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Best Free Music Player and Organizer

Updated 20. May 2013 - 12:12 by cdissler

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Introduction
 

This article compares audio software that enrich the music experience or enhance everyday listening, and provide impressive music centric features. The best MP3 and audio player ought to quench our passion for music, such as by inspiring us to rip or download music, organize our music libraries, learn more about our favorite artists or music, or just listen to music.

The reviews evaluate products on sound enhancements, usability and unique features, support for common and useful audio formats (MP3, WAV, FLAC, WMA, and others), performance, security and privacy.

Thanks to our faithful followers, who have been pitching their favorite players and organizers, we have a set of carefully considered selections. We have 26 listed music players and counting!

Latest article update: Added more quick links at the top (8-27). Current product reviews in the discussion section are from a previous editor (they are his "I" statements).
Discussion
 

Light Music Players and Organizers

The following had to have light resource efficiency while impressing us with music centric features. They were the best candidates to be our primary music player and organizer, satisfying avid audiophiles for daily listening. They aren't the best for managing music files (ripping, converting, tagging), but they often have unique advantages over bulkier programs depending on your tastes and needs.

 

Jaangle

Jaangle is one of my least favorite players. This player is more of a playlist generator than a be-all player. If I know what I want to listen to, It isn't economical use Jaangle, however if I am just looking to listen to random music this is exactly the program to look to.
 
Jaangle has a small memory footprint, not the smallest but still negligeble.
 
Since the entire program is hugely dependent upon panes, I will refer to the panes throougout this review. Below is the pane list which is primarily used.
 
 
1. Pane A - Artist/Album/Genre list. This list can be sorted any of the three fields listed here.
2. Pane B - Single Album song list
3. Pane C - Track list
 
After installing, it took almost no time to import my music. I imported 15,000 songs in about 10 minutes, with the tags and album art. I didn't realize it until I imported my music into Jaangle, but my library contained about 300 m4a files. This isn't a huge problem I converted them to mp3 right away, but Jaangle wasn't able to read the tags from them though I don't believe any non-apple music player can play them.
 
That was where the ease of use ended. I didn't realize at first that you need to work off of the panes provided in order to play music. You move from panes A and choose your artist/album/genre, to pane B where you choose the song from a single album list, to panes C, which will play ONLY the selected track. If you want to play and entire album you cannot simply play the first song in pane B and expect it to play. No, no, no that would be too easy. You need to populate pane C with all the tracks you wish to play. If you run out of tracks in pane C Jaangle starts to randomize your music library. 
 
Most of my library consists of Jazz, with a very small percentage of obscure indie artists and some psych-folk. The random generation of music actually was pretty impressive, it played songs that I would be interested in hearing back to back. I cannot tell if this is by design or just coincedence. If the first song I chose was a soprano sax player from the 50's it did well to keep it inline with that style.
 
By default, Jaangle sets a cross fade between songs. If I skip a song there is a couple of seconds of fade from the previous song even though the next song is going at full force. This is hugely annoying and couldn't ever be useful for me. They couldn't have put the off button for this in a more inconspicuous place. A tiny button above the time bar at the bottom needs to be clicked for off.
 
Jaangle makes far to many assumptions as a music player and on my list of No's. There are several things that I like about Jaangle, but without the additional features that make up a music player/organizer it makes this program almost useless to me. The only easy thing about Jaangle is the download and installation. There appears to be a learning curve to this program that I haven't seen before. 
 

Foobar2000My first impression of Foobar2000 was that it was the workingman's media player. As it comes Foobar2000 is a basic player. Those with a bit of computer savvy can easily modify the way Foobar2000 looks with internal controls in the View menu. The interface is customizable as to what windows appear, how they look, background colors, etc. I especially liked the large cover art window, which is four times the size of the normal view of most media players. It brought me back to the days of being in a music store, during the heyday of 12-inch vinyl, and you were listening to some new music being played. If you liked it, all you had to do is look towards the register and above it would be an album cover with a "Now Playing" sign under it. That's enough with the nostalgia.

As stated previously, Foobar2000 is a basic player, very basic. The library is adequate and mildly configurable. Tagging is manual and limited. Play list editing is also manual. There is an eighteen band equalizer, but it can only be accessed through menu and cannot be viewed by default. As it comes, there are no ripping or converting capabilities.

While it's beyond the scope of this review, more advanced users may want to enhance the looks of the player or add more functionality. Foobar2000 does not use skins, but uses, what would be more aptly described as, themes. A simple search on the internet will turn up a multitude of themes and plug-ins, but be aware that these third party items are written specifically for particular versions of Foobar. Most of these items I've seen were written for older versions of the player currently available and may or not work in the current version.

The 7.80 MB footprint of Foobar2000 makes it useful as a portable (USB Drive) player. It can be setup as such upon installation. This could be the player of choice for those, like me, who use separate ripping, conversion, burning and tagging software. (Thirty-five years as a service technician dedication was a key word. It taught me that all-in-one's just don't cut it. As the old saying goes, "They're the Jack-of-all-trades, but the master of none."

 

AIMP 2

AIMP3 is a great little music player with a tiny size and a great punch. It has all the features that one looks for in their favorite player from small running size to association with any music file type. The new version appears to have several fixes that were not available in version 2. It can import and export standard .m3u playlists, has a new design, quicker tag scanning feature as well as a laundry list of other features. 
 
On initial open it began scanning all my folders and sorting through my almost 20,000 songs with their tags and ratings. This actually took longer than I expected but the result was normal. I did a second test with a smaller folder and it finished quickly. Sorting through the list when all the music is imported is extremely clunky and if this were something I intended to use, I wouldn't use it for more than playlists. 
 
From the utilities menu at the top you can access a couple of additional features. 
 
First, there is a tag editor which can edit the tags of selected album or folder. This feature only seems to be useful as a single album or artist tag editor since the sort features are limited. As nice as it is that this feature is available I choose to use an external program for tag editing like MP3Tag. 
 
The second feature is the audio library, which is a more navigable list than what is attached to the player, but is lacking the ease of  sort ability that I look for. I did find myself looking to this feature when I was sorting through more than just a playlist, but I wouldn't use this program for more than a playlist. 
 
Third, which I haven't experimented with yet, is an audio converter. I will update this review as I use this feature.
 
There is a lot of customization available in setting, which if you play around with them are quite useful. There are several appearance and sort options for the playlists. You can choose the file type associations and assign hot keys for several actions like play/pause, stop, pull up the audio library or preferences. The skins that are preloaded are not my favorite but a quick Google search returned several that I intend to play with.
 
The program while open and playing is the polar opposite of a ram-hog. It barely registers usage at all, which is very standard for small players but great over-all.
 
One problem I found while playing with the settings menu was a few second lag every time I opened the settings menu.
 
Unfortunately, when I choose my favorite music player for the computer, aesthetics are everything. If a player is clunky looking or even remotely difficult to navigate I find myself looking to other application for my music needs. AIMP3 has several great features but I just didn't find myself latching to it when I thought music. 

 

 

Full Music Managers

The following are the best for managing music files and creating complex music libraries or play lists. They don't have light resource efficiency (sometimes doubling the light players above on some resource measures), but on modern computers they could serve as primary music players.

 

MusicBeeMusicBee is a musical Swiss Army Knife and I can see why so many people like it. Where do we begin?

Let's start with music management. You can listen to your music and categorize your collection in an appropriate manner with help of the program's array of utilities to help edit and find tags. You have your music arranged by genre, artist and album in the three top panes while other small panes display the current play list, song details, artwork and lyrics and a search tool to quickly locate any specific artist or track. Another panel helps you access internet services such as Shoutcast, internet radio, podcasts and audio books. You can import music from your personal music folders as well as from your iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries and sync with iPods and other MP3 players

The player itself has an impressive range of controls such as a 10-band equalizer with presets, along with a preamp, digital signal processing plug-ins, an AutoDJ and a volume analyzer to normalize your collection so that you never have to touch the volume control again.

The package also includes a CD ripper with secure CD ripping with AccurateRip verification and a file converter. MusicBee supports the following formats: MP3, OGG, WMA, AIFF, ALAC, APE, BWF, CDA, FLAC, M3U, MP4, PLS, TTA, WAV, TAK, SPX.

With all this functionality, I am surprised that I didn't find a CD burner lurking inside. I guess you can only pack so much into 40.6 MB.

MusicBee does require a bit of extra software in order to function. You'll need Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 and the file converter requires the Lame encoder (Lame isn't a MP3 Encoder) to function.

 

MediaMonkeyMediaMonkey is on my "Nay" list, but I will review it because of its popularity.

Right from installation, my immediate impression of MediaMonkey is that it is not a monkey, at all, but a 1000 lb. gorilla. Just like another well-known media player that will remain nameless, it wants flex its muscles all over your computer and be your be all-do all media player. It instantaneously began searching my hard drives for media files, without my permission, while registering itself as the player of record making it necessary to go through my files and reset their associations so that all would be well once I uninstalled this beast. With all that off my chest, let's get on to the features as there are many.

First and most important MediaMonkey can organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a potent and insightful interface. It will rip and burn cd's. Its audio converter can convert MP3s, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats. It will download and show album art. For those who want to play DJ for your church group or social organization, there is a Party Mode which lock down your media files while still allowing requests. Last of all, but most important some, is MediaMonkey's ability to synchronize with iPods and other MP3 players. There are more features, but they are too numerous to mention here.

While I shouldn't concern myself with the following, but believe I must bring it up for reasons which will become immediately apparent. There is Gold Edition with additional features available for $19.99 and $39.95 for a "Lifetime license for all future updates." In the computer world there is no such thing as "Lifetime." Does anyone remember music software known as MusicMatch? It's still around, but totally commercial payware. At Version 1.0 it was a fairly good program for its time and I purchased a "Lifetime license" for $39.95 for full program. Two years into the "Lifetime license," I began to have difficulty upgrading the software. The good folks at MusicMatch were very accommodating and issued new registration codes. A year later the company was sold and my continuing references to the fact that, "I wasn't dead yet." Fell on deaf ears. Despite the good intentions of the people at MediaMonkey, they cannot realistically, offer a "Lifetime license."

I have no idea how they managed to fit all this functionality into 34.2 MB, but as far as I'm concerned MediaMonkey is just bit too over the top and is far more than I or the average music fan needs and far more than the novice can handle. If I were a professional DJ, then all bets would be off.

 
 

A Note on Sound Quality

Occasionally I see claims that a particular piece of software has superior sound quality, and I too would want the player with the best sound quality (regardless of its features or lack thereof). Sometimes I've played individual products and thought “gosh that sounds crystal clear and rich”, but then found that the volume was maxed on the player's initial settings (and that other players sounded the same at their max volume settings).

It's difficult to rule out wishful thinking and inexact comparisons until you try out many players on your sound system to judge for yourself. I've opened music players side by side, gone through their settings to ensure equivalence, and found that it's seemingly impossible to detect sound quality differences on the sound equipment that came with my computer (Foobar's FAQs and forum posters make this argument as well).

However, Gizmo noted in some of the first comments on this article that sound enhancement plug-ins, such as ASIO, have a noticeable improvement in sound quality on expensive equipment. Note that your sound card must support higher output settings, or the settings could degrade sound quality. And if you maximize the settings on your sound card, then music players will use significantly higher system resources.

 

Note 2: Lightest Players

Here is a list of music players with the best average of three measures: CPU use, I/O bytes, and RAM. The overall test list included MP3, FLAC, and WAV files (using Process Explorer and Vista Ultimate to measure).

  1. Cool Player
  2. Evil Player
  3. XMPlay
  4. Winyl
  5. VUPlayer
  6. Winamp Lite
  7. Trout
  8. Foobar
  9. AIMP
  10. Jaangle
  11. JetAudio
  12. Spider

The lightest player above was measured as an MP3 player (and is included because no other product did better as an MP3 player).

Some micro players (that are light on RAM memory) didn't make the top 10 (they often have high CPU or I/O bit activity).

By the way, mini player modes and tray icon modes (that shrink or hide the visual size of a player's interface) don't decrease the consumption of system resources, but some players have graphics that subside when the player loses focus (resource hungry visualizations were disabled for this comparison).
Micro Music Players
 

There are also basic and further stripped down music players that either didn't make the cut for the main review or don't fit the review criteria. They are listed in order of impressiveness (for sound enhancements, usability and unique features, support for music formats, state of development, performance and security).

  • Winamp Lite: I recommend the separate lite download (you have to scroll to the bottom of the download page) since the lite installer doesn't have the controversial OpenCandy, but it still has a pre-checked option to send off your usage stats. Privacy issues aside (just be sure to carefully inspect all the installation options), it plays an impressive number of audio formats for such a lightweight and resource efficient player, and mimics the wide array of options and feature richness of the full version. It lacks a library for organizing music (unless you already have the full version and use the 'Winamp classic' skin). Quick tip: save your eyes and use 'Double Size' from the options.

  • XMPlay: Has a wide range of sound enhancements (gapless output, 32 bit output, DSP and MOD settings), additional downloads (skins, visualizations, ASIO), and hidden capabilities (Internet streaming). It didn't support my primary music format (FLAC), but the site has many additional 'native input plug-ins' that expand XMPlay's compatibility. A minimal library sorts by various categories based on tag information (use control + A to select your folders and drag and drop them into the play list or queue or library).

    The negatives: a scattered interface (with many independent components) may not be to your taste, and the random play feature didn't work (random play only worked for me by manually right-clicking the play button each time, which I would only do to test whether it works). Developed by un4seen (known for the BASS audio library and MO3 audio format). Portable installation, very lite download.

  • Spider Player: Solid 'middle weight' music manager and player. It uses the trustworthy BASS engine, has many impressive enhancements (32 bit output, DSP effects support, 9-band equalizer and many presets, cross fading) and music managing tools (CD ripper, converter). One of the most interesting capabilities is an auto lyrics down loader, which displays lyrics in a pane next to your play list (you can manually save lyrics to tags), and an Internet radio player and recorder. If only it came with a library organizer it could have been a contender. And I couldn't pretend that a 'favorites editor' was good enough since I ran into error messages with it. The Pro version is now free and unlocks many extra features (mentioned above).

  • VUPlayer: Plays many audio formats and has a simple and user friendly interface (though some of the icons seem outdated). Comes with several sound enhancements (32 bit mixing, gapless playback, adjustable cross fade, 9-band graphic equalizer, and MOD/MIDI mixing) and other tools (converts files, grabs/rips CDs, retrieves freedb tags). In the forum some users report that it works in Windows 7. But it hasn't been updated since 2007 (it uses an old BASS library version) and has 1 moderately critical Secunia advisory (related to opening un-trusted play list files).

  • Winyl: Refreshingly simple and lite BASS player that is well worth watching for future improvements. For now it has a few basic enhancements (32 bit processing, equalizer) and tools (tag editing). More interesting is the care that went into its design. The library comes with long lists of radio stations and a few 'smartlists'. The smartlists automatically display your most played or highest rated songs, and you can create additional smartlists. The 6 skins that come with it are diverse and useful to fit your taste. To further please music fans, Winyl needs to work on additional sound enhancements and play options (I'd also like a random play option or perhaps better play list access).
Cuts: The Other Players
 

Here are music managers and players that are impressive enough for a quick mention, but not quite enough to get featured in the review:

  • Quintessential Media Player (qmp) had great potential, but testing was mired by equally great difficulty in finding a FLAC plug-in. Otherwise, it surprised me with a small download size, a thorough MusicID updater, and feature richness. Massively edits tags, renames files, and writes MusicID info to tags (or updates its library info from tags). It has flashy visualizations, three mode sizes, and automatic online radio lists.

  • JetAudio: Surprisingly lightweight and efficient for such a feature rich, flashy, and capable music/media player. It has many features to help build and manage your media library. Rip, Convert, Record, and Burn all in one program. Use countless auto play lists (the most I've seen, but some are based on tags you must create) in its library, view a simple lyrics windows, get radio stations (many languages), browse to music stores and fan sites from within the player, and choose between several unique skins. However, I found its separate media center/main window setup confusing (the media center does not reduce to a mini player and I kept accidentally exiting the whole program). Other negatives: limited tag editing, no 32 bit output capability in the free version, and 1 'less critical' Secunia advisory (and four past advisories in a previous version).

  • Songbird: An open source, refreshingly simple interface that highly integrates to Internet resources like a browser (integrating many Mozilla Firefox features). One advantage is the ability to expand and customize it through add-ons, but the underlying interface is still the most bulky and inefficient of all tested music players (nearly as heavy as Firefox and getting heavier all the time). But I keep going back to it, so maybe they have something for the future there. It's in constant development, with nightly Beta versions for testing. See its "Roadmap Wiki" for information on its ever growing list of new features.

  • Winamp Full has privacy concerns and now includes the controversial OpenCandy in its installer. Read its privacy policy to see if you agree with its automated data collection of non-personal information (some of which you can only opt out of by hiding or not using certain features). Privacy concerns and nags aside, the program is popular and professional with excellent support for many music file formats, good integration with Internet resources, and top-notch library and music organizing features (it's somewhat incorporated as the media library in The KMPlayer).

 

Some of these have fans, but didn't impress me in comparison to other players in the review. The quick negatives beside each aren't comprehensive comments; visit the respective sites for plenty of positives. Listed alphabetically.

  • 1by1. High I/O bit activity, limited support for music files.
  • Billy. High I/O bit activity (esp. for WAV files), limited support for music files.
  • Clementine. Stealthy association of files.
  • Cool Player. Unpatched Secunia advisories (related to using un-trusted play lists and skins).
  • Cool Player+. High memory use (near Media Monkey size).
  • Evil Player. Simplistic interface, problems running in a standard account.
  • iTunes. Ad-supported: promotes purchasing Internet products as an essential feature.
  • J. River Media Jukebox. Ad-supported: promotes purchasing Internet products as an essential feature.
  • Moo0 AudioPlayer. High CPU use, limited support for music files.
  • QuuxPlayer. Poor interface design/usability.
  • Trout. Problems with interface usability (slow loading of audio files, error messages).
  • Xion. Problems with interface (CPU spikes, crashes), Secunia warning (un-trusted play lists).
Related Products and Links
 

Download Music

Related Hot Finds and Articles

Additional Third-Party Tools

  • SharePod: Allows you to manage and sync with iPods ("Change, Backup, Share") to replace iTunes.
  • Free Music Zilla: Helps you record and download songs from members of online music-sharing communities.

Audio Editor and Music Creation

Play and Organize Media

Manage Media -- Rip, Tag, Convert, Burn, Record

Guides
Quick Selection Guide - Light Music Players and Organizers

Foobar2000
9
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Very customizable interface, many extra components at the download site, decent library capabilities, and includes all necessary tools for building a collection
Not very flashy design, no mini player, the other choices have better library features
http://www.foobar2000.org/
http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download
1.2.3
3.5 MB
Unrestricted freeware
There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows XP/server 2003/Vista/server 2008/7

Portable version available (the Foobar2000 installer gives an option between a standard and portable installation; just select the portable installation)

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), MP4/M4A/M4B, 8SVX, AAC, AIFF/AIF/AIFC/AFC, APE, AU, CDA, CUE, FLAC/FLA, MKA, MIDI, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), SND, Speex, OGG/OGA, WAV, WavPack/WV, WMA, and more with additional components

Play List Formats: opens/loads ASX, FPL, M3U, M3U8, PLS, WAX, WVX, but saves FPL, M3U, M3U8

Screenshots | Components | Wiki | Forum | Change Log

AIMP 3
7
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Visually stunning design, special focus on sound enhancement features, excellent mix of features and light design, comes with two other utilities (tag editor, online radio browser), decent library and history features
Security concerns, requires patience finding features, most support materials not in English
http://www.aimp.ru/index.php?do=lang&lng=en%22
http://www.filehippo.com/download_aimp/
3.20.1165
7.3 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Unrestricted freeware
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.
Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7/ 8

Portable version available (the AIMP installer gives an option between a standard and portable installation; just select the portable installation)

*Note: I don't recommend downloading from the main website because it links to a download site (Brothersoft) that receives yellow ratings from WOT and block status from certain Host file providers (hpHosts, MVPS). A previous version had an unpatched Secunia advisory (may still be present).

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), MP4, M4A, AAC, AC3, AIFF/AIF, APE, CDA, FLAC/FLA, MIDI (MIDI/MID/MI/KAR), Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OFR/OFS, OGG/OGA, Speex/SPX, Tracker Music (UMX, MOD, MO3, IT, S3M, MTM, XM), TTA, WAV, WavPack/WV, WMA

Play List Formats: opens/adds PLC, M3U, M3U8, ASX, PLS, CUE, XSPF, but saves PLS, PLC, M3U, M3U8

Screenshots | Skins | Forum | Change Log

Jaangle
4
 
Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Attractive and easily customizable interface with large album art, artist's photo, bio and easy access to lyrics
Doesn't display some some extended tag info, not yet fully 7 compatible.
http://www.jaangle.com/
http://www.jaangle.com/download
0.98i.977
2.3 MB
Unrestricted freeware
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.
Windows XP/2003/ Vista

Portable version available (files only version)

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), M4A, MP4, AC3, AIFF, APE, CDA, FLAC, MIDI/MID, Musepack (MPC), Tracker Music (UMX, MOD, MO3, IT, S3M, MTM, XM), OGG, WMA, and more based on directshow filters installed

Play List Formats: opens and saves M3U

Screenshots | Skins | Wiki | Forum | Change Log

Quick Selection Guide - Full Music Managers

MusicBee
9
 
Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
All-in-one music manager without the shady background connections, excellent tagging and music managing features, many sound enhancements
Some tag categories not updated. Not much else, but it's still a bit buggy - online help didn't always connect, memory use jumped extremely high (in very rare instances), experienced a few bug/error messages (without program crashes or data loss)
http://www.getmusicbee.com/
http://www.getmusicbee.com/download/
2.0
25.5 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Unrestricted freeware
There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8

Has a "run as portable application" option.

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), AC3, AIFF/AIF, APE, BWF, CDA, FLAC, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OFR/OFS, OGG/OGA, Speex/SPX, TAK, TTA, WavPack/WV, WAV, WMA (see the vendor 'Help' link if you need AAC)

Play List Formats: opens/saves M3U, ASX, PLS, CUE, WPL, XSPF

Screenshots | Addons | Help | Forum | Change Log

MediaMonkey
8
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
All-in-one music manager, excellent for organizing complex music collections, user friendly navigation
Heavy on system resources, simplistic mini-player
http://www.mediamonkey.com/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-CD-Rippers-Encoders/MediaMonkey.shtml
4.0.7.1511
14.3 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Free for private use only
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7, WINE (Linux)

Audio Formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, APE, APL, CDA, FLA, FLAC, M4A, M4B, M4P, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OGG, WAV, WMA

iPhone 5 / iOS 6 and iTunes Compatibility

Play List Formats: opens/adds M3U, ASX, PLS, XSPF; saves M3U

Screenshots | Addons | Help | Forum | Change Log

Editor

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor cdissler. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or questions they might have by clicking here.
Tags

best free music player and organizer, MP3 and audio software, MP3 player, media library, lite music player for windows, music manager, sound enhancements or effects, online radio browser

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Comments

by Panzer on 1. March 2012 - 9:32  (89736)

Tomahawk Player 0.3.3 is out:
http://www.tomahawk-player.org/
by Kartik (not verified) on 14. February 2012 - 11:43  (88836)

MusicBee v1.4.4418 Has been released :D
Njoy it's more fluid fast and loaded with many new features :)
by Anupam on 7. February 2012 - 12:43  (88448)

Hamster Audio Player : http://www.ondanera.net/ita/hamster.aspx
by Steve C. (not verified) on 31. January 2012 - 21:18  (88109)

AlSong, which I have been using for years I suggest you review. Why? It's FREE and you can't upgrade it - no tricks. It's simple. It shows the lyrics for the sing along crowd. It doesn't talk about copyrights. It doesn't direct you elsewhere. It is SMALL. It has most of the features that most of us don't use that I turn off (who needs Album covers) but they don't glare at you. It doesn't get updated as they designed it right in the first place. One click and you are in shuffle mode listening. It doesn't recommend "stuff" and if you want to broadcast (your own station on the net) go for it. Well designed with the last feature probably for the Outback (it's from OZ...a great place to visit...I have and I'm an American. You can display by artist or song. It plays all the formats. It loads almost instantly. It can shuffle or you can create playlists. If a few of you try it out you will be hooked and if so put a plug in for it. The folks that developed it have some other free items that may interest you.

AND best of all it's not ITunes or Windows Media Player and looks like neither.
by MidnightCowboy on 1. February 2012 - 4:42  (88121)

AlSong is not listed as supporting the current Windows operating system 7.
by Linuxser on 31. January 2012 - 2:48  (88073)

I like to play music directly from my own hierarchy folders.

Advice of best choice to replace "Play with Windows media player" ?

Thanks in advance.
by Anupam on 30. January 2012 - 8:54  (88014)

Ubiquitous Player : http://ubiquitous-player.blogspot.com/
by pbouthil on 26. January 2012 - 2:42  (87788)

I actually looked at both MusicBee and MediaMonkey myself. First I installed MediaMonkey and I have to agree that it is a heavy weight. Has a look and feel like iTunes which I'm not a big fan of. Don't get me wrong it is a very powerful software but it is overwhelming on all the features that it has.

I then decided to try MusicBee as a portable version and not install it. I really like the look, feel and sound that this thing has. It is easy to navigate around the menus and is very powerful also.

The only big differences between these two are that MediaMonkey will play videos and burn CD's. Other than that MusicBee does everything that MediaMonkey does.

In my opinion I would rate MusicBee over MediaMonkey.
by ma_t on 26. January 2012 - 23:14  (87854)

In the latest update MusicBee can burn cds as well (the biggest of many additions). Video playback is planned for sometime in the future but only as an optional plugin (the right way to do it IMO)

Latest versions with changelogs are posted in the following forum thread:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=4960.msg30896#new
by George.J on 31. January 2012 - 16:51  (88105)

I would not like the addition of video playback in MB. It would only make the software bloated. If all we need is to play videos, there are lot of media players out there. I can see that, there is a portable version in the download section now. I wonder if you have done it. :-)
by pbouthil on 28. January 2012 - 20:43  (87953)

Thanks for the update. Can't wait to see the new release of MusicBee.
by Anonymous1234 (not verified) on 23. January 2012 - 15:29  (87656)

Is there going to be a review of AIMP3 which has recently been released?
by pbouthil on 24. January 2012 - 3:07  (87674)

I'm using AIMP3 now and I think that it is an excellent audio media player. I used to use AIMP2 in the past and have been very satisfied.
by Max Imum Payne (not verified) on 23. January 2012 - 9:33  (87646)

great review, thanks!

btw, in the version of media monkey which is available now, it does not automatically scan your media files without asking you first when you start it up for the first time

i can imagine that'd be annoying...
by ohno on 24. January 2012 - 2:22  (87670)

No version of mediamonkey does take over your pc and search without permission. The review is just plain wrong, and very biased against a very good piece of software. You will notice that there are comments below similar to mine, but alas the reviewer doesnt appear to want to revisit the software? No mention of mediamonkey having a portable install option either.
by Jojo999 (not verified) on 23. January 2012 - 5:16  (87638)

I am liking Janggle. The UI is a bit weird though (hint - a lot of settings are buried in the gear in the upper left of each window section).

I tried MusicBee but it seems to want to reload my existing music into its own libraries. Which I don't need since I have 350GB of FLAC files.

Thanks.
by blackscorpio (not verified) on 30. January 2012 - 19:20  (88044)

Yep, I too like Jaangle. Only thing I would like to see is, global hot keys for rating current playing song, like you see in MediaMonkey. I am on mission to organize my collection and use Jaangle as a player only. I use various other tools for tagging and all.
by pbouthil on 22. January 2012 - 19:49  (87624)

I request that a re-evaluation of this category be done. Many programs have been updated and/or changed. Also other programs are popping up....thx
by ohno on 24. January 2012 - 2:24  (87672)

Yes sir, absolutely
by pbouthil on 21. January 2012 - 4:50  (87520)

I know that there are a lot of media players out there to choose from but what I am looking for is a jukebox software that has the looks and feel of a real jukebox on your PC. Where you can pick a song from a menu and cue it up. I have one that I would like you to evaluate. The software is called "Jukebox Arcade".

http://www.extrastrength.com/jbarcade.php
by Anupam on 17. January 2012 - 17:13  (87322)

X-Amp : http://www.maxximate.com/index.htm

Looks good.
by mrinmoyjk on 21. January 2012 - 6:05  (87522)

It looks awesome.
by mrinmoyjk on 21. January 2012 - 10:46  (87117)

the lightest music player (with gui) is BILLY.

while playing mp3, it used only 4mb on my laptop. Other light players used at least 2x of that.

inbuilt Last.fm scrobbler!!!
portable
lightest on resource
535kb size

perfect for me :)
by George.J on 12. January 2012 - 10:26  (87069)

Info about MusicBee in the review:
"With all this functionality, I am surprised that I didn't find a CD burner lurking inside. I guess you can only pack so much into 40.6 MB."

FYI:
The latest beta of MusicBee (1.4.4383) now includes disk burner for Vista and Win7. Should be available in the next stable release for the public. Info and Changelog: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=4960.msg29612#msg29612

by CoolMan (not verified) on 12. January 2012 - 5:44  (87058)

Thanks for a useful article.

What I love most about foobar2000 is the ability to load as many playlists as you want, each in its own tab.
So if you want separate playlists for Classical, Country, Classic Rock, Bagpipes, Disco, or whatever category you have in mind, you can make them in their own lists, load all the lists, and each one will be in its own tab.

Many long-time foorbar200 users do not even know about this great feature. WinAmp won't load more than one playlist at a time!

I also like the very small size of it.
It has extensive settings options.
It does format conversion also.

As for iTune, I'm not a big fan of Apple, and I understand its size is very large.

As for the Zune, I'd say no thanks. I don't need a player that is well over 100 MB.

I have just downloaded MusicBee, and will give it a try, although I'm not crazy about its size. I hope it has good library organization feature though.
by Ioannis Anthymidis (not verified) on 4. January 2012 - 22:23  (86563)

http://www.aimp.ru/index.php?do=news&id=27

AIMP3 is out. I've noticed far better playlists (though it still supports the old format you mention) and resource usage seems to be much improved as well!

Really worthwhile, highly recommended!
by Anupam on 31. December 2011 - 6:39  (86269)

Aimp 3 has been released with loads of changes.
by Panzer (not verified) on 17. December 2011 - 7:57  (85174)

Nightingale:
http://getnightingale.com/
by Anupam on 17. December 2011 - 8:20  (85176)

Its a preview release, so not ready for general use yet. So, use at your own risk.

It is a fork of Songbird.
by Carl554 (not verified) on 14. December 2011 - 18:38  (85022)

I'm looking for a player that saves ratings and playcount to the tags automatically, that is preferably light and good all round. Can anyone suggest a suitable program?

Cheers
Carl