iTunes may be on its way out.

[Hook]

Well, on my computer...

After 6 years of using iTunes exclusively as my music library app (even though I have never ever owned an iPod), I have found a replacement. I don't know why I never ran across this one before, but I was turned on to it by the folks over at Symbian-guru when looking for way to sync my Nokia 5800 to iTunes. The program is called Media Monkey (the free version).

The problem I was trying to solve is that, while a free app called Salling Media would sync iTunes playlists to my Nokia, it would only move the songs in the playlist over, it did not keep track of the order of the songs (to me, that is the purpose of a playlist-- otherwise, just move the songs and shuffle). This very functional music library program will sync to just about any usb connected music player and seems to know how to figure out where the device wants the music and playlists. It set itself up perfectly for my Nokia. It also imported information about my music from iTunes. All the functionality for creating and managing playlists, which is what has kept me with iTunes all these years, is here. So far, this seems like a fantastic, full-featured and easy to use Music management program (again, I am talking about the free version).

I stopped buying from the iTunes store over a year ago(not that I bought much, I don't like DRM), using the Amazon store instead (no DRM). Now it looks like, after a porbationary period, I may root out iTunes, Mobile Me, Bonjour, Safari and Quicktime entirely from my computer (might be an excuse for a Spring Cleaning). Makes me even happier I didn't go with an iPod Touch.

I'll keep you posted.

[brickman65]

Good Luck Hook!!! Let us know how it works out. Even though I prefer to use Macs and iTunes, I will admit that iTunes do not play nice with other "media devices". I always had trouble trying to get music on my 755P.

I guess for me, because I prefer my iMac over a PC, I just said "What the Hey!!" and jumped into the deep end of the Apple Pool!!

[holvoetn]

I notice our Chief Editor has stickied this thread.
I can understand why

[Ed Hardy]

I notice our Chief Editor has stickied this thread.
I can understand why

Actually that was an accident. Instead, I'm moving this thread out of the Off-Topic forum. It's really quite relevant to the site (Hook agreed).

-

[SuperGdog]

You do know that itunes is drm free now? Anyway too bad media monkey is not for mac

[Hook]

You do know that itunes is drm free now? Anyway too bad media monkey is not for mac

Some is DRM free. They are still inconsistent. I don't want to have to bother with watching out. By the time they even started to think about it, Amazon had won me over. I also prefer to keep my library in 256 kb mp3 because it is still the most universal, though AAC is catching up now.

Old habits die hard.

Yes, on a Mac, I would no doubt go iTunes whole hog.

[jigwashere]

Just posted at Lifehacker: Beat Your MP3 Tags Into Shape with These MediaMonkey Scripts

[Hook]

Nice, jig. Thanks.

[Guest]

iTunes is 100% DRM-free, for audio tracks. The AmazonMP3 service only sells audio tracks, so they are equal in their freedom from DRM.

Some music videos on iTunes still have DRM, as do all TV shows and movies.

I for one, really like iTunes on my Mac. I use it on Windows too, and it is mostly good, but it tends to be glitchy, especially with burning CDs, sometimes in ways that can only be fixed by getting knee-deep into really slimy areas of the registry.

[Hook]

iTunes is 100% DRM-free, for audio tracks. The AmazonMP3 service only sells audio tracks, so they are equal in their freedom from DRM.

Some music videos on iTunes still have DRM, as do all TV shows and movies.

I for one, really like iTunes on my Mac. I use it on Windows too, and it is mostly good, but it tends to be glitchy, especially with burning CDs, sometimes in ways that can only be fixed by getting knee-deep into really slimy areas of the registry.

It may be that way now, as I said, I stopped getting from iTunes awhile back. I do know a couple of months back when I decided to try one of their freebies it was protected.

I never intended this as a rag on iTunes, by the way, and I just want to make that clear. I used it for 6 years because it was the best I could find. I never had any problems burning CDs (but I never burn CDs anymore anyway). The only trouble has been syncing playlists. mOcean took care of that nicely on my Palm (PTunes now does, but is much glitchier and implementation than mOcean and mOcean is a better player than PTunes).

My real point was that I found a program that is as good (not better) than iTunes in most respects, which syncs playlists easily with most USB attached devices, has protocols already set up for most of those devices, works well with Amazon, etc. Given that, I really have no reason to let iTunes chew up my hard drive space once I have used Media Monkey long enough to be sure there isn't some problem I didn't anticipate.

Media Monkey is a perfect solution for a Windows user with a non-Apple smartphone.