback programs. so easy to use and very pretty looking.

Try making some *Smart* Playlists. Apple+Option+N.

Then change the category to "Artist", then type the band's name in the field.

just use itunes

http://www.songbirdnest.com/ That is very early in the development stages but looks pretty cool

To me, itunes just seems bloated, it takes up too much of the screen to just queue songs.

What i seem unable to do is just double click and have it add to the current playlist?!

I don't want it to partyshuffle , i just want it to add the song.

The only similar thing it seems to do is by right clicking in browser then choosing add to party shuffle. That is longwinded, as is using a shortcut on the keyboard.
Can't a man drink a cup of tea while Cueing up songs?

Browser is also no use when you have tunes that don't have proper id3 tags, all the mp3's DO have proper file names though, e.g. 01 ARTIST - SONGNAME.mp3
Winamp for example could automatically then tell what the song artist/name was. If Browser in itunes did that then it might be ok.

The reason alot of my mp3s do not have tags is because alot of them were ripped before id3 tag rippers were ever written.


Double clicking just plays instantly and i cant see any setting to change the default function to add to playlist.

If i click new playlist and then open it, why does the browser only show songs i have added in that playlist?
Can't it still show my entire collection in the browser above the playlist then i can drag down onto that playlist beneath while playing?

Is there a way to add a context menu in finder so i can r-click add to playlist?


@trnmonkey thanks, songbird does look very promising, downloading now.

EDIT: Installed now, wow brilliant little program!

I love the way when you use its inbuilt webbrowser it scans the pages for playable media, brilliant for site with new music like http://www.finefinemusic.com/ it lets you play the music on the site while reading the latest news from it. GENIUS!

Maybe I am not fully understanding you...but, you don't need to click anything to add it to a playlist... just drag and drop.
Create your playlist and you will see it in the sidebar. Then go back to your library and drag from the library to the playlist in the sidebar. If you want to add a mass song-list, then create your playlist and then command+select the songs you want to add and drag and drop them all in one shot.

If you are looking for a right click, then create your playlist... go back to your library and right-click (ctrl+click) and you will have an option to add the song to a playlist with a submenu of all of your playlist names.

D3v1L80Y:

thanks, that does make it easier, however i just don't think i am going to get used to it.

It does work but there are just too many things that seem strange to me, e.g when you r-click to add to playlist , the option to add to play list is far down beneath 10 other items in the menu.

I would have thought that would be a highly used item and logically would be in the top of the list to make it quicker/less navigation.

re the double click to enque, i think that is a great feature that both itunes+songbird are lacking.

tons of times at a parties when friends want to make up a playlist they may often double click on the song by accident and it starts to play instantly thus abandoning the playlist that was so carefully made.

simple option to make dbl click enqueue to default playlist would solve that headache


I think i'll stick with songbird, it really does look stunning!(I've already asked to the devs to add the enqueue as default feature )

I checked out trpmonkey41's link to SongBird and saw this:

hold shift while selecting the songs you want to add to playlist, that will select multiple tracks, then do the add to playlist command. itunes is amazing

brianj08 said:

hold shift while selecting the songs you want to add to playlist, that will select multiple tracks, then do the add to playlist command. itunes is amazing

Click to expand...

Thanks, thats totally irellevant to my problem from the look of your posts on itunes being the best im wondering if if has subliminal messages in it now

I love SongBird...thanks trpnmonkey41! Byebye iTunes hello SongBird!

Might be on to something with the subliminal messages.. I was with you, iTunes is a bit of a pain in the **** for a long time Winamp user. Was definitely written by someone who had NEVER even so much as seen Winamp in action. I've been using iTunes for about a year now and finally seem to have adapted myself to it. There are still some things I miss from Winamp. What they need is a Mac port of Winamp.. But even then, half my library is now music I've purchased from iTMS..

iTunes is one the best audio playback programs ever. I love the way it organizes my music. Yu can search 20 different ways to find stuff. I would suggest a book about iTunes and read about all the different options available. Just my two cents.

ive used winamp for years, and it is stages behind itunes by my use of it

audion

i hate itunes as well. seriously, i can't stand it, the tool, the store, feh.

i use audion.
uses and saves playlists.
burns and rips mp3s.
has rudimentary mp3 editing capability.
does not dictate where your library lives.
has a very small but completely usable interface when all you want to do is play a song.
it's free.

mm, I prefer iTunes right now. Audion looks like it's trying to be a Windows app - stuff all over the place. I don't get the separate window for the visualiser...

Personally, I think iTunes really shows off the drag and drop simplicity Apple strives for. If you've been using macs for some time, it will seem more logical. Just like moving/copying files in Finder by dragging and dropping, you create playlists the same way. I find it very easy to search for any song I want - and the smart playlists are fantastic. If you want everything from one artist to be put in a playlist, tell it to do so and it does automatically, even with future songs. I always had one with new tracks - if they're within 30 days old, they're all in one playlist, so I can sort them easily. I think if you're coming from windows, iTunes will seem more confusing. If you're used to mac, iTunes is nothing at all to pick up and use, and very easy to make it do what you want it to, without all the frills and ugly 'futuristic' skins of some windows media players I've seen.

Songbird is looking quite nice. Personally, I don't want it to be the "Firefox of media players" Firefox is slow and safe. But macs are pretty much safe anyway...so that just leaves slow. I'm gonna test it out though. It's got the style we expect to see on mac, with a layout similar to iTunes in appearance. Could be a good alternative.

For now, iTunes offers the simplicity and power I'm after. I don't care about where the library is, because I don't browse through the songs in Finder anyway.

Crunchie - Instead of giving up straight away, give youself time to get to know how to use iTunes before bashing it. Basically all of the things you outlined in your first post are easy to do in iTunes. Instead of having to scroll through your entire library for songs, hold down Alt and click the cog button in the bottom left corner to create a new 'smart playlist'. Tell the playlist to list all songs from one of your artists, with live updating incase you add more by that artist to your library. Then you have an easy way to access that artists without having to search through your Library.
For a mixed playlist, click the bottom left button (without holding down Alt), and drag and drop the songs you want into it from your Library.

For simple winamp like interface, use Cog. I've forgotten the url, but its there somewhere in its 0.4 instance.... just like you would use winamp.

I use itunes (especially cause of front row)

Does anyone know if songbird supports ipod?