I need an alternative to iTunes - I hate it

Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
74
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Right, I've been a windows user for about 4 years now, and i switched to mac a few days ago. I have alot of music (Around 77gb) and I hate itunes.

1. I cant change the track numbers by double clicking i have to go into "get info" and change it from there.

2. I cant tag things like "tracknumber" or "trackname" from filename

3. I cant use the tags like tracknumber and trackname to create the filename i want. :Grimmace:

4. I have to go through every song in an album if it's been tagged with the songname '02 songname' or something where i only want the songname not the track number

5. I cant look at my music straight from my HDD I have to import it first. :Shouting:

As I mentioned before, I used to use mediamonkey and there is no mac version and paralles I cant get running because i dont have a windows disk or key anymore.

So really, I'm stuck here and itunes is really really annoying me. Please an suggestions for other programs or ways to make itunes a more pleasent experience i'd be very grateful :Evil:
 
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
288
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
2.16 GHz C2D, 1GB Ram, MacBook White
Your kidding right iTunes is the best program for music ever.
 
Joined
Aug 27, 2007
Messages
135
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Kazakhstan
Your Mac's Specs
White MacBook 1.83GHz 120GB Leopard and XP
One to watch out for is songbird - it is still very early in development 0.4 (and cannot import CDs yet) but looks very impressive.
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
74
Reaction score
0
Points
6
One to watch out for is songbird - it is still very early in development 0.4 (and cannot import CDs yet) but looks very impressive.

Just checked it out, looks interesting, but i'm not sure how heavily they are focusing on the browser thing as that isnt really something i'd be interested in, espeically if it's for firefox (I am a opera user)

But I'll definatley keep my eye on that one. Thanks.
 
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Points
6
One to watch out for is songbird - it is still very early in development 0.4 (and cannot import CDs yet) but looks very impressive.


that seems pretty cool, with how much loyal firefox users are I can see this exploding in the new few years. Once it goes through some more production i may have to take a look at that.
 

Del


Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
901
Reaction score
15
Points
18
Location
N. Ireland
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro 2xQuad core 2.8GHZ
iTunes is a great app, the only thing that sucks about it is the DRM!
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
ITunes does not have DRM. Most music from the iTunes store has DRM and to me very fair DRM at that. There is also some music on the iTunes store that is DRM Free. It's all up to the Artists and not Apples fault.

Back in my PC days I used to use Winamp, Musicmatch and later Media Monkey for a bit. ITunes came out for Windows. I tried it and have never looked back. This was on XP Pro on a Home Built AMD 64 system. When I got my first G4 and 10.2-10.3 I continued using iTunes and for me it's hard to use anything else.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2006
Messages
2,542
Reaction score
79
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
iMac Core Duo 20", iBook G4, iPhone 8GB :)
Langoo, have you tried Cog? It's pretty neat for iTunes haters. Still has an aquaish feel to it, but it works. And it supports a lot of formats including FLAC files.

As for your last point, you don't have to copy stuff to the iTunes folder. Just uncheck the option in the Advanced tab in preferences. That way, you will have your original file names and everything in your files will be sort of untouched. If you just want to play a single track, use quicktime.
 
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
Messages
114
Reaction score
1
Points
18
What really annoyed me about itunes is I had to do so much to organise my music, wheras when i used media player it was easily organised into folders on my hard drive.

A lot of it was missing information, some albums were split up because of different artists, it didn't automatically attemtp to get album are and you had to sign into itunes to do that (i just dragged and dropped mine).
Another problem was when i reformatted (quite often due to a dodgey boot disc in my pc), it sometimes made duplicate tracks, very annoying, sorted it now though.

Had to sort all that out when i had around 5000 tracks, now got around 37000 (i have a habbit of just getting the discography if i like a band) and it's been a pain, i don't regret it, if you can get itunes working the way you want it's brilliant getting there is hard.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2006
Messages
2,542
Reaction score
79
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
iMac Core Duo 20", iBook G4, iPhone 8GB :)
Yeah. It takes a little bit of time to get things organised in iTunes. So at first look it just plain doesn't work for you. Once it's done however, you just can't use anything else. Also, on the mac, the integration throughout the system is so tight, that you would be stupid not to use iTunes.

@megaross: What do you mean folders on hard drive? Doesn't iTunes do that as well? Just make sure "organise tracks" is selected in preferences.
 
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
1,814
Reaction score
137
Points
63
Location
NY USA
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 5.1 | iMac 7.1 | iMac 12.1 | iMac 19.1 | iPhone 11 Pro | Watch s5
I don't like iTunes either. But a some of the comments here are wrong....

What really annoyed me about itunes is I had to do so much to organise my music, wheras when i used media player it was easily organised into folders on my hard drive.
All you have to do is "Consolidate Library" and iTunes will create the directory structures for you. ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist/Album/song.mp3
It's very clean! Just turn on "Keep iTunes Music folder organized".

5. I cant look at my music straight from my HDD I have to import it first.
To disable this, turn off "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library".

attachment.php


Picture 1.png
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
201
Reaction score
9
Points
18
Location
Norway
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook / Mac Mini
iTunes is one of the few musicplayers that utilize tags fully, the only others that I've found is close in functionaliy is amaroK and Rhythmbox (both Linux only).

Why care about file names? iTunes sorts your songs perfectly if your tags are correct.
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
93
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
First gen Mac Pro, Dual 2.66
Why care about file names? iTunes sorts your songs perfectly if your tags are correct.

For me, I tote my music around on an external drive, and I'm not always at a system with iTunes. This kind of portability is where most other music players shine over iTunes. That, and if you're a recent Windows convert, you come over kind of obsessed over directory structure.

Personally, I love iTunes for the ability to quickly edit and manage tags, but I'm really not a fan of it for actually playing media. I'd rather use something with a very small system footprint.
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
Right, I've been a windows user for about 4 years now, and i switched to mac a few days ago. I have alot of music (Around 77gb) and I hate itunes.

1. I cant change the track numbers by double clicking i have to go into "get info" and change it from there.

2. I cant tag things like "tracknumber" or "trackname" from filename

3. I cant use the tags like tracknumber and trackname to create the filename i want. :Grimmace:

4. I have to go through every song in an album if it's been tagged with the songname '02 songname' or something where i only want the songname not the track number

5. I cant look at my music straight from my HDD I have to import it first. :Shouting:

As I mentioned before, I used to use mediamonkey and there is no mac version and paralles I cant get running because i dont have a windows disk or key anymore.

So really, I'm stuck here and itunes is really really annoying me. Please an suggestions for other programs or ways to make itunes a more pleasent experience i'd be very grateful :Evil:
It sounds like some of your issues (2, 3, 4) with iTunes could be resolved with a few of Doug's Applescripts for iTunes.

Search on his site for the Parser script...
 
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
316
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
15"MacBook Pro 2.7 GHz i7 (2013) | 15"MacBook Pro 2.6GHz (2018) both OS 10.14.1 | iPhone 6 OS 12.1
Back in my PC days I used to use Winamp, Musicmatch and later Media Monkey for a bit. ITunes came out for Windows. I tried it and have never looked back. This was on XP Pro on a Home Built AMD 64 system. When I got my first G4 and 10.2-10.3 I continued using iTunes and for me it's hard to use anything else.

then you would be the perfect person to ask this :)
i like itunes too...but being used to winamp in the past...i keep having the urge to "enque" a track after the current one playing...obviously this cant be done on itunes....any work around for this? basically i want a particular track i found while browsing my library to play automatically right after the one thats playing...the only way i have figured to do this is by creating a playlist...was wondering if there's an easier way...
 
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
8,967
Reaction score
287
Points
83
Location
London
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
It sounds like some of your issues (2, 3, 4) with iTunes could be resolved with a few of Doug's Applescripts for iTunes.

Search on his site for the Parser script...

Most of your issues, and many more besides can be sorted out with the scripts site Aptmunich mentions
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Messages
874
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
Alabama
Your Mac's Specs
Mid 2009 MacBook Pro  Mid 2007 iMac  4G iPod Touch  iPhone 4S  iPad
Most of your gripes are correctible in Preferences. I have to say part of me thinks the OP is bating. iTunes is a great app, minus the DRM issues.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top