Alternatives for iTunes and Winamp

I got my first mac a few days ago, and im starting to figure everything out. On my old PC, I used winamp, I conviniently docked it to the top or side of the screen and used global hotkeys to control it. I also got an iPod with my macbook pro, so I need something to manage that with. iTunes sounds like the logical answer right? Well, unlike most people, I like to chose my apps myself as much as possible rather than just going with pre-installed ones, and Ive also noticed there are many iTunes haters. So I was wondering, which media players do switchers use and why? For music, that is.

So pre-installed bundled Apps are automatically bad and therefore discarded? Have you even given iTunes a chance?

This isn't Windows and the pre-installed Apps don't automatically suck.

baggss said:

So pre-installed bundled Apps are automatically bad and therefore discarded? Have you even given iTunes a chance?

This isn't Windows and the pre-installed Apps don't automatically suck.

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THANK YOU SIR.
OP, your post is really ridiculous.
"you know what? I'm gonna make a statement and stick it to the man by not using one of the most reliable programs ever...CAUSE I DIDN'T DOWNLOAD IT! YEAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

No, I did use iTunes. What I meant was that many people use default apps, not because they are the best choice for them but because they are there.

I tried iTunes, and its not the kind of music player im looking for. iTunes is very library-based and wants to assist in everything. Its very different from winamp. Sure, maybe i can set it up so that it does do what I want, but its just not the right type of media player. Maybe because many people use it anyway there arent that many alternatives.

Meanwhile I came across Audion, which is almost perfect, but its no longer being developed and its buggy. Does anyone know any other audio players like Winamp and Audion?

What are you looking for exactly? If you don't want a library-based app, just try quicktime to playback your mp3 files you scatter all over the hd.

Haha, some people can be pretty sarcastic towards people that dislike anything apple it seems.

However, iTunes really is a decent music player and organiser, perhaps you should look further into it's features before dismissing it.

Using iTunes myself - but you could give Songbird a try.

yogi said:

If you don't want a library-based app, just try quicktime to playback your mp3 files you scatter all over the hd.

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Well, that wasn't very nice...

Don't automatically assume things like this.

I mean, just because a person doesn't use a Library-based media player,
that naturally implies all their music files are completely disorganized and spread all over the place??

Come on...

For instance, I myself prefer to organize everything myself.
I don't want my music files (or any type of file for that matter, except for system and preference files) to be move around automatically "for me."

I think of it as real life;
I sure wouldn't want my house to automatically move my stuff around, saying "Don't worry about it! I got you covered!" XD

When it comes down to it, it's all about personal choice.


Anyways, as for the original question:

1) As others have said, don't think "bundled = bad." Give it a fair try first.

2) And if you really do want an alternative,
well, since you're used to Winamp and you want "global hotkeys", give Cog a try.

Link's in my signature below.
Be sure to try the latest Nightly Build though. Much, much better than the "latest" release, version 0.05.

when i downloaded itunes for my ipod on my pc i thought omg why cant i just use WMP like an mp3 player or something but i gave itunes a try and it actually is really really good. Exspecially to use your ipod with as they're friendly and both apple products.


What im trying to say is

iTunes Rocks, Don't Diss!

Hmm, I like iTunes just fine, but that Songbird application looks great. I think when my Macbook comes home with me tomorrow I'll load that up and give it a shot. This thread was helpful to me. Thanks.

Thanks for all the replies so far, ill give Cog and Songbird a try (Audion crashes sometimes)

im having a problem with itunes too.i came from windows media player and i was used to right click "add to my playlist" and i miss that feature on itunes.
i hate that itunes copies my music to its folder, but i fixed that at the pref.
Anyway, i gave itunes a lil time and i think is good but not the best..i really miss that right click feature =/ anyone knows any plug in or something that can do that?

cheez said:

i came from windows media player and i was used to right click "add to my playlist" and i miss that feature on itunes.

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Do you mean in the right-click menu of music files in Windows Explorer (the desktop and folders in Windows)?

If so,
no, there isn't such a menu item in the Finder.
Applications rarely add a menu item to the Finder
(for me, this is actually a good thing, considering how a lot of Windows programs add 1 or 2 items to the menu, then after 10 programs, your context menu is more than half the screen long x_X )

But remember, if you want to add a song to iTunes, you only need to drag it to the iTunes icon in the Dock.

remain said:

I think of it as real life;
I sure wouldn't want my house to automatically move my stuff around, saying "Don't worry about it! I got you covered!" XD

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I would love to have that. Imagine coming home after being out shopping food and then everything would be automatically moved in to the fridge and cupboards by itself. Great! Maybe that is why I am using iTunes.....;D

I don't allow iTunes to manage (i.e. file) my music files for me, or even use it for any bulk tagging. But for displaying in an organized manner my Library, managing my music collection in general and working with my iPods it's a great App.

rogerinlondon said:

I would love to have that. Imagine coming home after being out shopping food and then everything would be automatically moved in to the fridge and cupboards by itself. Great! Maybe that is why I am using iTunes.....;D

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Well, it's no problem... until the house arranges them in a way you don't like,
or it has never arranged them in the way you want in the first place. ;p

remain said:

Well, it's no problem... until the house arranges them in a way you don't like,
or it has never arranged them in the way you want in the first place. ;p

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What?
So, you DON'T like having your music organized into album, artist, and playlist, alphabetically, in one convenient list.

Think about that, and then get back to me.

Number2MVP said:

What?
So, you DON'T like having your music organized into album, artist, and playlist, alphabetically, in one convenient list.

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Yup. ;p

Number2MVP said:

Think about that, and then get back to me.

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Done. ;p ;p

One of the things i noticed in iTunes is that when you import an album CD from one artist, that has a few tracks with 2 artists (eg Santana feat. Eric Clapton), it puts it into a different artist 'folder' so instead of sorting it under Santana or Eric Clapton, or both, it makes a new artist called Santana ft Eric Clapton. Very annoying. Is there a pref for this?

Number2MVP said:

What?
So, you DON'T like having your music organized into album, artist, and playlist, alphabetically, in one convenient list.

Think about that, and then get back to me.

Click to expand...

I agree with the post above, no, i dont. I dant want it to grad info like genre or stuff from cddb or id3 tags that were put there by other people, i want to make my own categorisation based on how I feel about the music, from my own perspective, in my own way. Call me a control freak but apparantly there are more people who want to do things themselves...